Will special session be May 13-15?

I’m hearing tonight that Democratic lawmakers are being told to mark their calendars in pencil for the possible start of the special session on Wednesday, May 13. Information flowing to some legislators is it could last up to three days, through Friday, May 15.

It’s not confirmed as the governor has not sent out any official notice. But the timing sounds about right – which I talk about below..

I spoke with the governor about 5 p.m. Tuesday and she said nothing had been decided. She said she had spoken with high-ranking members of Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown’s staff because the senator was driving home at the moment that the governor called. Gregoire also said she hoped to touch base with House Speaker Frank Chopp on Tuesday..

What I heard is that three bills are on the agenda. They are the ones the House did not get finished with Sunday and I can see why it might take three days to get through them.

The toughest one is HB 1776 dealing with school levy equalization.

This is a difficult issue for both Democrats and Republicans in the House. The state budget counts on taking $60 million out of the equalization funding – which is used to balance the spread of education dollars between property rich and property poor districts.

The legislation as now written would also allow about 80 school districts to attempt to temporarily lift the lid on their levies to collect additional revenue from taxpayers. These districts all have excess and unused capacity they would be trying to tap..

The House never liked the transfer idea but it was part of the budget deal with the Senate. It was written up wrong in the budget and a technical fix is now needed. This opened the door for the GOP filibustering that occurred Sunday. House Democrats apparently planned to vote but somewhere along the line backed off because a couple of their members who vowed to vote for it changed their mind.

Another bill slated for the session is Senate Bill 6160 that would revise the state’s sentencing grid. This presented a problem Sunday because Rep. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, dropped 50 amendments onto the bill.

The other piece of legislation likely to be heard is House Bill 2188 or the Senate version, SB 6183. It deals with deportation of illegal immigrants convicted of a crime. This bill could save the state $8 million

Back to the timing issue. May 13 sounds logical for a couple of reasons.

First, the governor is on track to sign the budget the week of May 18 so the NTIBs need to be passed.

Second, school districts must issue their layoff notices to teachers by May 15. If the levy bill is not enacted, it will affect school district budgets around the state and could result in more layoffs. Getting action by May 15 could prevent some notices from going out.