Washington’s special session begins next Monday. But at this point, it seems unlikely House and Senate budget negotiators will be close to a deal. Gov. Jay Inslee said both sides agreed Tuesday on some common assumptions about the next two year budget.
Inslee spoke at the end of a bill signing ceremony. For now he’s measuring progress in these budget negotiations by the week, not the day. A budget is made up of hundreds—if not thousands—of assumptions about how much something will or won’t cost, how much a cut will or won’t save. Inslee says getting agreement on those basic numbers will allow for the next phase of negotiations when the parties meet again this Friday.
“Now that we have common assumptions that we hope people start to put legitimate, real offers on the table and we’re going to ask both parties to do that,” said the governor.
One Democratic state senator involved in the negotiations compared them to a steam engine leaving the station. It starts out slow, but then picks up speed. When Washington lawmakers return for the special session they’ll have 30 days on the clock. Inslee says if the budget isn’t ready for debate, he hopes a proposal to crackdown on drunk drivers will be.
