Nine days into the first special session of 2010, policymakers have reached an agreement that $800 million is the revenue target.

However, lawmakers remain gridlocked over how to raise this revenue, the primary dividing point being the implementation of a sales tax. The Senate still supports a temporary general sales-taxe increase and the House does not.

It has been reported that policymakers from both chambers agree on more than they disagree, such as closing tax loopholes and raising the cigarette tax. In addition, there is agreement on the expenditure side to make hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts and use one-time fixes, such as federal aid and reserves, to bridge the gap until the 2011-13 biennium.

As for now, the bills needed to implement a 2010 supplemental operating budget, 2010 supplemental capital budget, and increase revenue remain where they were this weekend. In addition, the bills that Evergreen is tracking this special session also have not moved further in the process.

As the Legislature convened on Monday, hopes were that an agreement would be reached by Wednesday, March 24. Now as Wednesday approaches, it looks like perhaps adjournment will have to wait either until the weekend (optimistic) or next week (reality).