Yesterday, Thursday, March 22, Governor Gregoire put forth a new option to balance the budget and end the special legislative session. Earlier this month House Democrats proposed a budget that would delay a payment to schools by one day, pushing it into the next budget period. Senate Republicans disagreed and wrote a budget that would skip a payment into the state’s pension system. Both parties have heavily criticized one another calling their colleagues’ moves budget “trickery” and “gimmicks.”

According to the Olympian, this new “third option” would keep sales-tax revenue collected on behalf of local governments in the state’s general fund longer. This could free up $238 million for spending elsewhere. “It’s a permanent process change, not a one-time change,” said Wolfgang Opitz, the assistant state treasurer. He goes on to state that local governments would still get their money at the same time, and thus far, local governments have said they are ok with the idea.

Currently the day after sales tax collections are deposited into the general fund local governments’ share of that revenue is transferred to a special account. However, it is not distributed until the end of each month. This proposal would keep the money in the general fund until the end of the month, transferring it into the other account just before it needs to be sent out to local governments. That would provide about $238 million more cash on the state’s balance sheet at the end of the month. At this point Democrats and Republicans have not publicly embraced the idea, but according to Senate Democratic Ways & Means Chair, Ed Murray, “no one is rejecting it either.”