Chapter 02: Decision Packages

Decision packages (DPs) are the key set of building blocks to construct the budget request. The DP is the place for the agency to make a compelling and persuasive argument for any proposed changes. Policymakers will rely upon this information when evaluating the request.

DPs organize and describe proposed cost changes in a way that highlights the budget policy decisions. The DP consolidates financial information, supporting justification and statements of impact for a specific action or policy proposed in the budget. One DP describes a proposed item of change listed on the recommendation summary (RecSum).

The Agency Budget System (ABS) guides agencies in developing budget DPs. It also automatically displays the expenditure, revenue, and FTE detail rolled up to the selected level (agency or program) for the RecSum report.

The Governor continues the focus on equity in his 2027-29 budget development. Therefore, questions are included to ensure that agencies are considering the impacts of budget requests on marginalized communities. Agencies are expected to address these questions thoroughly and fully in their DPs.

When is a DP Needed?

A DP is required for all incremental changes to the current biennial budget except for carry-forward level (CFL) roll-up items and the maintenance level (ML) adjustment to activities and revenue.

DPs Requiring Law Changes

For any DP where a change in statute is required, please attach draft language from the Code Reviser’s Office and describe in detail the proposed law change. Cabinet agencies must provide a complete agency request legislation package as an attachment to this DP and submit the request through the Bill Enrollment and Agency Requests System (BEARS).

DPs Should Represent Discrete Decisions

Each DP will appear as one line with a positive or negative amount on the RecSum and should represent discrete budget decisions. Craft your DPs so related items are grouped together, but do not obscure or combine separate decisions.

DPs Must Stress Outcomes

Budget decisions hinge on the stated performance objective or outcomes being addressed and their merit relative to all other competition for limited resources.

Example: Seven new driver’s license examining stations are proposed to expand geographic coverage and reduce client wait time.

The performance objective in this case is twofold (e.g., expanding coverage and reducing wait times). While the location of the examining stations is a necessary component of meeting the objective, the location of each station is not a separate budget decision. In this case, the agency would submit one DP.

Contact your assigned budget advisor if you have questions about how best to organize budget requests into DPs.

Anchor Budget Requests to the Agency’s Strategic Plan

OFM expects agency budget requests, including budget reductions, to be anchored to the agency’s strategic plan and clearly support the implementation of these strategies and achievement of performance targets.

Use Plain Talk Principles in Your Writing

Your DPs will be persuasive only if OFM analysts and decision makers can understand them. Use plain talk principles. Avoid jargon and acronyms. Keep your writing brief and clear. Anticipate questions.

The time available for budget review is scarce and the capacity for rounds of questions on agency DPs is very limited. OFM is likely to discard or require agencies to rework DPs if they are unclear, if requested information is missing, if assumptions are incomplete or if expected performance impacts are not explained.

OFM uses DP information to evaluate the merit of your requests. DPs are composed of purposeful questions to collect key information needed to analyze the request. We expect justification materials to vary in length and complexity, depending on the proposal. All DP questions in ABS are detailed below. Make your DPs concise and compelling. The DP should be understandable by an audience that is not expert on your agency or the issues.

Use Approved Codes to Designate Change Items

With few exceptions (see following note), agencies are free to use any combination of two-digit DP codes (e.g., alpha/alpha, alpha/numeric, numeric/numeric and numeric/alpha). “DP code” and “RecSum code” are terms of art in the budget community and used interchangeably in this document. ABS enforces allowable codes and titles.

Note: OFM designates a series of required codes for certain common ML and policy level (PL) changes (see Chapter 5). RecSum codes containing the letters O or I are restricted to prevent confusion with zero and one.

DP Codes Require Two Attributes

• DP Type: Most agency budget requests will fall under “Other”. Global items have predetermined DP types.
  • Central Services
  • Compensation
  • Transfer
  • Other
• DP Cost Type: Cost type is automatically determined by the DP 4-year fiscal detail. Ensure all DPs have fiscal years 3 and 4 populated, as appropriate.
  • One-time
  • Ongoing
  • Custom Indicates that the request is a mix of one-time and ongoing costs. For example:
    • A new program implementation has one-time equipment costs associated with ongoing staff costs.
    • A new program implementation is staged or has ramp-costs.

Note: ABS and Enterprise Reporting (ER) reports will sort DP codes as follows:

1. AA to ZZ
2. A0 to Z9
3. 00 to 99
4. 0A to 9Z

DPs Require Point of Contact Information
Required ABS point of contact information includes:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Email Address
• Phone

Point of contact is not necessarily the individual who prepared the DP, but rather the point of contact with subject matter expertise and the authority to speak relative to the DP information.

Other General Preparation Requirements

Rounding Protocols for Dollars and FTEs

• All fiscal detail in ABS is dollars in thousands.
• Round all expenditure, revenue, object, and activity amounts to whole dollars in thousands.
• Round fractions of whole dollars from $1 through $499 to the next lower whole dollar in thousands, and $500 through $999 to the next higher whole dollar in thousands.
• Round FTE amounts to the nearest tenth

Note: ABS and Enterprise Reporting (ER) reports will be accepted as produced.

Display of Negative Numbers
Use parentheses to indicate numbers reflecting expenditure decreases. 

Required Fund Code Conventions for Budget Documents

With few exceptions, use the legacy state accounting system coding scheme detailed in the OFM Fund Reference Manual for account numbers and other designations used in budget documents. Fund codes require both the account number and the appropriation type code that indicates the source character of the funds involved. Separate the one-digit appropriation type from the three-digit account number with a hyphen as shown below.

General Fund
The following fund sources, where applicable, must be identified separately:

001-1  General Fund-State. Appropriation Type 1.
001-2  General Fund-Federal. Appropriation Type 2.
001-5  General Fund-Other Federal Fixed Grants (DSHS and DOH only). Appropriation Type 5.
001-7 General Fund-Private/Local. Appropriation Type 7.
001-8  General Fund-Federal Stimulus. Appropriation Type 8.
001-0  General Fund-Federal: Social Services Block Grant – Title XX (DSHS only). Appropriation Type 0.
001-A  General Fund-Federal: Family Support/Child Welfare – Title IV (DSHS only). Appropriation Type A.
001-C  General Fund-Federal: Medicaid – Title XIX. Appropriation Type C.
001-D  General Fund-Federal TANF. (DSHS only). Appropriation Type D.
001-E  General Fund-Federal: Child Care Development Funds (DSHS only). Appropriation Type E.

Other Appropriated Treasury Funds

Identify other appropriated treasury funds by the following appropriation types:

State: Appropriation Type 1
Federal: Appropriation Type 2
Private/Local: Appropriation Type 7

Non-Appropriated Funds
All non-appropriated funds, regardless of original source of funding, must use Appropriation Type 6.

Agency Request Legislation Proposals with a Budget Impact

Proposals must be submitted to the Governor’s Executive Policy Office through BEARS, consistent with the agency budget submittal due dates. Agency request legislation instructions will be available on the OFM Budget website when issued. Proposed agency request legislation will be reviewed with the Governor this fall. Agencies must include DPs in the budget submittal for any proposals with revenue or expenditure impacts. Act agencies submitting agency request legislation are also required to complete an Environmental Justice Assessment and post information on this assessment on OFM’s website.

Ensure that other agencies affected by your agency’s proposed legislation are aware of the request; OFM requires fiscal notes from each affected agency. Each agency will also need to include the fiscal impact in its budget submittal.

The Legislative Evaluation and Accountability Program approves or denies budget program structure change requests in mid-June
Budget program or subprogram structure changes recommended by OFM must obtain approval from the LEAP Committee as required by Chapter 43.88 RCW. Refer to OFM’s Other Instructions and Forms webpage for guidance on the budget program structure change request process.

Include the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee audit responses in budget submittal
RCW 43.88.090(1) requires agencies to reflect consideration of applicable JLARC performance audit recommendations in their budget requests. Specifically, “the estimates must reflect that the agency considered any alternatives to reduce costs or improve service delivery identified in the findings of a performance audit of the agency by JLARC. Nothing in this subsection requires performance audit findings to be published as part of the budget.”

See JLARC audits and studies. Agencies should also be prepared to provide information to JLARC.