Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire will call a spe­cial ses­sion of the Leg­is­la­ture begin­ning the Mon­day after Thanks­giv­ing to deal with Wash­ing­ton’s lat­est rev­enue short­fall, her office con­firmed this morn­ing. The ses­sion could go for as long as thir­ty days.

“Con­gres­sion­al grid­lock, the Euro­pean debt cri­sis and high unem­ploy­ment con­tin­ue to take their toll on con­sumer con­fi­dence and our state’s econ­o­my,” Gre­goire said in a state­ment. “Once again, we are fac­ing a bud­get short­fall and once again I’m call­ing the Leg­is­la­ture back into spe­cial ses­sion to address the state’s budget.”

“My only option is across-the-board cuts, and that option is unac­cept­able. Solv­ing this bud­get cri­sis will require the Leg­is­la­ture to act.”

“We are com­mit­ted to mak­ing the most of the com­ing weeks to help find solu­tions,” Sen­ate Major­i­ty Lisa Leader Lisa Brown and Sen­a­tor Ed Mur­ray said in a joint state­ment. “Before we reach a spe­cial ses­sion, we will work with the gov­er­nor as she devel­ops an ini­tial pro­pos­al to bridge the bud­get gap.”

“And we will con­tin­ue to review alter­na­tives and engage with our Repub­li­can col­leagues as we seek respon­si­ble actions to bal­ance our budget.”

“Over three years, we have reduced pub­lic ser­vice lev­els across the board, from sup­port for kinder­garten edu­ca­tion to super­vi­sion of offend­ers in our com­mu­ni­ties,” they con­tin­ued. “As we approach spe­cial ses­sion, we must rec­og­nize that more cuts – how­ev­er nec­es­sary math­e­mat­i­cal­ly – will impact Wash­ing­to­ni­ans, their fam­i­lies and their communities.”

“As leg­is­la­tors, we have many tools for bal­anc­ing our bud­get – includ­ing giv­ing the vot­ers the option of approv­ing new rev­enue to pay for the ser­vices they want. We strong­ly encour­age our col­leagues in both par­ties, in the House and Sen­ate, to avoid draw­ing lines in the sand and instead to arrive in Olympia in Novem­ber pre­pared to offer solu­tions and to be ready to dis­cuss all the possibilities.”

The same point was made by Jay Inslee, who hopes to suc­ceed Chris Gre­goire as gov­er­nor begin­ning in Jan­u­ary 2013.

“Our state bud­get has been bat­tered by this reces­sion, $10 bil­lion has already been cut – more than $1.5 bil­lion out of edu­ca­tion just last ses­sion,” Inslee said.

“Our chil­dren can’t afford it. Our par­ents can’t afford it. Our state’s future can’t afford it. We know edu­ca­tion is the key to job growth in this state.”

He added, “I hope the leg­is­la­ture seri­ous­ly address­es the ques­tions about how we put our­selves on a long-term path to eco­nom­ic recov­ery and how to pre­serve pri­or­i­ties like edu­ca­tion that cre­ate eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty, and make respon­si­ble invest­ments in our fam­i­lies and future. There are still options for the Leg­is­la­ture to pur­sue includ­ing find­ing sav­ings by clos­ing inef­fec­tive cor­po­rate tax loop­holes, such as the exemp­tion for out-of-state banks.”

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, Ini­tia­tive 1053 uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly pre­vents our leg­is­la­tors from using a bal­anced approach to respond to this cri­sis. It only takes fifty one rep­re­sen­ta­tives and twen­ty five sen­a­tors to agree to evis­cer­ate ser­vices, but it takes six­ty five rep­re­sen­ta­tives and thir­ty two sen­a­tors to agree to save pub­lic ser­vices by rais­ing rev­enue. That’s wrong, and that needs to be changed.

There is a law­suit pend­ing in King Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court that seeks to inval­i­date Ini­tia­tive 1053, but that suit is unlike­ly to be decid­ed before the spe­cial ses­sion. Even if the court struck I‑1053 down, the deci­sion would undoubt­ed­ly be appealed to the state Supreme Court, which won’t be in a hur­ry to resolve the mat­ter. The last three times the Supreme Court has had the chance to declare I‑1053’s pre­de­ces­sors uncon­sti­tu­tion­al, it passed. It did­n’t issue an opin­ion on the mer­its of the case. The jus­tices sim­ply did a duck dive instead.

I‑1053 is chok­ing our com­mon wealth and our pub­lic ser­vices. We need to destroy I‑1053 before I‑1053 destroys us. That much is clear from this lat­est rev­enue forecast.

FUTHER INFORMATION: See Per­ma­nent Defense’s response to Tim Eyman from last Fri­day (RE: Giv­en the state’s lat­est rev­enue fore­cast.…)