SEATTLE (REUTERS) - Washington state lawmakers approved a two-year budget late on Friday (June 30), hours before a midnight deadline that would have triggered a shutdown of government agencies.

The US$43.7 billion (S$60.2 billion) operating budget, which includes a US$5.2 billion revenue increase paid for in part with new taxes, was approved by both chambers of the legislature.

After the vote, Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, signaled he intends to sign the spending Bill into law before midnight to prevent the closure of many state agencies and the layoff of thousands of employees.

Apart from funding government operations, the budget adds about US$1.8 billion in new funding for K-12 public schools over the next two years and promises US$7.3 billion total over four years, according to a summary of the legislation.

It was not immediately clear whether the education funding increase would satisfy a 2012 order by the state's Supreme Court that found the state was failing to fully fund basic education in violation of its own Constitution. The court gave lawmakers a deadline - the first day of school in 2018 - to lay out a credible plan to fix the problem.

The spending legislation was approved in the Senate 39-10 and in the House 70-23, according to the office of Senator Mike Padden, a Republican.

For specifics of the budget see: http://bit.ly/2taF0Li

Also on Friday, Alaska Governor Bill Walker signed into law a new US$4.9 billion operating budget for fiscal year 2018, avoiding a similar shutdown of government offices and services, his office said.

Lawmakers in Juneau agreed to pay down a US$2.5 billion deficit entirely from savings, while also cutting spending on operations by US$145 million from the previous fiscal year, Walker's office said.

The Legislature has been convening through special sessions to find a fix for the multibillion dollar deficit before July 1, the start of Alaska's new fiscal year, in order to avoid shuttering government offices and services.