OLYMPIA — State Reps. Steve Tharinger and Kevin Van De Wege, both Sequim Democrats, say they are hopeful legislators will be able to reach an agreement this week and approve a supplemental budget.
Tharinger and Van De Wege represent the 24th District, which covers Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County, along with Sen. Jim Hargrove, a Democrat from Hoquiam.
“I would expect us to potentially be voting” on a supplemental budget sometime this week, Van De Wege said Friday.
Today marks the beginning of the third week of a 30-day special session convened by Gov. Jay Inslee after legislators failed to pass a supplemental budget during the regular 60-day session which ended March 10.
Inslee also vetoed 27 bills, following through on a threat he had made if lawmakers did not submit a supplemental budget on time.
The complete list of vetoed bills can be viewed online at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Vetoes.
House and Senate negotiators are working to reach agreement on a supplemental budget after both houses passed their own versions.
Budget negotiators continued to meet Friday, but action was delayed by the holiday weekend, Tharinger said.
“There are just a couple of tough issues and I think they decided they couldn’t get them finished in time to get it all done before the Easter weekend,” he said.
“My sense is we will hopefully be done” sometime this week.
While he wouldn’t go into specifics, Pat Sullivan, Democratic House majority leader, said Thursday remaining sticking points include one related to overtime for home care workers.
“I think they are close to an agreement,” Van De Wege said.
“There was some hang-ups around home health care providers, and I think that has been settled. It was around how many hours of overtime they would be allowed because they are state funded.”
Tharinger, House Capital Budget Committee chair, said he and his colleagues had been working on the capital budget.
“We have pretty much got that squared away,” he said.
“We’ve got agreement on that, so that is good.”
As far as the operating budget, “I think they are making progress,” Tharinger continued.
“I think once agreement is made, it takes actually about 30 hours to do the paperwork and all that so that people get to see it and see what the language is,” he said.
“I think the staff has to work around the clock to do that. Once they shake hands, and everybody is agreed, it is 30 hours to get it all ready to go and all the paperwork caught up with the decisions.”
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Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
