NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Sunday, April 28th, 2013

Special session to begin on May 13th; Inslee says budget negotiations will continue

A spe­cial ses­sion of the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture will begin two weeks from tomor­row in order to give law­mak­ers more time to ham­mer out a bud­get for the 2013–2015 bien­ni­um, con­sid­er a trans­porta­tion pack­age, and address pol­i­cy pri­or­i­ties that Sen­ate Repub­li­cans refused to vote on, Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee announced at a press con­fer­ence in the Leg­isla­tive Build­ing this evening.

Inslee made his announce­ment less than an hour after the 2013 reg­u­lar ses­sion of the Leg­is­la­ture adjourned sine die with­out a bud­get or approval by the Sen­ate of sev­er­al key bills the Gov­er­nor had asked the Leg­is­la­ture to send to his desk.

Among those bills Inslee would like to see advance in the spe­cial ses­sion are the Repro­duc­tive Par­i­ty Act and the DREAM Act, which did not come up for a vote in the Sen­ate because Rod­ney Tom allowed his cau­cus’ most extreme mem­bers to pre­vail in block­ing the leg­is­la­tion from get­ting to the floor.

Inslee also wants to fin­ish devel­op­ing leg­is­la­tion to strength­en the state’s DUI laws. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Roger Good­man, who rep­re­sents NPI’s home leg­isla­tive dis­trict, has been at the fore­front of that effort, which began late in the session.

Inslee told reporters that nego­ti­a­tions over the bud­get will con­tin­ue dur­ing the two week break in between the end of the reg­u­lar ses­sion and the spe­cial ses­sion he has called. How­ev­er, the two sides remain far apart, and we doubt there will be a com­pro­mise ready for law­mak­ers to vote on when they return on May 13th.

The text of Inslee’s spe­cial ses­sion procla­ma­tion is as follows:

WHEREAS, in accor­dance with Arti­cle II, Sec­tion 12 (Amend­ment 68) of the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion, the Leg­is­la­ture adjourned its 2013 reg­u­lar ses­sion on April 28, 2013, the 105th day of the ses­sion; and

WHEREAS, work remains to be done with respect to the 2013–2015 bien­ni­al oper­at­ing and cap­i­tal bud­gets and bills nec­es­sary to imple­ment those bud­gets; and

WHEREAS, work remains to be done with respect to the 2013–2015 bien­ni­al trans­porta­tion bud­get and bills nec­es­sary to imple­ment that bud­get; and

WHEREAS, work remains to be done with respect to crit­i­cal pol­i­cy bills that need to be act­ed upon by the Leg­is­la­ture; and

WHEREAS, the Speak­er of the House [Frank Chopp], House Minor­i­ty Leader [Dan Kris­tiansen], Sen­ate Major­i­ty Coali­tion Cau­cus Leader [Rod­ney Tom], Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader [Ed Mur­ray], and Sen­ate Repub­li­can Leader [Mark Schoesler] work­ing togeth­er with the Gov­er­nor may agree upon addi­tion­al mat­ters that are nec­es­sary for the Leg­is­la­ture to address;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Jay Inslee, Gov­er­nor of the state of Wash­ing­ton, by virtue of the author­i­ty vest­ed in me by Arti­cle II, Sec­tion 12 (Amend­ment 68) and Arti­cle III, Sec­tion 7 of the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion, do here­by con­vene the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture in Spe­cial Ses­sion in the Capi­tol at Olympia on Mon­day, May 13, 2013, at 9:00 a.m. for the pur­pose of enact­ing leg­is­la­tion as described above.

Signed and sealed with the offi­cial seal of the state of Wash­ing­ton this 28th day of April, A.D. Two-thou­sand and Thir­teen at Olympia, WA.

The Con­sti­tu­tion pro­vides that a spe­cial ses­sion may last up to thir­ty days. The gov­er­nor has the pow­er to call a spe­cial ses­sion, but he can­not end one. If the Leg­is­la­ture can­not reach agree­ment on a bud­get by the end of the first spe­cial ses­sion, a sec­ond spe­cial ses­sion may have to be called in June.

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