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

If you are asked to respond to a fiscal note, you will receive an email from BillTracker requesting a fiscal analysis of a proposed legislation.  Contained within the email will be a link directing you to the Bill Tracker website where you will find the bill summary, due date, and names of other assessors. You will generally have 2-3 business days to respond, unless otherwise noted in the request.

All responses to fiscal notes need to be submitted into Billtracker. However, if you need additional time or assistance with developing your fiscal note or would like to pull the information together on a worksheet before submitting, please use the template below. We will not, however, accept any emailed responses that include only the template.

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
• Policy feedback should be reported separately in the top section of the form in Billtracker under the policy analysis section

Additional Resources:

• UW 2013 Fiscal Note Presentation/Information
• OFM’s 2011 Fiscal 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:

Becka Johnson
Phone: (206) 616-7203
or email: uwbills@uw.edu