Fiscal Notes

During every Washington State legislative session, the University of Washington is required to provide information to the legislature regarding the fiscal impact of various proposed bills. 

RCW 43.88A requires that the state Office of Financial Management (OFM) coordinate the development of fiscal impact statements (fiscal notes) on legislation or legislative proposals. OFM must also approve fiscal notes for form, accuracy, and completeness. The purpose of this process is to provide to the Legislature the estimated cost of legislation that is going through the legislative process.

Responding to a Fiscal Note Request

When you receive a Fiscal Note request via email from OPB it will highlight a due date and time. You will generally have 2-3 business days to respond, unless otherwise noted in the request. After reading the relevant sections of a bill closely, the template below can be used to guide your response.

UW Fiscal Note Response Template

Tips for Completing a Fiscal Note:

• Report on the bill’s impact to the UW only
• Report current dollars only, do not build in inflation
• Identify estimated costs/receipts as one-time or on-going
• Identify implementation dates and take them into account when calculating costs, receipts and FTEs
• Identify and explain all underlying assumptions
• Provide explanation if there is no fiscal impact
• Write for a general audience, avoid jargon, spell out acronyms
• Do not include policy feedback or address the merits of the bill (reported separately via BillTracker)

Additional Resources:

• UW 2011 Fiscal Note Presentation/Information
• OFM’s 2011Fiscal Note Instructions
• OFM’s Fund Look-up
• OFM’s Fiscal Note Look-up
• WA Legislature Home (for bill search, law search, etc)

Please direct any questions to:

Jessica Thompson
Office of Planning and Budgeting
Phone: (202)624-1428
E-mail