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Washington lawmakers finalized the state’s 2024 supplemental capital budget. What’s in store for Spokane County?

Damage from the Gray fire is photographed from the air above Clear Lake on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023, near Medical Lake, Wash. (Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review)
By Ellen Dennis ellend@spokesman.com(206) 486-5723

OLYMPIA – Medical Lake fire recovery support, expansion of a behavioral health treatment center and new boilers for an aluminum factory are a few of the projects the state has decided to fund this year in Eastern Washington.

In the last week of the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers ironed out how to spend their $1.3 billion supplemental capital budget for the year. Both chambers approved the budget plan and on Wednesday sent it to Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk for approval.

There are nine projects that mention Spokane by name in the 67-page summary of the capital budget made public earlier this week. And a number of other Eastern Washington projects also made the cut.

Here’s a list of a some projects slated to show up in Eastern Washington in the coming months:

  • $975,000 will go to help with recovery efforts in the aftermath of the Gray and Oregon Road fires .
  • $4.8 million will go to help replace two 1940s-era steam boilers at Kaiser Aluminum in Spokane and reduce the factory’s greenhouse gas emissions.
  • $2 million will go to expand capacity at the Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations, a youth inpatient behavioral health center in Spokane Valley.
  • $5 million will go to fund an inpatient treatment center at the Kalispel Tribe of Indians’ Camas Center Clinic.
  • $3 million will go to the Spokane Public Facilities District.
  • $150,000 will go to build the Spokane Valley Cross Country Course.
  • $32,000 will go to replace the West Valley Centennial Middle School baseball field’s fences and dugout.
  • $350,000 will go to fund construction of the Latah Valley Fire Station to serve unincorporated high-fire danger land in Eastern Washington.
  • $1 million will go to Broadway Senior Housing.
  • $258,000 will go to build a playground at Intersection Preschool and Daycare.

More information about the state’s budget can be found at fiscal.wa.gov. Thursday is scheduled to be the 60th and final day of the 2024 legislative session.