OLYMPIA – As the Legislature crawled through its fourth day of a special session without a solution to its budget problems, Gov. Chris Gregoire was among those expressing frustration with the progress, or apparent lack of it.

The session could be done by Sunday, which would be the absolute last day Gregoire said she wanted them to spend in this legislative overtime.

“I thought I was giving them a couple days extra time, just in case,” she said at a press conference called to tout the state’s growth in environmentally friendly or green jobs. “To talk about going another week, to me, is inexcusable.”

To read the rest of this story, or to see the list of legislators not taking a per diem during the special session,  go inside the blog.

OLYMPIA — A growing number of legislators say they will refuse the $90 per day they can receive for food and lodging during all or part of the special session.

Twenty-one senators, out of the total of 49, have notified the secretary of the Senate they won’t be accepting their per diem. In the House of Representatives, 26 members have said they’ll turn it down for the full session and 23 are refusing it for one or more days.

That lowers the daily cost of the special session from $18,300 to at least $14,000. Mondays are going to be the cheapest day, about $12,700, because so many reps are refusing the per diem that day.

To be fair to legislators, their per diem is less than what state workers travelling to Olympia would receive to stay there. The state employees’ per diem is base on a federal formula that rates different areas based on cost of living, and amounts to $150 per day.

(That’s about the same a state worker from Olympia would get for a trip to Spokane. But the rest of the East Side is a better deal, with a maximum per day of $116.)

Full list for the two chambers is inside the blog. Click here to see it. 

OLYMPIA — Senate Republicans and Democrats traded jabs over one of the costs of the upcoming special session, the $90 per diem legislators get to help cover the cost of food and lodging when away from home.

Republicans crafted a Senate bill Wednesday that would remove the per diem for all legislators during the special session. Their leaders castigated Democrats for being so disorganized that the Legislature needs extra innings to get the budget worked out.

“A special session this year is a costly and embarrassing prospect, and if the majority has any regard for taxpayers it should do everything in its power to bring the cost down,” Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgeview said.

 Democrats countered that this is a bit of unconstitutional grandstanding. New bills can’t be introduced in the last 10 days of the session without a two-thirds approval of both houses. Zarelli said Democrats have been ignoring other rules throughout the session.

Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said, legislators don’t need a new law to refuse their per diem. They can do that voluntarily, like Sen. Karen Fraser, who lives in Olympia and regularly refuses hers.

“Those who feel the per diem is unnecessary simply need not collect it,” Brown said.

Sen. Chris Marr, D-Spokane, said he’d already decided to refuse his, but it would be a hardship for some legislators from Eastern Washington so it should remain voluntary.