Healthy Children's Fund: $26.4M in Cash, 3 Years In
Fund 1858 — voter-approved 2022 (Prop 5), $26.4M unspent at year-end 2025
The Healthy Children's Fund — voter-approved in 2022 to fund early childhood programs — held $26.4M in unspent cash at year-end 2025, and in December 2025 the County Council voted to encourage use of the fund for flood recovery.
In November 2022, Whatcom County voters approved Proposition 5, a 10-year property-tax levy of 19¢ per $1,000 of assessed value to fund early childhood programs. The county Treasurer's December 31, 2025 Cash Balance Report shows the Healthy Children's Fund holding $26.4 million in unspent cash, up from $9.9M two years earlier. In December 2025, the County Council voted to encourage use of the fund for flood recovery.
What voters approved
On November 8, 2022, Whatcom County voters approved Proposition 5, the Healthy Children's Fund (HCF). The measure imposed a property-tax levy of 19 cents per $1,000 of assessed value for ten collection years (2023–2032). The county estimated total collections of approximately $100 million over the ten-year period.
The ballot title and explanatory statement specified the fund's purpose as early childhood learning and care and support for vulnerable children. In March 2023, the County Council adopted an implementation plan organized around 10 strategies developed with community partners.
Where the money is — and isn't
The County Treasurer's quarterly Cash Balance Report tracks every county fund's year-end cash position. For Fund 1858 (Healthy Children's Fund), the trajectory since collection began:
- December 31, 2023: $9,861,311
- December 31, 2024: $19,618,641
- December 31, 2025: $26,356,952
Three full years into a ten-year levy, the fund holds roughly the same amount it has collected. Year-over-year cash growth ($9.7M between 2023 and 2024, $6.7M between 2024 and 2025) suggests collections are exceeding program expenditures rather than tracking them.
December 2025: Council votes to encourage flood-recovery use
On December 30, 2025, the County Council passed an action encouraging use of the Healthy Children's Fund for flood recovery. Whatcom County has recovered from major flooding events in November 2021 (Sumas / Everson / Nooksack) and subsequent atmospheric rivers; flood recovery is a non-trivial county budget pressure.
The 2022 ballot title for Proposition 5 did not list flood recovery among the authorized uses. Whether flood-related expenditures fit the implementation plan's 10 strategies, or require an amendment to either, is a question the public record should be able to answer.
Repeal politics and the April 2026 court ruling
In April 2024, the political action committee Washingtonians for a Sound Economy began collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to repeal the levy. Approximately 10,000 signatures were gathered. In August 2024, the County spent $60,000 on legal review of the initiative. In July 2024, the County Council formally challenged the initiative's validity in Whatcom County Superior Court.
On April 15, 2026, a state court ruled the repeal initiative was procedurally sound but its substance was invalid; the court issued an injunction. The levy continues to collect.
What we're watching
Three open questions, each answerable from public records:
- Where exactly has the spent portion gone? The HCF has booked some expenditures (the cash balance grew less than full collections each year). A line-item ledger of grants awarded would reconcile the gap between collections and the cash position.
- What does the 2025–2026 Implementation Plan commit? The County published a draft 2025–2026 implementation plan; the approved version specifies which of the 10 strategies are funded at what level, and on what timeline.
- What does "encourage use for flood recovery" turn into in budget terms? The December 2025 Council action is an encouragement, not an appropriation. The 2026 budget amendments and any HCF Advisory Committee minutes from January–April 2026 are where this would crystallize into actual transfers.
Connected on Real Record
Public records requests to file
- All Healthy Children's Fund (Fund 1858) expenditures by vendor and by program-strategy bucket, fiscal years 2023–2025 inclusive.
- Healthy Children's Fund Advisory Committee minutes and meeting packets, March 2023 through present.
- All County Council ordinances, resolutions, motions, or staff reports referencing the Healthy Children's Fund between October 2025 and the present date.
- The approved (not draft) 2025–2026 HCF Implementation Plan and any amendments thereto.
- Any internal legal memoranda or finance-staff analyses of the permissible uses of HCF funds, including for flood recovery.
Discussed in meetings
Methodology & sources
This investigation draws on three primary sources, all public records:
- Whatcom County Treasurer Cash Balance Report (page 8,
Fund 1858 row), as of December 31, 2025. Source PDF cached at
Municipalities/Washington-State/Whatcom/County/Public-Records/Whatcom-Cash-Balance-Report_fetched-2026-05-07.pdf. The Treasurer publishes this report quarterly. - Proposition 5 ballot title and explanatory statement (Whatcom County 2022 General Election sample ballot).
- Healthy Children's Fund 2025–2026 Implementation Plan
(Draft for Public Comment), published by Whatcom County at
whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCenter/View/103641.
Cascadia Daily News reporting from 2024–2026 corroborates the timeline of the repeal initiative and the December 2025 flood-recovery vote.
No expenditure-side line items have been independently obtained yet (see PRR Requests below). Cash-balance figures are accurate; the difference between collections and cash on hand has not been audited line by line for this investigation.