Fiscal Growth Factors

Section 8 of Initiative 601 requires that any percentage increase in fees that exceeds the fiscal growth factor must be approved by the Legislature. These factors, to be calculated by the Office of Financial Management, are also used in the calculation of the spending limit.

The enactment EHB 3169, as of July 1, 2000, established the Expenditure Limit Committee and transferred the duty to calculate the fiscal growth factor to it.

Through the 2005-07 biennium, the fiscal growth factor was calculated as a three year moving average of population growth and inflation, lagged two years. Inflation was based on the "Implicit Price Deflator for Personal Consumption" as estimated by the federal Department of Commerce. Population growth was based on estimates by the state Office of Financial Management.

Beginning with the 2007-09 biennium, the fiscal growth factor is the average growth in state personal income for the prior ten fiscal years.

With the enactment of SSB 6660, as of July 1, 2020, the Expenditure Limit Committee is repealed. The duty to calculate the state's fiscal growth factor is transferred to the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.