Sen. Lisa Brown
After wrapping up their two-month regular session Thursday night, Washington lawmakers reconvene Monday to finish their work on balancing a $2.8 billion gap in the state’s budget.
In her official proclamation calling for a special session, Gov. Christine Gregoire asked legislators to tackle the state’s construction and operating budgets, along with some attempts to stimulate job growth. She wants the whole thing done in a week.
Democratic leaders plan to use a combination of spending cuts, tax increases, federal bailouts and one-time accounting maneuvers to close the deficit. But the details are still being negotiated in closed-door sessions.
The official tax plans from the House and Senate have been about $200 million apart. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown says there’s general agreement to split the difference, which would leave a tax package of roughly $800 million.
The key disagreement on taxes has been whether to temporarily raise the state’s 6.5 percent sales tax. The Senate has endorsed a third-of-a-cent increase, but House Democrats say they don’t have enough support for that plan, and Gregoire also doesn’t like it.
The two chambers also have to merge their differing ideas about where to make spending cuts and how much federal money to expect.
Additionally, Gregoire and legislative leaders say they also want to find agreement on some kind of plan to boost employment.
One such plan is a House idea for selling bonds to spur specialized construction jobs and capture electricity savings at public buildings. It was one of the first significant bills approved by the House, but has languished in the Senate, with Brown pointing to concerns about adding to state debt. (AP)
