The Legislature most likely will hold a special session sometime after this week, “It’s just a question of when and how long,” House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, said Monday.
Gov. Chris Gregoire said she expects to call lawmakers back to the state capital for a one- or two-day special session, but only after they reach agreement on a short list of issues that are left over from the 105-day session that ended in the wee hours Monday.
Both Chopp and the Democratic governor told reporters in separate news conferences the Legislature accomplished much and left little important work undone.
They said the special session could be next week, next month or later in the year, preferably when lawmakers already are at the state capital for committee hearings. That could be early September.
“Whatever we do when we come back, it will be done quickly,” Gregoire said.
One matter that did not pass Sunday, the final day of session, was a bill that allows the state to cut about $60 million that now goes to help property-poor school districts, but lets nearly all 296 school districts raise millions more dollars from local property tax levies.
And neither of those measures is so urgent it must be dealt with immediately, said Victor Moore, the governor’s budget director.
Gregoire applauded the Legislature, in which both chambers are controlled by her fellow Democrats, for how much they accomplished in closing a $9 billion budget shortfall and launching an unprecedented number of building and highway construction projects that will create tens of thousands of jobs.
She took particular note of moving ahead with the $4.24 billion Alaskan Way Viaduct bored-tunnel project and the $4.65 billion replacement for the Highway 520 bridge across Lake Washington.
“What was done was monumental,” she said.
Senate Republican Minority Leader Mike Hewitt of Walla Walla had a different point of view.
“I am dumbfounded at the mismanagement that brought us to this point,” Hewitt said.
“Republicans called on the Legislature last December to act on our looming budget deficit. Had we done so, we could have avoided many of the cuts made in the budget passed over the weekend.
“While the governor said she would be calling legislators back only to wrap a few ‘last minute details,’ there is no guarantee that we’ll stick to a certain list of bills once we return,” Hewitt said in a statement. “As the governor herself admitted this morning, a special session will open a Pandora’s box that could result in the passage of even more tax hikes, like her cap-and-tax measure.”
That was a reference to the climate change measure that Gregoire wanted and the House passed, but which did not come up for a vote in the Senate.
Meeting with reporters Sunday evening, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, echoed similar sentiments for a short and focused special session.
Gregoire took note of what she called a “glitch” that resulted in the death of a renewable energy bill that she wanted, a reference to the Tacoma-Vancouver coalition of legislators who opposed the bill because they said it put too much of a burden on their respective public utilities to pay for expensive purchases of more renewable energy from wind, solar and biomass sources.
“It was not the main reason for the time crunch at the end,” although it was a distraction, Chopp said. “We got a lot done and we got done in time.”
He said although the final state budget for 2009-11 makes many cuts to education and health programs, it did preserve most public school funding and the most crucial aspects of the social safety net.
Chopp credited the Democrats with adding $45 a week to unemployment benefits, protecting the General Assistance program for those who are unable to work and job-creating construction projects for those who can work.
“That’s what this is about – helping large numbers of people,” Chopp said.
Joseph Turner: 253-597-8436
blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics
