Here, just in case, is what the Constitution says about special session (see the full section of the Constitution after the jump).

In short:

- If two-thirds in the House and Senate vote to do so, the Legislature can call itself into special session. If they go this route, they can limit the scope of the work that they do.

- During a special session called by the Legislature, a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate can add items to the agenda.

- If the governor calls the Legislature into special session, she can suggest what they work on but they are not bound to that suggestion.

- In either case, the special session is limited to 30 days a pop.

- Some recent special sessions include 2001 and 2003 — each had three special sessions.

- As reported by The Olympian, special session costs about $18,000 per day. Year-round staffers are not paid more — the money goes toward lawmakers’ “per diem” checks — $90 per day per lawmaker — and temporary staff (most of whom are laid off in the event of special session).

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Tags: Budget, Constitution, special session, taxes

Tags: Budget, Race to the Top, special session, taxes

I just got back from Gov. Chris Gregoire’s media availability — I’ll post it here as soon as it’s online. Here are some notes:

On the Boeing tanker bid: “We’re not done and we’re assuming nothing right now.”

On session: “The end is in sight … this is clearly a historic legislative session,” she said. She’s pleased with the Constitutional amendment on bail, the 520 bridge bill and progress on government reform.

On special session: There’s “potential” for special session. She said last year, 22 states held a special session and three are currently in special session. “What’s more important to me is get the job done and get it done well,” she said. She said one issue with special session is that once it’s called, they have 30 days and she can’t control what gets discussed — or limit the time to only a day or  two.

On things that aren’t quite finished yet: Race to the Top is an “essential step” — she said it was a “go home” issue, she wants to see movement on a jobs package, and she’s optimistic that the House and Senate can come to an agreement on the budget. She said she’s already started negotiating in private between the two.

The three things that need to be done to negotiate the budget: Agreement on the ending fund balance, agreement on the size of cuts and agreement on the revenue package size.

On the sales tax: She said she expressed concern to the Senate this morning about implementing a sales tax. But asked whether she’d agree to it under any circumstances, she said “never say never, never say always.”

On three big disparities in the budgets: 1. Public employees benefits 2. General Assistance – Unemployable 3. Institutional closures.

There’s much more. Stay tuned for the video.

Tags: Budget, Gregoire, special session, taxes

Does she have 25 votes for the tax package: “I think it looks good for moving the bill out of the Senate maybe as early as tomorrow… I wouldn’t be surprised if there aren’t a few more amendments.”

What amendments? “From the other side of the aisle I imagine there’ll be a large number,” she said. Other than that, some language changes, some “other.” “I think we’re headed toward being able to support our budget with a revenue package this weekend.”

“We’re far from done yet,” she said, when asked whether the public was given enough chance to weigh in on some of the proposals.

“I think our processes are much more transparent than when I entered the Legislature,” she said. “I don’t think members are being somehow secluded from outside influence.”

She said there are 85 House bills up for concurrence. “Some things can have pretty big sticking points,” she said.

Is the sales tax a sticking point? “I assume it will be but I don’t think we’ll know for sure until the House actually passes a revenue package.”

Will the income tax bill be talked about again? “That idea is still moving forward. People are talking about variations on it and it’s not clear to me what exactly would move out of the Senate at this point … and we’d want to have some indication obviously that the House was willing to do it.”

She said five or 10 bills that were a priority for the Senate died in the House today. Likewise for House bills in the Senate.

On the Husky Stadium/local excise tax bill that didn’t make it: “My understanding is that the striking amendment … would have created more flexibility for King County with those revenue streams. It’s always been a controversial bill for the last how ever many years we’ve been considering it. I think there’s a lot of consensus around making sure the arts get their piece of the funding … but then when you start to broaden it out … it starts to get pretty complex and we didn’t believe we had enough support to move it.”

Is there time to do the income tax proposal: “There’s time but there has to be willingness on both places to do it.” She said there are other groups outside the Legislature who could be working on an initiative.

The storm water bill  — to triple the tax on hazardous substances is still alive, she said. But “I don’t think it would be anywhere near” tripling the tax. “We do have clean water issues that we are going to need to be working on,” she said.

Biggest stumbling block? “We’re fighting the clock right now with all the issues to be resolved but I think you can say that there’s not a big breakdown here. I don’t know that there’s a big breakdown there … resolving a very serious budget shortfall in a short amount of time is challenging,” she said. “It can be done… I’m not planning any trip home, I’ll tell you that, until we give it our best shot.”

Tags: Budget, taxes

Gov. Chris Gregoire said in her 10 a.m. media availability that she favors the House tax plan — which will be released at noon but she said she’s been briefed on — over the Senates, which includes a sales tax.

But: She likes the Senate’s proposed cuts better than those proposed by the House. She suggested the two could get together, swap plans and then we’d go home on time.

Watch TVW live at noon for the unveiling of the House tax plan.

Tags: Budget, taxes

The Senate is about to start debate on the operating budget, which you can read here. You can watch the debate live on TVW.

Sen. Margarita Prentice said revenues have tanked. “We’re responding to a revenue shortfall similar to what 47 states have already faced,” she said. “We aren’t offering an ugly budget — ours is a positive budget,” she said, that will get communities “through and beyond” the recession. “None of us wants to put our schools, our colleges, our universities and our economic futures at risk.”

Sen. Joe Zarelli: “What we have before us is a budget that spends about $1 1/2 billion more than we have,” he said. He said voting on the budget before the revenue package is putting the cart before the horse. “When you vote for this, I guess that assumes that whatever anybody says you’re going to do to pay for it, that’s what you’re going to do.”

Sen. Jean Berkey said she was voting for the bill only to facilitate negotiations. She said she has concerns with how the revenue will look.

Sen. Don Benton said the budget calls for the closure of Frances Haddon Morgan, where a friend’s son has lived for some time. He said it is “the safest environment for these individuals who need this special help.” “I’m hoping that we can still continue to work on specifically this issue of the DD centers … and keep at least one or two of these open so that these individuals are not forced to go into community placement.”

Sen. Mike Carrell said he would be voting against the budget, though he does appreciate “token” changes. He said he’s concerned the budget doesn’t account for a multi-year economic crisis. “We’re going to use the excuse that ‘We can’t make any more cuts,’ but there have not been any systematic, systemic changes in this budget.”

Sen. Lisa Brown: “The goal of this budget is to move the process forward, to lead the state through difficult times,” she said. She said significant reforms are being made in this budget and that cuts and reforms are needed for a successful budget. (more…)

Tags: Budget

The Senate passed their transportation budget.

“Transportation is the bright spot in an otherwise gloomy economic picture,” Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen said, kicking off debate.  “Over 18,000 jobs have been or will be created to sustain the (transportation) budget that we passed last year,” she said. She said this supplemental transportation budget doesn’t add much from last year. Except: “In the last budget cycle we did not fund two patrol classes. We felt that there would not be any attrition,” she said, but they found out that wasn’t the case. She said this budget funds a patrol class.

Sen. Curtis King: “We have developed what I think is a good budget here.” He said they’ve worked hard on several policy aspects — including how the Department of Transportation sells excess property.

Sen. Chris Marr said he also supports the budget. He said projects are coming in, on average, 17 percent below engineer estimates. That money can then fund other projects, he said.

Sen. Mike Carrell said he is sad to say he won’t be supporting the budget. He said the reason is that there’s an appropriation to turn a small rail stop in Lakewood — his district — into a hub for SoundTransit and other trains. He said at least 50 times a day, traffic will be harmed in the Lakewood area where the station will go.

The budget passed 41 to 3 and now heads to the House.

Tags: Budget, transportation

Tune into TVW now to hear the House discuss the budget — here’s a link to all 200-some pages.

Right now, they’re running through amendments. I’ll update here should the discussion heat up.

Up now: Rep. Jeannie Darneille’s amendment to close the state ethics board. She said in 2009, their nearly $500,000 budget resulted in 11 state employees getting a slap on the wrist for inappropriate use of the internet. She said those “inappropriate uses” included saving a home mortgage on their work computer. She said this is a difficult time in the state and she couldn’t justify spending $500,000 on 11 employees.

Rep. Kelli Linville asked if Darneille to clarify whether the ethics board was the same one that oversaw legislators. Darneille said it was not.

Rep. Larry Seaquist said he thought it actually increased the oversight because right now, it’s too easy for state managers to toss problems to the ethics board. He said defunding it would force people to take more responsibility.

But Rep. Bill Hinkle said he’s not sure that cutting the budget for the ethics board would be the right thing to do. He said it would send the wrong message.

The amendment was adopted. There was some discussion about the board being “scalable” — so maybe they’ll cut it partially and not fully.

Tags: Budget

Here’s a short look at what’s in store for today:

- At noon, Republican leaders will hold a media availability.

- At 3:30, both House and Senate Ways & Means committees will meet. In the Senate, they’ll be considering the revenue bills — 6873, 6874, 6875. In the House, they’ll be considering amendments to the budget introduced yesterday. I’m posting the videos from yesterday’s Ways & Means hearings below the jump in case you missed them.

- At 4 p.m., Gov. Chris Gregoire will sign the bill to suspend most of Initiative 960. As soon as that happens, the Legislature can pass a tax increase with a simple majority vote.

- At 4:45 p.m., Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown will hold a media availability.

- At some point to be announced, the House will release their revenue package.

- At 7 and 10 p.m. tonight, The Impact will air — host Jessica Gao has already interviewed Rep. Kelli Linville and Sen. Joe Zarelli. I’ll post the show as soon as it’s available online.

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Tags: 960, Budget, taxes

Here’s the Senate:

And the House:

Tags: Budget, taxes