OLYMPIA — State legislators were scrambling to piece together a supplemental budget agreement after a special session began last week.
Gov. Jay Inslee told lawmakers Thursday evening there will be “no break and no rest” after they failed to come up with a supplemental budget agreement by the end of the regular 60-day session, according to The Capitol Times.
Inslee immediately called legislators into a 30-day special session.
“I am hopeful that maybe we can get it done in the next week or so. I think that now there have been some significant discussions,” Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, said Friday.
Hargrove — along with Rep. Steve Tharinger and Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, both Sequim Democrats — represents the 24th District, which covers Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County.
Inslee also vetoed 27 bills, following through on a threat he made earlier in the week if lawmakers did not submit a supplemental budget on time, according to The Capitol Times.
The complete list of vetoed bills can be viewed online at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Vetoes.
Hargrove said his “gut feeling is that most of those policy issues will find their way back to life during the special session.
“There are discussions already on how to resurrect the substance of those bills,” he added.
Hargrove said Inslee’s threat to veto the bills “was kind of an unusual,” move and added it might have created some hard feelings.
“On the other hand, it might have stimulated some action here,” Hargrove said.
“I can’t pass judgement on it one way or another. Nothing is over until it is over, and we are not over yet.”
Override effort
Said Van De Wege: “Certainly what the governor is doing is not helping any, and I am going to lead an effort to override all those vetoes . . . which is just going to take us more time to get that work done.
“I think we will get there,” he added. “We always do.”
Van De Wege pointed out there already is a biennial budget for 2016-17 in place.
“People forget that and think we are not doing our work,” he said.
“We work on a two-year budget. We do not need to have a supplemental budget,” Van De Wege said.
“I think there are some decent reasons to have one, particularly the wildfires that are rampant in eastern Washington and making sure” there is funding for programs to address that.
But, he said, “there is by no means anything requiring us to have a supplemental budget.”
Senate Republicans publicly released a new supplemental budget proposal Friday that makes a number of changes from the version previously passed off the Senate floor during the regular session, according to The Capitol Times.
The budget would increase spending in the current biennial budget by $178 million, up from $34 million, and no longer counts savings from a plan to merge the public pension for certain law enforcement officers and firefighters with a pension for retired teachers.
And, the budget taps into the Budget Stabilization Account — commonly referred to as the state’s “rainy day fund” — to pay $190 million in costs associated with last summer’s wildfires in Eastern Washington.
Over in the House, representatives had made progress last week on submitting a supplemental budget.
“I am capitol budget chair . . . and we are pretty much ready,” Tharinger said.
“We’ve got a couple of items that the Senate is going to look at, and I will be back” in Olympia [today] hopefully to meet with them and finalize the language for us on the capital budget side, Tharinger said.
“My hope is that they will have some agreement” early this week “and we can get the paperwork through the process and hopefully get things done by the end of next week.”
Differences remain
Key differences need to be hammered out between the House and Senate versions before a joint bill can be agreed upon.
House Democrats in February passed a separate plan off the floor that also uses the rainy day fund for wildfires, but spends significantly more overall and includes pay raises for teachers in an effort to improve the state’s teacher shortage, according to The Capitol Times.
Tharinger said the House and Senate already have had success working together on a supplemental transportation budget that gives State Patrol troopers a pay raise and addresses traffic congestion in the Interstate 405 corridor.
House Bill 2524 passed out of the House on Wednesday on a vote of 86-10. It was approved Tuesday by the Senate, 44-5, according to The Capitol Times.
The supplemental budget makes about $507 million in changes to the state’s two-year transportation budget, including additional money for ferries, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and better safety at the “jungle” homeless encampments in Seattle.
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Reporter Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or cmcdaniel@peninsuladailynews.com.
