Gov. Chris Gregoire tonight called for a special session of the state Legislature to start Monday March 15 at noon.
And, according to a proclamation she signed tonight, the overtime will last “for a period of seven days” to deal with the operating and capital budgets and legislation dealing with job creation and economic development.
Keep checking here to read the proclamation when it gets posted.
Gregoire could have started the special session on Friday. She said she decided it would be better to let lawmakers go home for the weekend and rest and then return.
“They’re tired. They are fatiqued,” she said. “They’ll come back and be better legislators.”
In the meantime, if you want to read her take on the accomplishments of the 60-day session that ended tonight, go here.
At a news conference tonight, Gregoire, House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown all gave the impression there’s been a lot of progress made in reconciling the budgets and tax packages of the House and Senate.
However, they declined to say what amounts, if any, have been agreed upon in terms of taxes to raise, cuts to make and reserves to hold onto.
Chopp and Brown said negotiations would continue through the weekend though it wasn’t immediately clear how much of the conversations would be face-to-face versus by phone and e-mail.
Republicans meanwhile issued a statement about the special session that began:
“This is a costly and embarrassing mistake for majority Democrats. They control every aspect of state government but still couldn’t reach agreement among themselves and with the special interests that pull so many of the strings in Olympia.
When asked to respond, Chopp said:
“They basically always say negative things at the end of the session.”
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