OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee has ordered state lawmakers to convene a second special session and told them to come to his office Friday morning to continue their negotiations over the state’s $38 billion two-year operating budget.
Lawmakers ended their first special session on Thursday, with a transportation budget, but still must agree on a state operating budget and a plan for answering the Washington Supreme Court on education spending.
The governor said his goal is to help Democrats and Republicans come together on a budget agreement and said he would be in the room some of the time.
Inslee said the people of Washington are frustrated with the Legislature, and he doesn’t want lawmakers to think they have a full 30 days to reach a budget deal.
Lawmakers adjourned their regular, 105-day session last month and then returned for the first 30-day special session.
At a news conference Thursday after the first special session ended, the governor said he didn’t want to talk about a government shutdown, which could happen if the state does not have a budget by June 30.
“I don’t want to think about the consequences of failure,” Inslee said.
Senate Republicans and House Democrats agree on what is keeping them from reaching a state budget agreement for the next two years: taxes.
Senate leaders say the state can pay for everything it needs with existing revenue, especially since a recent forecast estimated the state will have an extra $400 million to spend. The GOP says no new taxes are needed.
Democratic House leaders and the governor say the improvement in the economy is a big help, but there’s still not enough money to fully pay the state’s responsibilities for education, the social safety net, mental and physical health needs and pay raises for state employees, including teachers. Democrats are still pushing for a capital gains tax.
Senate Republicans on Thursday released a new state budget proposal, which makes some movement toward proposals by House Democrats. House leaders said they would release their latest budget proposal on Monday and hold a public hearing on Tuesday.
Senate budget writer Andy Hill said the proposal released Thursday is the offer Senate leaders made to House negotiators last week. He says they make a lot of concessions and are waiting for more movement from the House.
“We’re frustrated,” Hill said. “Our last offer was on Friday. We received a counter-offer yesterday. The offer did not move toward us.”
House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan says Democrats, too, have made significant concessions in each of their offers.
“We’re actually trying to work on a solution that gets us home,” he said.
The Senate budget would spend about half of the additional state revenue identified in the most recent state revenue forecast but Hill said the rest of that new revenue is open to negotiations.
Last week, the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council found that the state’s revenue collections through the middle of 2017 are expected to increase by more than $400 million — with nearly $327 million for the upcoming 2015-17 budget.
Hill said that extra money was enough to do everything the state needs to do without raising any new taxes.
“We’ve said all along that we can fully fund education, protect the most vulnerable and do it without raising taxes,” Hill said.
Hill said the divided government — nearly half Democrats and half Republicans in both houses — makes negotiations on issues like the state budget take longer, but he believes the result is better.
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