OLYMPIA — After two weeks of special session, the North Olympic Peninsula’s state representatives are no longer trying to guess when a $2.8 billion budget shortfall will be patched.
“I think you need to ask a higher power,” said Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam.
“I thought we’d be done [March 21],” said House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam. “So much for my guesses.”
Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, said he was surprised by how long the special session is taking but was a bit more optimistic about when it will end, although he could not pick a date.
“I hope to be done by the end of the month,” he said.
The House and Senate, both controlled by Democrats, agree that about $800 million in new taxes needs to be raised over the next 16 months to maintain the social safety net, but they disagree on what businesses or services should be hit.
The Senate, including Hargrove, wants a temporary two-tenths of a cent sales tax increase so that everyone “shares the burden.”
But the House is arguing for a tax plan that focuses on eliminating certain tax exemptions and extending the sales tax to certain “discretionary items” like candy, bottled water and elective plastic surgeries.
Van De Wege has maintained he is against a general sales tax increase.
Kessler, who as House Democratic leader and member of the House budget writing committee, is one of the legislators tasked with reaching a compromise, said she’ll go for either one.
She had previously said she was willing to support a temporary sales tax increase.
“If we stay too long, it [expenses] starts adding up,” Kessler said.
She said the elections in November for all members of the House have contributed to opposition to the Senate’s proposal.
Leaders in the House and Senate will meet this week, Kessler said, to settle the dispute over what to tax.
All but the representatives needed to work on the budget went home last week.
Kessler ill
Kessler — who has pneumonia and was recently diagnosed with a heart condition — went home Wednesday night.
She said she was diagnosed with both March 18 and has yet to fully recover from pneumonia.
Kessler said her heart has been “popping all over the place” because of high blood pressure. She is wearing a heart pacer.
She assumes both health issues have something to do with the extra stressful legislative session because of the budget deficit.
“I’m working seven days a week, 15 hours a day,” said Kessler. “I’m 69; I’m not a spring chicken anymore.
“I think I just got run down,” she added.
Kessler, who was in daily telephone contact with other legislative leaders from her home in Hoquiam, expected to return to Olympia today.
As of last Wednesday, the cost of the special session had topped $150,000, according to The Seattle Times.
That is because of the $90 allotment given to representatives for each day they are in Olympia working. It covers housing, meals and other living expenses.
Kessler and Van De Wege have declined it for the special session. Hargrove said he is still receiving the payment.
Last session, when the biennial budget was approved, the Legislature eliminated a $9 billion shortfall through cuts, federal aid and use of reserves.
Bills signed
Last week, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed a bill introduced by Van De Wege that places the Environmental Hearings Office and Growth Management Hearing boards under the Land Use Hearings Office and reduces the number of GMA boards from five to three.
On Wednesday, Gregoire signed a bill that directs the state Department of Natural Resources to create conservation proposals that support forest landowners.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
