State House and Senate negotiators have reached a budget deal in Olympia that could pave the way for an end to a special session as soon as Tuesday night.
A formal announcement should be made later today, said House Minority Leader Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish.
Hard copies of the supplemental spending plan were expected to be available to lawmakers Monday as well, he said.
“We’ve told our members to be here first thing Tuesday morning. Based on what I’m hearing, is that the goal is to be done by tomorrow night,” he said.
Republicans, who control the Senate, and Democrats, who run the House, were caucusing on the proposed agreement Monday, the 19th day of the special session.
Meanwhile, Gov. Jay Inslee indicated Monday he won’t resist efforts by lawmakers to override vetoes he issued March 10. He said then that the intent of vetoing 27 bills was to send a message that getting a budget done should be legislators’ first priority.
“Legislators informed me this morning they made great progress over the weekend and will be briefing their caucuses this afternoon on the status of their discussions,” he said in a statement.
“This information gives me the confidence I need to begin signing bills and clears the way for legislators to reconsider the bills I vetoed as a result of the lack of a budget agreement before the end of the regular session,” he said. “As I said previously, I have no objection to seeing these bills become law once a budget agreement is reached.”
Overriding vetoes requires a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate.
Lawmakers failed the last time they tried, in 2003. The Senate voted 49-0 to undo the action taken by then Gov. Gary Locke on a bill related to the membership of the Professional Educator Standards Board. But the House did not conduct a vote.
The last successful override occurred in 1998 after Locke vetoed a bill that upheld Washington’s Defense of Marriage Act that barred same-sex marriages.
State senators are expected to vote Monday on bills considered necessary to carry out a budget agreement that is reached with their counterparts in the House.
Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, didn’t say a deal is in hand but stressed the need to “get started today and hope we can make some progress” on the budget-related legislation.
Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, the Senate’s lead budget negotiator, said he hoped an announcement on the status of negotiations could be made sometime Monday.
The House was not holding a regular session Monday.
Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, who is the lead budget negotiator for the House, said last week that the two chambers were “inches away on the budget.”
Two of the unresolved issues entering the weekend involved the handling of overtime of home health care workers and taxation of national broadcasters.
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