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.