Gov. Chris Gregoire sounded resigned today to the Legislature not ending the special session by Sunday as she originally hoped.
“It’s going to be very hard to get that done and I am absolutely disappointed,” she told reporters.
On the other hand, she said she’s seen advances in negotiations between the House and Senate on a final budget and tax package.
“I’m talking with them. I am hearing them making good progress. And I am going to encourage that progress be made only at a faster speed,” she said.
The Senate is expected to vote today on a slimmed down revenue package that contains a smaller increase in the sales tax than Democrats first proposed. Gregoire said she thought it possible the House may also discuss a revenue bill today.
She said she’s “put some new ideas on the table today” intended to help the two chambers reach a final agreement.
Gregoire also said there has been “some movement” on the budget but a deal isn’t at hand either.
“We may have an agreed upon level. We may have an agreed upon savings and ending fund balance but we don’t have a budget yet. We’re still in negotiations over some very big and some very important issues like furlough and state employee health care, like general assistance unemployable, like closures of state institutions. Those are occupying a lot of my time and those are still issues we’ve got to get through to get a budget.
“If we can’t agree on a revenue package, I’d like us to get to a budget that we can agree on and then have that one last thing and hopefully something breaks the dam and we get going.”
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