OLYMPIA – The calendar shows this is the Legislature’s final week of session.
State lawmakers wish it were true.
Disagreements on what to cut and where to spend in the next state budget are deep. Divisions over reforming education and workers compensation are wide.
And the
pile of bills dealing with all the outstanding matters is tall.
They can’t get it done, and Gov. Chris Gregoire knows when the 105-day clock for the regular session expires Easter Sunday, she’ll be bringing them back for overtime. She’ll decide later this week when the special session should
begin.
“They can’t mechanically get there. I accept that,” she said. “I think it’s unfortunate.”
Lawmakers’ primary task this session is to write new budgets for government operations, transportation and construction covering the period from this July 1 through June 30, 2013.
Deals on transportation and capital construction spending appear in reach. An accord on the $32 billion budget to fund the state’s day-to-day machinery is a ways off.
The problem’s unchanged since lawmakers arrived in January: There’s a projected $5.1 billion deficit, and how to erase it is the source of much hand wringing and politicking.
At this point, the House has passed its budget proposal with a balance sheet of roughly $4.4 billion in cuts, plus transfers from other accounts and a $300 million infusion of new dollars from privatizing state liquor distribution – an idea lawmakers have yet to approve.
Today, the Senate may adopt its version of a budget. It contains $4.8 billion in reductions, plus transfers. It does not include any money from liquor privatization. As a result, the two chambers are roughly $300 million apart.
“Their priorities seem to be the same. Their concerns seem to be the same but somebody is going to have to give and give large for them to be able to reconcile the two budgets,” Gregoire said.
Many boulders obstruct their path to a solution. Here are three of the largest.
Education
Money and philosophy separate the House and Senate approaches to elementary and secondary schools.
Though both chambers trim dozens of programs in much the same way, the Senate alone seeks a 3 percent pay cut for teachers and school employees. This is a $251 million savings which House Democrats and Gregoire are not keen on making.
Complicating matters is the fact the Senate rewrote a popular House bill on school reform. They put in a provision to require layoffs of teachers be based on performance, not seniority, which is a very unpopular idea with majority Democrats. And some senators also want to wipe voter-approved initiatives for teacher pay and smaller class sizes off the books, while the House wants only to suspend them until the next budget cycle.
Workers compensation
A coalition of moderate Democratic and Republican senators passed a comprehensive overhaul of the system for compensating injured workers, and there’s $29 million in the Senate’s proposed budget to carry it out.
Majority Democrats in the House buried the bill and won’t bring it up for a vote, primarily because it allows for voluntary settlement agreements, a concept detested by organized labor. Republicans tried to force a vote but did not get any help from moderate Democrats.
At this point, any compromise will require the Senate to give ground or come up with an alternative. That’s a large step at this stage.
“I don’t think that was a perfect bill,” Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, told reporters Friday. “We’re going to need negotiation. It doesn’t look like workers compensation is going to get resolved in the next week.”
Getting a majority
Passing a budget is a matter of getting 25 votes in the Senate, 50 votes in the House and the signature of the governor.
Getting a majority in the Senate may be the biggest challenge.
Democrats outnumber Republicans 27-22, but they are not a united bunch. A handful of moderates are backing several GOP initiatives against the wishes of their liberal colleagues. Those liberals, who number about a dozen, are so frustrated with chunks of the plan they might oppose it.
Brown said she’s confident she can corral support from more than half the caucus, but she’s not making any promises. She’s not sure how many Republicans will vote for it, either.
There’s no complete unity in the Republican caucus, either. Some conservative members are reportedly concerned about the budget being too spendy and won’t be supportive.
In the House, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 56-42, there’s not much tension. Those in the moderate coalition known as the Roadkill Caucus are not aligning with Republicans on many budget issues.
Gregoire empathized with lawmakers torn by the difficulty of the decisions. She faced them before issuing her proposed budget in December.
“If the state just had a few hundred million dollars more, they could probably solve the problems, but they don’t,” she said.
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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