Gov. Chris Gregoire is joined by Sen. Lisa Brown and Rep. Frank Chopp.

She said there’s nothing regular about this session. “We are confronting the worst economic times in 80 years,” she said.

“This session is about moving forward. Tonight and today I congratulate the Legislature” for taking “major steps” forward on school reform and levy equalization.

She thanked the lawmakers for sending a Constitutional amendment to voters. “There is much that has been accomplished in a very short session, but there is more to do.”

“Tonight I’ve issued a proclamation calling for a special session that will begin on Monday at noon,” she said, and hopefully last 7 days or fewer.

Sen. Lisa Brown said they’re looking forward to coming back on Monday and getting the budget and revenue package done.

“I’d like to say it really is about jobs and fortunately we have a transportation budget that’s fully passed through both the House and the Senate,” she said. With that alone, she said thousands of jobs will be created.

Speaker Frank Chopp: Said they’re proud of the education reform, early learning bill, levy capacity and Race to the Top reform. “We were so hopeful we could get that done today and we were able to get that job completed.”

He said the Legislature will be “really focused in on our jobs agenda” during special session. “The package that you’ll be seeing refreshed next week will be very aggressive.”

So: Everyone will be back on Monday. They’ll reintroduce budget bills “and start passing those immediately” so that when they are done negotiating, they can pass the budget, Sen. Lisa Brown said. She said budget and jobs are the only topics that will be discussed. She said negotiations will begin this weekend.

As for the size of the revenue package, Brown said they “more or less cut the difference.”

Gregoire said she hasn’t read the cell phone bill yet, but it seems like not talking on the phone while driving is good public policy.

Tags: special session

Gov. Chris Gregoire is on set with Jessica Gao now on The Impact’s special Sine Die edition.

A crowd of about a two dozen lobbyists have gathered just outside the set — which is in the legislative building for today — and they’re watching, silently to see what the governor has to say. Tune in now on TVW. I’ll see what I can hear from where I sit and post here.

“I’m hopeful that we’re going to hear the Race to the Top bill” come out of the House pretty soon, she said. She said they’ve made an agreement on the content of the bill and “I don’t really care about the structure.”

She said the key for Race to the Top is that the state needs to be ready to implement the changes.

Gregoire indicated that there still is not agreement on the level of revenues and cuts. She said that public employee benefits, facilities closures and GA-U — three areas she identified as big sticking points for the session — have had good conversations, but not consensus.
On GA-U — which Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson said there was an agreement on earlier today — Gregoire said there’s progress, not agreement.

She said the state needs to close institutions, but didn’t say which ones. She said the key is that they cannot let anyone out early. She also said the Legislature may be passing bills that will lead to a greater caseload for the prison system, which needs to be taken into account. She said try to build a new prison in someone’s community and “they will fight you tooth and nail.” Try to close it after it’s been built: “and they will fight you tooth and nail.” She said trying to close an institution is an interesting experience.

She reiterated that there isn’t agreement between the House and Senate on the level of revenue and cuts. She said they’ve made progress today, but they’re not there yet.

Tags: Governor, special session

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).

(more…)

Tags: Budget, Constitution, special session, taxes

The Impact will not be airing at its regularly scheduled time of 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. tonight, as we’re preparing for tomorrow’s marathon Sine Die show.  The show will air from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. whether or not lawmakers decide to go into special session (which appears to be a forgone conclusion according to this blog post by Inside Olympia Host Austin Jenkins).

Since I didn’t spend the day doing in-studio interviews for a show tonight, I was able to attend the Republican media availability at noon.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt told reporters that Democrats are having trouble negotiating a final budget because the “political winds are leaning toward conservatives” and they’re afraid to vote.

Asked if the legislature can’t agree on a budget, could and should the Governor step in and make across-the-board cuts, House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt said it would be an “abdication of responsibility as a legislature…the public should be offended if that happens.”

Is a 60-day session enough time to deal with the enormity of this budget problem?  The Senate Republican’s budget leader, Joe Zarelli, said the legislature has “one-party control, and you’d think we could agree”… but there’s been a “distracted approach to handling all the problems.”  He points to the income tax bill that was dropped late last week, which did not garner widespread support among Democrats and “served absolutely no purpose,” according to Sen. Zarelli.

I hope to talk with all three of the aforementioned lawmakers during tomorrow’s show.  Here’s a list of the other state leaders I have scheduled (or am trying to schedule):

• Governor Chris Gregoire
• Randy Dorn, Superintendent of Public Instruction
• Victor Moore, Governor’s budget director
• Eldon Vail, Department of Corrections Secretary
• Susan Dreyfus, DSHS Secretary
• Peter Goldmark, Public Lands Commissioner
• Reps. Lynn Kessler, Gary Alexander, Mary Lou Dickerson, Cary Condotta, Steve Conway, Kirk Pearson, Ross Hunter, Judy Clibborn and more…
• Sens. Lisa Brown, Ed Murray, Mary Margaret Haugen, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Rosemary McAuliffe, Adam Kline, Jim Kastama, Randi Becker, Mike Carrell, Janea Holmquist, Dan Swecker, Rodney Tom,  and more…

Of course, these are all subject to change.

Gov. Chris Gregoire will be on the show at 9:00 a.m., followed by analysis with Austin Jenkins and blog reporter Niki Reading.  The Impact will be on the air during breaks in floor action until 7 p.m.

Tags: Impact, special session, TVW

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

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

Yesterday on The Impact, Eldon Vail told host Jennifer Huntley that, without a special session, they’re short $9 million. Watch here:

Now that we know there won’t be a special session, Huntley has put in a call to the Department of Corrections to see what they might do.

Of course, Governor Chris Gregoire hasn’t signed all bills yet — and we know from what she told The Olympian that it isn’t over until then.

Update: Huntley just got a call back from the department. They say they’re still not sure what they’ll do. We’ll keep you posted.

Tags: department of corrections, special session

This just in from Speaker of the House Frnak Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown:

“After a conversation today between Gov. Gregoire, Speaker Chopp and Majority Leader Brown, the three leaders decided against a special session.”

“The few issues left on the table in the education and corrections budgets can be taken up when the Legislature next convenes, and after future revenue forecasting provides a clearer picture of the lasting effect of the recession on our state.

“That being said, we stepped up to the challenge presented by what is generally considered to be the worst recession in 70 years. The Legislature approved three balanced biennial budgets, and key legislation that will affect the future of our education system, protect working families, position us toward a greener energy future, and help Washington businesses create jobs.”

Check back: We’ll update with what Gov. Chris Gregoire has to say, if she says anything.

Tags: special session

Tags: crime, special session, swine flu