All day long, idle observers near the entrances to the House and Senate office buildings could see budget negotiators scurrying between meetings. That’s House capital budget chief Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, in the wild Hawaiian shirt.
UPDATE, 6 a.m. June 23.–Negotiators worked all day Saturday but did not reach a final agreement, and finally knocked off at roughly 10 p.m., reporting progress. They will be returning to the table Sunday morning. Uncertain at this hour is what lawmakers will be voting on during their Sunday afternoon floor sessions.
OLYMPIA, June 22.—There’s still no official word on whether budget negotiators from the House and Senate have reached an agreement, but there’s one rather strong indicator – members were told late Friday to be on hand Sunday afternoon for floor sessions in both chambers.
Negotiators for both sides worked all day Friday, and there were plenty of hints that something would be emerging soon. At a news conference late in the day, Gov. Jay Inslee said he would be meeting with lawmakers Saturday morning to call for the question. He said he would not be surprised if they come to an agreement sometime late Friday night. “I would like to talk about these negotiations, but these are confidential negotiations, as we discussed in the past. I can tell you there has been significant movement finally in the last week or so that ought to put us in a position to find a solution to this budget challenge. I can tell you that. And that is what I am hopeful about.”
Whether it means lawmakers will be wrapping up their business on Sunday is unclear. Inslee’s budget director, David Schumacher, said it takes about a day and a half from the time a budget deal is reached to the time that a budget bill can be readied for a floor vote. And if that timetable is correct, that would mean that the House and Senate would have had to reach an agreement by sometime Friday evening in order to be ready for the 1 p.m. Sunday floor sessions. Inasmuch as some details of a possible budget were already widely rumored on the Hill Friday afternoon, it seemed altogether possible that an accord might already have been reached.
Still a few big issues: House Republican budget chief Gary Alexander, R-Olympia.
All day long, budget writers could be seen scurrying from talks in the House and Senate office buildings by those who congregated at the sundial between the two buildings. And when cornered by inquisitive reporters, leaders managed to express a vague sort of optimism. House Republican budget chief Gary Alexander, R-Olympia, said at midafternoon Friday, “I think it is going well. There are some big issues outstanding, but both sides are working toward a solution, and I would not be surprised if we get done tonight.”
There’s one big sword hanging over the Legislature’s head, of course. If they fail to pass a budget by June 30, state government will have no authority to spend money – an unprecedented situation that would force 34 state agencies to shut down completely, according to the Inslee administration. Temporary layoff notices have to go out Monday. But it ought to be noted that the Legislature has been in the same tight spot before: Back in 1991, when lawmakers came close to the drop-dead date and passed a budget June 30, budget negotiators reached agreement June 27. Meaning that negotiators this time out seem to be well ahead of that mark.
What About Transportation?
Gov. Jay Inslee offers an update on negotiations Friday.
At Friday’s news conference, Inslee said he remains hopeful that lawmakers will deal with a transportation tax package before they go home for the year. That raises the fairly unusual possibility that lawmakers will be asked to remain in the state’s capital city even after the operating and capital budgets are passed – normally the final big bills of any legislative session. Inslee wasn’t touting the more-time-for-transportation possibility, but he wasn’t ruling it out, either. The debate over a transportation tax increase has been snarled by a dispute over the Columbia River Crossing at Vancouver, and whether the state ought to give a $450 million green-light to a project that includes a highly controversial extension of the Portland-area light rail system to Clark County. Not to mention whether the tax package ought to be placed on the ballot for a public vote.
An extension of the current second special session, or a third special session sometime in the months ahead, “is not something I would rule out, but let’s focus on getting [agreement on] the package and then get this job done,” the governor said.
Inslee, who opposed the idea of a transportation tax increase this year during his campaign for office in 2012, noted that he began expressing support for the idea at the start of the current legislative session in January. Proposals have been floated by members of the House Democratic Caucus and the Senate Majority Coalition that appear to hone in on a figure in excess of $8 billion, including a gas-tax increase of roughly 10 cents that would be phased in over a decade.
Inslee said, “I think that we are far enough along in defining what can be in a bipartisan transportation package. That is something that should be able to be done in days, not weeks or months. There has been work going on for months to refine these packages. I have been involved in discussions with legislators of both parties, and I believe there is an excellent opportunity to pass this bill on a bipartisan basis, so I think this is something that could happen in a matter of days if we allow votes in both chambers.”
Backs Off on the Blame
Inslee said he does not wish to point any fingers at either side during the current budget negotiations. That’s a switch. During a news conference June 11, the Democratic governor excoriated the largely Republican Majority Coalition Caucus in the Senate, blaming its “ideological agenda” of state-government reform and resistance to tax increases for its failure to reach quick agreement with the House Democrats. Republicans bristled, and Inslee’s comments were widely viewed as a setback for the cause of compromise.
Since then new revenue and caseload forecasts have delivered the state an additional $321 million in new revenue, and the Senate Majority Coalition made a public offer: It would be willing to back off its major pieces of reform legislation if the House Democrats would back off on demands for tax increases. Meaning that if a true impasse developed, Democratic insistence on tax increases would be the issue.
At Friday’s news conference, Inslee said he still thinks tax increases are necessary – but that might be a battle for future legislative sessions. In response to a question, Inslee said he now does not wish to point any fingers. “My job today is to get a budget as fast as humanly possible, and to do that I’m going to work with both sides to get a budget, not to be engaged in assertions of blame or otherwise. And that is what I am focused on today, and that is very important. The consequences of a government shutdown are so significant that I can’t do other than that. Now I think that it is very likely that we are going to get this resolved, but we have to focus like a laser beam on the issues to get that done.”
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