OK. After caucusing, the Senate is back. And they’re reconsidering the teacher pay raise bill.

Sen. Rodney Tom said he’s in support of the bill, although he voted against the amendment. He said teachers are the most valuable part of the classroom.

But Sen. Joe Zarelli said this bill only creates the promise of a lot more money in the future — and now’s not the time for that.

That was the only testimony.

The bill passed 28 to 20.

Tags: COLAs

Rep. Cary Condotta just finished a live TVW interview with Jennifer Huntley on the special Sine Die edition of The Impact.

He said the Unemployment Insurance conformity bill is in limbo: The Senate passed it, the House added amendments that would increase payments to workers, among other things. Then the Senate stripped those amendments and sent it back to the House.

The ball is in the House’s court now: They decide whether to bring the bill back up, try to add their amendments, pass it as it passed the Senate …

What happens if it doesn’t pass? The bill is to bring the state into conformity with federal law, and we have a deadline. If they don’t change the part of the law that doesn’t conform, they may lose hundreds of millions of federal matching dollars.

Tags: unemployment insurance

The House is now debating the bill to suspend the family leave program — which gives new parents $250 per week for the first five weeks to help them stay at home. The suspension would last for three years.

The Senate passed the bill last night.

“We do believe that it can be possible to start this program in three years. The federal government is very interested in this,” said Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson. She said virtually every country has a program like this because it “allows families with newborn infants to thrive.”

Rep. Cary Condotta said he’s voting against it because it’s a false promise — he doesn’t think the program will ever exist. “There’s a reason that California’s budget is in the state that it’s in,” he said — because they’ve created too many extraneous programs. “The argument here is much bigger than the bill.”

Rep. Steve Conway said “This plan is so defendable. This is not about socialism, this is about caring for families.” He said he’s “surprised at the debate, because I see the tears in members eyes when they talk about their families.”

Rep. Jaime Herrera said the bill doesn’t go far enough to protect small businesses. “It’s another one of the unfinished, undone promises. We should have pulled this program completely out.”

Rep. Ed Orcutt said his wife is having surgery after session and he’ll be taking off time to be by her side. But “it’s the responsibility of my household to take care of this situation,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t expect the state or federal government to help him.

Tags: family leave

The Senate passed the bill last night, and now it’s on the list of things the House will address soon: The family leave insurance bill.

It’s the bill that gives new parents $250 per week for 5 weeks so they can spend time with their newborn. Only: No one has ever benefited from it, because it was created but never funded. The Senate voted last night to delay the program for another two years (but defeated an amendment to scrap the program altogether).

Now, it’s the House’s turn.

Also on their list: The bill to eliminate three-times-a-month visits for certain criminals.

UPDATE: The House and Senate are both now in caucus.

Tags: community supervision, family leave

The Senate is burning through big-ticket bills right now …

Now, they’re debating the bill to allow tolling on the 520 bridge.

Update: It passed.

Tags: tolling

The Senate is now working on the bill to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a deep-bore tunnel.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen said she urged the Senate to concur with the House amendments, although she said the House was “cruel” to the City of Seattle. She was referring to an amendment by the House that would require Seattle businesses to pay for cost overruns.

They voted to concur after Sen. Dan Swecker said a few words about his support, then passed the bill.

Tags: Viaduct

The Senate is now debating Senate Bill 5963 — the bill to bring the state’s unemployment insurance program into conformity with federal law.

There was some confusion over what amendment they were voting on, but now they’re back on track.

The Senate voted not to concur on the House amendments.

Update: They later voted to reconsider, and disagreed on a House amendment. And now it looks like they’ll adjourn soon.

Tags: unemployment insurance

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

Today at the press conference, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown said the budget agreement between the Senate and House would be finished today — possibly very late.

Joe Turner at The News Tribune reports that it will be available online at 9 a.m.

That’s when everyone will get a much better idea how much they stand to be cut. And, of course, when the tuition increase voted on yesterday will be disclosed.

Tags: Budget, tuition increase

Tags: taxes