Gov. Gregoire had a bill signing this afternoon. Jennifer Huntley, host of The Impact, took some notes on what she said on the special session:

“They had a telephone call yesterday and told me they couldn’t reach agreement. It was pretty short and I said thank you, I won’t call a special session.” She didn’t say exactly why they couldn’t reach an agreement.

On the budget, Gregoire said “I’ve sent them a letter in which I’ve indicated that I will do my best to live within the budget with the unforeseen revenue forecast for June and September.” She said if that results in drastic, across-the-board cuts, she’ll have to ask for Legislative action.

Is she disappointed?
“I am, the one thing I am really disappointed with, I had hoped that school districts would be allowed access to about $68 million to avoid teacher layoffs. I don’t know if they would have accessed it but at least they would have had the ability to do so. I’m disappointed on that one the most. The rest, I’ve found ways that I think we can move forward and resolve.”

On the subject of levy equalization, Gregoire said she intends to fully fund it so that when the Legislature returns in January, they’ll have a hole to plug. Since statute hasn’t changed, she thinks she’s legally obligated to do that.

Any way they’ll be called back before January? She said the only reason she would is if the revenue forecast is so bad that she can’t absorb the difference without legislation.

Thanks, Jennifer!

And the Rep. Richard DeBolt, the House minority leader, had to say (via a press release):
“The decision to forego a special session is welcome news. From the moment the regular session ended April 26, Republicans in the state House of Representatives were adamant that we did not support bringing lawmakers back to complete the Democrat agenda, which included cutting funding for more than 220 schools and placing an additional burden on local taxpayers.

“At a cost of nearly twenty thousand dollars a day, it would have been an insult to the taxpayers of our state to call a special session to finish up the work of Democrat lawmakers, with near supermajorities, who were not able to complete the 105-day regular session.
(Entire statement after the jump.) (more…)

Tags: Governor, special session

Western Washington University just sent out a press release with some details on how the state’s budget cuts will hit their school. Here’s a bit of what they said (and here’s the full report):

- The budget compensates for $44 million in cuts made by the state — cuts partially offset by federal stimulus and tuition increases
- Academic programs were cut about 5 percent on average. Other areas were cut 7 percent or more.
- About 25 people will lose their jobs, 45 annual contract workers will not be hired back, and 100 or so unfilled positions will be kept vacant.

In the coming weeks, we’ll learn more about how other universities are weathering the cuts.

Tags: budget cuts

The Senate just voted to pass SB 6096 29 to 19 after Lt. Gov. Brad Owen ruled that it does not constitute a tax increase — but rather a clarification of the law — under I-960.

The House, meanwhile, is still debating the bill on school levies. Follow along live on TVW or at tvw.org.

Tags: Budget, Schools, taxes

Now the House is back. They’re debating the School District Levy bill.

Stay tuned.

Rep. Skip Priest: “We have an opportunity to do the right thing tonight… that is not to concur with the Senate.”

Rep. Kathy Haigh: Said she wasn’t going to speak. “There are some other issues around levy equalization and the fact that we only equalize up to 12 percent. And many schools are able to run local levies up to 24 percent. So it is already not equal.”

Tags: levy

This morning at 8 a.m., the Senate Ways and Means Committee met to have a hearing and exeutive session on a handful of bills.

Here’s a sampling of what’s in play:

- Business and Occupation tax credit for newspapers
- Reducing petroleum pollution in stormwater
- Suspending the cost of living increases (aka COLAs) for teachers

Stay tuned.

Tags: Budget

And … we’re back. The House is scheduled for caucus/session at 10 and the Senate for 10:30.

Right now, you can catch up on what’s going on by watching TVW live – either on your TV set or here.

As for last night, the House and Senate were around late into the night: The Senate turned out the lights around 1 a.m. after passing both the operating and transportation budgets.

Tags: Budget

Fresh off the operating budget, the Senate is debating the transportation budget.

Sen. Mike Hewitt said he’s voting for it, though he does have a few problems with it. “It’s a fairly good budget,” he said.

Sen. Dan Swecker kept it short: “Good bill (something about biofuel), short speech, vote yes.”

The Senate passed the budget.

Tags: transportation budget

When I left last night around 8 p.m., the House was debating final passage of the operating budget. According to Joe Turner, they didn’t finish until four hours later.

Joe also has a great post about some of the finer details of the budget.

Tags: Budget

The House just reconvened. The budget is on their list of things to address.

In the meantime, the Senate is preparing to run the bill to authorize early tolling on the 520 bridge, a 14 percent tuition increase and an “opt-out” fee for parks that the Legislature hopes will prevent park closures.

Stay tuned.

Tags: Budget, parks, tax, tolls

The 515-page budget has been out for about 6 1/2 hours — and in another 30 minutes or so, the House expects to debate it. (That’s 48.9 seconds per page.)

Follow along right here with all the amendments and debate.

And, of course, if you have more questions: nikis@tvw.org. In addition to the question about levy lid lifts (below), another reader asked why the state needed $240,000 for “wood stove education.” Find the reference on page 104, and the apparent answer here.

Tags: Budget