By Rachel La Corte and Walker Orenstein
The Associated Press
OLYMPIA — Senate Republicans released their latest supplemental budget proposal as lawmakers started their first full day of an overtime legislative session.
The budget plan was released hours before a Senate fiscal committee met to hold a public hearing on the proposal Friday.
While it’s not an agreed-upon deal with the majority House Democrats, it moves closer to a proposal passed last month by the House.
Criticize timing
Although House Democrats acknowledged there was movement toward their position, they said they were disappointed with the timing and manner of its release.
“If this offer had been made back on Tuesday, we could have made substantial progress, maybe even finished our work before the end of session,” Democratic House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan said.
Republican Sen. John Braun, who has been part of negotiations for the Senate, said Senate Republicans were “simply trying to do our job and do it in a responsible way and in a public way.
“I do think it’s appropriate that we share where we’re at,” he said.
“We’ve worked hard to recognize concerns with our budget, address those concerns and recognize we’re in a divided state government and we have to work toward compromise. I think this budget shows that.”
The new proposal adds about $178 million to the spending level of the two-year, $38 billion two-year operating budget adopted last year.
That’s an increase from the $34 million that was added under the proposal passed last month by the Senate.
It also uses $190 million from the state’s emergency fund to pay for wildfire costs.
Originally, Republicans said they didn’t want to dip into the emergency fund to pay for wildfire costs, instead seeking other measures opposed by many Democrats, such as merging the pension plans of some firefighters, teachers and law enforcement.
Pension plans
This latest proposal no longer includes the merger of pension plans, which also faced some Republican resistance.
The previous Senate budget proposal also directed $44 million away from the reserve money of regional mental health services, an idea that was removed from the plan released Friday.
The new Senate budget also fixes a number of smaller issues, said Sen. Andy Hill, a Republican from Redmond and the Senate’s chief budget writer.
“I think what you’ve got now is a budget that I think most people could get behind,” he said.
“We think this is a big move, and it should speed things along.”
Democratic Rep. Hans Dunshee, the budget negotiator for the House, said that while there were some good things in the Republican offer, he noted there were also things missing, including addressing the teacher shortage.
But he said Democrats have no desire to negotiate the budget in public.
“We don’t want to turn this into a debate,” he said. “We want to have a reasoned conversation to get us out of here.”
Special session
Lawmakers adjourned their regular 60-day session Thursday night and were immediately called back into special session by Gov. Jay Inslee.
Inslee vetoed 27 bills Thursday night because of the lack of a budget deal.
In his written veto messages, he noted that while the particular measures were “worthy” bills, passage of the budget “is a greater legislative priority.”
The governor vetoed bills included those dealing with marijuana research licenses and industrial hemp.
The bills he signed included those related to public safety and health, such as measures related to vehicular homicide sentences and human trafficking.
In a news conference Thursday night, he said lawmakers have one fundamental task each year, “and that is to keep the state budget balanced.”
