OLYMPIA -- The House Appropriations Committee is expected to release its general operating budget sometime Wednesday, giving everyone a chance to see how far apart that chamber is with the Senate, which passed its "no-new taxes" budget on Friday.

There may actually be two full budgets released, one from Democrats who are in the minority, and another from Republicans, who would be finishing up their "fund education first" proposal which spelled out last month what they wanted to spend on public schools, but didn't spell out where they'd cut the rest of the budget to pay for extra education programs.

On Monday and Tuesday, the budget committees will be working to get bills from the other chamber out of their committees to beat the April 9 cutoff deadline. House and Senate Transportation committees have marathon hearings Monday on the transportation plans.

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