The Washington House is the on the floor today to consider several bills necessary to implement the budget. The Senate opened the floor today with a Pro Forma session and then adjourned until Monday, April 5 at Noon.

Negotiations and discussions continue on all fronts and are expected to continue through the weekend. The point of contention at the end of the regular session and the beginning of the special session nineteen days ago remains the sticking point today – revenue.

The primary focus of disagreement has and continues to be the implementation of a temporary general sales tax increase. The Senate has supported this increase and included it as part of their package to reach the agreed upon $800 million revenue target. The House, however, does not have the support for an increase in the sales tax.

Last night Senator Brown, Senate Majority Leader, shared in a telephone interview that she has communicated with Governor Gregoire and House leadership that she would try to develop a new proposal without a sales tax that still meets the $800 million revenue goal.

As noted by many on the Hill the process of dropping the sales tax and adding back revenue adjustments that would reach the $200 million covered by the currently proposed sales tax is not a simple act of subtraction and addition.

For one thing, the Senate is holding firm to raising $800 million in new revenue. It also appears that the Senate is having difficulty finding the 25 votes needed to support other substitute taxes (i.e. in place of the sales tax), such as a tax on first-mortgage interest earnings of banks; adding a sales tax to custom software transactions; and ending a sales-tax exemption for out-of-state residents whose purchases help border-county businesses.  

At the same time, the House is finding challenges in securing the 50 votes necessary to pass a sales tax increase and is holding firm on its opposition to repeal a $10 million tax break for coal purchases by the TransAlta power plant in Centralia and other Senate proposals.

Which raises the point that until a deal is final and passed out of the Legislature, it still comes down to votes.

The Governor and House and Senate leadership continue to meet to try to find a go-home package that will bring the special session to an end. Fingers are crossed that an agreement will be reached early next week, giving time for printing, this would open the way for legislators to return on Friday (April 9) and work through the special session deadline (April 30) to pass a 2010 supplemental operating and capital budget and revenue package.