Legislature adjourns sine die; special session ahead to finish state budget

Representative Dave Quall and Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen have just brought the gavels down to close out the 2010 legislative session, which began on January 11th and must end today in accordance with the Washington State Constitution.

The Legislature is not, however, finished with the 2010 supplemental budget, which means they'll have to go into overtime. Consequently, before the House and Senate adjourned, they passed a resolution providing for a special session to finish the budget. By agreeing to the resolution, the Legislature set boundaries for the session, meaning that other matters besides the budget can't be considered:

[A] resolution convening the legislature shall specify a purpose or purposes for the convening of a special session, and any special session convened by the resolution shall consider only measures germane to the purpose or purposes expressed in the resolution...

Legislators are supposed to be back at work at Monday. In the meantime, the Democratic leadership will be working through the weekend to try to reach agreement on the budget. Governor Gregoire, Majority Leader Lisa Brown, and Speaker Chopp are currently talking about what they expect to see in the special session in a news conference on the Capitol Campus.

Governor Gregoire is saying that she doesn't want a special session to last longer than seven days, and she expects agreement on the budget within that time.

POSTSCRIPT: The news conference wrapped up around 9:30 PM. The governor has released a statement commending legislators for their work during the past sixty days and reiterating the specifics for the forthcoming special session:

Gregoire tonight signed a proclamation to convene a special session of the Legislature beginning Monday, March 15th, and has asked Senate and House leadership to focus on reaching a compromise budget and revenue package to close the state’s $2.8 billion gap, as well as legislation to create jobs. Gregoire is urging the House and Senate to complete their work in a seven day session.

"We have to move forward with a jobs package that puts more Washingtonians to work. Jobs are the way out of this recession. We need a package that puts people to work quickly,” Gregoire said. "And we have to find a balanced approach that combines difficult cuts and new revenue to fill our budget gap."

One final tidbit: Gregoire, Chopp, and Brown were asked what they thought of the Republicans' press release calling the special session an "embarrassment".

Chopp responded by simply saying the Republicans are always negative at the end of session. Governor Gregoire, however, took a couple minutes to sling a quiverful of arrows at the GOP, pointing out that many states have had to go into special session to deal with budget shortfalls, including states where Republicans are in power. She asserted that Washington is in a better position than most states.