Gov. Chris Gregoire said just before midnight Monday that lawmakers have not yet struck a budget deal, despite a marathon 11-hour negotiation meeting. Gregoire presented a compromise budget to legislative leaders early Monday afternoon that she said included “a whole new set of offers.”

“We’ve made progress over 11 hours, but we’re not done and everybody is still working,” Gregoire said at a late night press conference (video).

Lawmakers have been at odds over a series of reforms, including changes to health insurance benefits for K-12 employees, ending some pension benefits for new state workers, and a four-year balanced budget requirement.

Gregoire did not say what was in her proposal, but said she believes it is politically doable with “no unintended consequences.”

The 30-day special session comes to a close at the end of the day Tuesday, and lawmakers will be facing another special session if they don’t have a budget deal. Gregoire said she doesn’t want to go into special session — even for a day  — because it takes everything “back to square one.”

“Nobody will convince me to talk about a special session until I have to, and that’s at 12:01 tomorrow night,” Gregoire said.

Tags: Budget

Gov. Chris Gregoire is proposing a compromise budget to legislative leaders behind closed doors in the hopes of ending the logjam before the clock strikes midnight on Tuesday, the last day of special session. Rachel La Corte of the AP has more on the meeting here.

A House budget committee scheduled for this afternoon was delayed twice to accommodate the meeting, and is now on hold indefinitely. We’ll keep you posted.

Tags: Budget

The state Senate passed two reform bills Saturday that have been key to budget negotiations. The bills now head to the House, which is set to consider some of the reform bills in the budget writing committee on Monday.

The first measure changes health insurance benefits for K-12 public school employees. It requires all employees to pay some portion of their health insurance premiums, capping the cost of family premiums at three times that of a single individual.

School districts must offer a high deductible health insurance plan with a health savings account – if they don’t, their employees will be automatically moved into the state system.

“For 22 years we have had an inefficient health care system for K-12 school employees,” said bill sponsor Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens. He said the inefficient system “must end or be accounted for.”

The bill passed 29-17.

The other reform bill is a balanced budget requirement proposed by Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup. It requires the state to craft a budget that is in line with the four-year revenue forecast by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.

Senate majority leader Lisa Brown said during the debate that revenue forecasts are a craft, not a science. She showed legislators a letter from former state economist Arun Raha, who said it would be “unwise” to tie budgets to an unpredictable number.

“No other state does a four-year budgeting requirement because we can’t see the future,” Brown said.

Sen. Kastama said the requirement has some built-in flexibility because it will be in statute and not a constitutional amendment, as he had originally proposed. It allows for a variance of 5 percent from the revenue forecast, he said, which amounts to $1.5 billion dollars up or down.

“The public is tired of this roller coaster ride on budgeting,” said Kastama. The bill passed 30-16.

Tags: Budget, Reform

Lawmakers appear to be working toward a budget agreement in the final days of special session, and the Senate is set to return to work Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. 

The Senate budget writing committee stayed late Friday evening to consider a number of bills, and they approved some that have been key to budget negotiations — including a measure that requires a 4-year balanced budget, and a bill that creates a new statewide health insurance pool for K-12 public school employees.

The committee did not vote on the budget proposal, which passed the House earlier this week with a 54-43 vote.

For more details of the week’s events, watch the today’s 10-minute special session edition of Legislative Review.

Will the Senate work over Easter weekend? It remains unclear Friday night, following a heated exchange that happened on the Senate floor earlier in the day.

Friday afternoon, Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, moved that the Senate adjourn until Monday morning.

Senate majority leader Lisa Brown rose in opposition, saying “I do not appreciate being treated with disrespect.” Brown said bills related to the budget are moving through committee and need votes soon if the Legislature is to finish by Tuesday, the final day of special session.

“This is a ploy to drive us into another special session,” Brown said.

Schoesler responded by saying there were “rampant rumors of a call of the Senate that would take people away from their families during Easter.”

Some members have already gone home to be with their families, Schoesler said. Two other lawmakers rose to say they were attending baptisms on Saturday.

In the end, they voted to recess for the hearing, but not adjourn. Watch the exchange below.

Tags: Budget

The House voted to pass the latest Democratic budget proposal with a 54-43 vote Thursday afternoon.

It now heads to the Senate, where Republicans and the moderate Democrats who are siding with them on budget matters said Wednesday that the offer doesn’t have strong enough reforms for them to support it.

During the House debate, lead budget writer Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, said that “despite tremendous financial difficulties,” the budget does not cut education.

It also saves the state’s safety net “in the best way possible,” said Rep. Pat Sullivan, D-Covington.

But Republican Rep. Gary Alexander of Olympia said the budget isn’t sustainable. Nor is it helpful, he said, adding that he believes it “detracts” from the negotiation process.

“Buried deep inside this budget are scary details,” said Rep. Charles Ross, R-Naches. “I don’t believe it is ready for prime time.”

The Senate budget writing committee has a hearing scheduled for Friday to consider reforms related to the budget proposal. Special session ends next Tuesday.

Tags: Budget

The House today is taking up a number of bills, and is expected to vote on the Democratic budget proposal this afternoon. Watch live on TVW or the web, and we’ll post updates on the blog.

First up, the House debated a bill that would add state cigarette taxes to roll-your-own cigarettes. Rep. Steve Kirby, D-Tacoma, said roll-your-own cigarettes are a way for customers and stores to sidestep taxes, and it isn’t fair to those who play by the rules. 

Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee, spoke in opposition to the bill, saying it will only put people out of business and won’t generate enough revenue to help with the budget deficit.

“Is this going to balance the budget? Are you kidding me?” Condotta asked. The bill passed 65-32.

They also took up a proposal to change the way the state handles sales tax revenue collected from local governments, a measure that was introduced by House Democrats in their latest budget proposal. The bill keeps the money in the state’s general fund longer, giving the state a boost in its cash flow every month.

Local governments are not opposed to it, and the accounting maneuver is done by a number of other states, said Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina. The bill passed 82-15.

Meanwhile, the Senate passed a measure that amends the Constitution to include the recommendations of the state debt commission. They then adjourned until Friday morning.

Tags: Budget

Democratic House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan and Republican Sen. Linda Evans Parlette talk about budget negotiations on The Impact. Plus, law enforcement on both sides of the debate over legalizing marijuana talk about the initiative voters will face in the fall.

Tags: The Impact

The latest budget proposal by House Democrats “takes us further apart than brings us together,” said Senate Republican budget leader Joe Zarelli, adding that he didn’t see it as a “good faith effort” to reach a compromise.

Zarelli said at a press conference the proposed budget is not sustainable because it doesn’t leave enough money in reserves for the future, and it uses “one-time” money to pay for ongoing programs.

“They created a bigger hole structurally than their last budget that they passed in the dying days of regular session,” Zarelli said.

House Democrats introduced a new budget proposal this morning that leaves $335 million in reserves, and it boosts the state’s cash flow by holding onto sales tax money collected from local governments a month longer.

Sen. Rodney Tom, who was one of three Democrats to join the GOP to pass a budget during regular session, said that the budget proposal doesn’t go far enough in terms of reforms.

“It boggles my mind that we go to this ‘Washington lite’ model, doing the most minimum change possible,” Tom said.

Given the current situation, it is “highly unlikely” that the Legislature will adjourn with a budget deal by the time special session ends next week, said Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup.

Tags: Budget

House Democratic leaders released a new budget proposal today, saying they are moving closer to the Republicans’ position by offering a number of reforms.

Rep. Ross Hunter, chairman of the House budget writing committee, acknowledged that he doesn’t know if the new plan has enough votes to break the impasse, but said it was time to get the process moving.

“If there’s any opportunity to be done by next Tuesday, we have to move some bills forward,” said House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan at a press conference. Special session ends two days after Easter.

The budget proposal does not delay payments to public schools — a major sticking point in previous budget debates. Originally, Democrats had proposed pushing back millions in school payments by one day so that the expenditure fell into the next two-year budget cycle, and Republicans criticized it as punting responsibility to the next Legislature.

Instead, the budget proposal would keep $238 million in sales tax revenue collected from local governments in the state’s general fund longer, giving the state a boost in its cash flow every month. Hunter said a number of other states do the same, and it would “modernize” the way the state handles its cash without delaying any payments.

The budget does not include any cuts to K-12 or higher education. It would, however, repeal Initiative 728, a measure passed by voters in 2000 as a way to reduce class sizes, but without a way to fund it. The Legislature has regularly suspended the measure during economic downturns, and Rep. Hunter said the money could be more effectively used elsewhere.

The plan includes a number of reforms, including one that would eliminate some pension benefits for new state employees hired after July 1. Rep. Hunter said the proposal does not go as far as the pension reform proposed by Senate Republicans, but “it’s as far as we can go to get the votes.”

It also includes a balanced budget bill with a 4-year “outlook,” and a bill that would consolidate health insurance benefits for K-12 public school employees. It removes a proposed 5 percent increase to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, and would eliminate about 1,400 state employees.

The proposal leaves $335 million in reserves.

Senate Republicans and moderate Democrats held a press conference to respond, saying that they didn’t believe the reforms go far enough. Read more about their response here.

Tags: Budget