Governor Gregoire is slated to sign the last of the bills from the 2012 Supplemental Legislation Session in the next couple of weeks.

Next week, April 23rd, Gregoire will sign the two supplemental capital budget bills (SB 5127 & SB 6074) at Tacoma Community College.

The following week on May 2nd, Gregoire will sign the operating budget (HB 2127), the K-12 health benefits bill (SB 5940), the balanced state budget bill (SB 6636), pension reform (SB 6378 ) and various other bills passed during the special session.

Governor Gregoire does have the power to veto all or portions of any of the bills before her. After these bills are signed, the 2012 supplemental session will officially come to a close. This ceremony will mark the last signing ceremony for Governor Gregoire who will is not seeking reelection this November.

It is day 30 of the special legislative session, which means lawmakers have until midnight tonight to come to agreement on a budget deal to get of town by the deadline. Speculation has begun on whether this is possible with such a short time-frame.

Yesterday the House Ways & Means Committee and Senate floor action were scheduled to take up reform bills and the budget needed to get done by tonight, however, they never happened because budget leaders met in closed-door meetings throughout the day with Governor Gregoire attempting to hash out a deal. By late last night it was clear they still had a ways to go.

This morning the Tacoma News Tribune (TNT) is reporting that a third special session looks likely due to the limited amount of time left. Even if they reach an agreement today, the amount of paperwork involved in formalizing a deal is too great.

“Negotiators left for the night shortly before midnight and Governor Gregoire told reporters they had made progress. They had also slid backward from a point earlier in the evening when a deal looked closer at hand, she acknowledged. ‘That’s typical in negotiations.'”

The TNT is reporting that Gregoire is refusing to talk about calling another special session. “That’s the problem with special sessions and a reason lawmakers are still here on Day 30,” she said. “As soon as they learn they have a fresh 30 days on the clock, there isn’t the pressure to make things happen. Nobody will convince me to talk about a special session until we absolutely have to.”

Senate Ways & Means has scheduled a meeting for this afternoon at 1:30 and House Ways & Means which was supposed to take up reform bills yesterday was relieved of those bills this morning and they placed on the 2nd Reading Calendar in Rules Committee. The 2nd Reading Calendar enables lawmakers to pull bills from the Rules Committee to the floor for a vote.

These actions show there is movement, however, as the TNT reported, there may not be enough time due to the amount of paperwork that is required to be processed before a budget deal is finalized.

Stay tuned…

It is day 29 of the 30 day special legislative session and lawmakers are back in Olympia after a one day break for the Easter holiday.

Late last week on Friday lawmakers inched closer to a deal after tense debate in the Senate Ways and Means committee and on the Senate floor. Ways & Means moved two “reform” bills (SB 5940 and SB 6636) thought to be the key issues determining whether the legislature will end on time.  A third reform bill (SB 6378) was moved from the Rules committee to the Senate floor for possible action.

The three big reform bills are:

1. SB 5940: Legislation aimed at equalizing health insurance premiums for teachers and school district employees
2. SB 6636: An amendment to the state constitution requiring a balanced budget
3. SB 6378: Ending special early retirement incentives for state employees.

After moving out of Ways & Means the bills went to the Senate floor. There they both passed and were sent to the House Ways & Means Committee. SB 6378 did not have the votes to get off of the Senate floor Saturday but is scheduled for a vote today, Monday.

The House Ways & Means committee is scheduled to meet at 3pm today to consider their versions of the first two bills above. They are:

1. HB 2827– Improving state budgeting and planning by requiring a balanced state operating budget for the current biennium and developing a process for balancing the budget over a two-biennium period.
2. HB 2829 – Addressing public school employees’ insurance benefits.

In terms of the state budget, it looks like the Democrats and Republicans are inching closer to an agreement. According to The Washington State Wire, “Senate Republican budget-writer Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, and House Ways and Means Chairman Ed Murray, said legislative players are only $22 million apart – really nothing in a $31 billion budget.

However, on Saturday the Olympian questioned whether there are the votes to pass a budget. “There still are questions about whether Senate Republicans, who are demanding passage of reform bills before they vote on the budget, have votes for their ideas in the House. “I’m a farmer and I’m a Republican; I’ve got to be an optimist,” said Sen. Mark Schoesler, the GOP’s floor leader, as he headed out the door for Ritzville for the Easter holiday. “We certainly have structurally gotten ourselves pretty close – as far as mechanically moving stuff through” the process, Senate Ways and Means chairman Ed Murray, D-Seattle, said of the prospect of finishing by Tuesday night. “We have some agreements that have to be struck. Hopefully we can get there.”

Lawmakers have until midnight tomorrow, Tuesday, April 10 to pass a budget. If they cannot come to agreement Governor Gregoire has two options. She can call them back into another special session, or implement across the board cuts.

In what is now week 4 of the special legislative session, House Democrats released a new operating and capital budget Wednesday morning, April 4. House Majority Leader Representative Pat Sullivan stressed that the operating budget proposal does not represent an agreement between the House and Senate, but it does include elements and changes that were requested specifically by Senate Republicans.

“If we are to have any chance at all of getting a budget finished on time, we have to get something moving,” he said. “We will continue to meet, continue to talk, and continue to negotiate, but we also have to get a budget in motion.”

What the budget means to Evergreen

Like several of the previous budgets released this year, this new budget does not cut higher education or financial aid.

This afternoon the House Ways & Means committee will meet to hold a public hearing on several bills considered “necessary to implement the budget” (NTIB). The budget bill was pulled to the House floor yesterday and now it is a waiting game on whether they will bring it up for a vote. If the budget does pass in the House it will move to the Senate for the same process.

Special session is due to end Tuesday, April 10. With Easter this Sunday, there are very few days to get a budget proposed and passed, but it is still possible.

We are now in week 4 of the 2012 1st special legislative session and finally it looks like there is movement on the hill. Tomorrow, Wednesday, April 4, House members are scheduled to return to the capitol for public hearings in the Ways & Means, Capital Budget and the General Government Appropriations & Oversight committees.

Up for public hearing are several reform bills members are insisting pass before they will vote for a budget. Among them are:

1. HB 2824– Addressing comprehensive funding for education by developing a plan for full funding and by freeing certain existing revenues for support of the basic education program.
2. HB 2825– Addressing the benefits and contributions for new members of the public employees’ retirement system, the teachers’ retirement system, and the school employees’ retirement system.
3. HB 2827– Improving state budgeting and planning by requiring a balanced state operating budget for the current biennium and developing a process for balancing the budget over a two-biennium period.
4. HB 2829– Addressing public school employees’ insurance benefits.

The passage of these reforms is the first step in the right direction, but a budget also needs to surface that has the votes to seal the deal. The House meeting is good first step, but negotiations are  rumored to still be shaky. At this point the Senate is not scheduled to meet and a quote from Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown responding to Gubernatorial Candidate Rob McKenna’s latest opinion on budget negotiations paints a more tenuous situation.  Brown said, “… The truth is this: the last offer on the table was one we made on Friday at 8pm.  There’s been no counter offer.  That’s the real hold up and we’re sorely disappointed.” 

With only 7 days left until the end of the 30 day special legislative session, and the Easter holiday this weekend, lawmakers will need to move quickly in order to finish on time.

On Friday, March 30, Governor Gregoire signed two pieces of legislation the public baccalaureate institutions worked on together throughout the legislative session. Check out the news release here or read it below:

The Evergreen State College supports the passage of two “efficiency” bills – House Bill 2259 and House Bill 2585. These bills provide for regulatory relief in Evergreen’s campus operations, and are welcome developments in support of our college’s efforts to operate more efficiently.

House Bill 2259 specifically eliminates a duplicative crime statistics report our institution has been required to report at both the state and federal levels. This one change will ease increased workload on staff, allowing them to focus on the day-to-day duties required to ensure Evergreen is running as efficiently as possible.

House Bill 2585 provides for increased flexibility and reduction in procedural steps in purchasing and competitive bidding for purchases of $100,000 or less, advanced payments for equipment maintenance, travel arrangements, and more direct negotiation authority on purchasing. 

“Our support for these bills is entirely consistent with our continuing efforts at increasing efficiency and providing value in higher education for Washington,” says Evergreen President, Dr. Thomas L. Purce. “We applaud the efforts of the legislature to provide our institution with greater flexibility in difficult economic times and look forward to moving forward.”