Spokane7
50°
December 6, 2010 in City, Region
Gregoire says special session inevitable
OLYMPIA — Gov. Chris Gregoire said today that a special session to deal with the state’s budget shortfall is inevitable, and she gave lawmakers a Thursday deadline to present her with a date to hold it.
Gregoire said that if lawmakers don’t have a plan for her by Thursday afternoon, she’ll pick a date for them, but said that it will happen before the Christmas holiday.
“I need them to take action now,” she told reporters after the meeting.
Gregoire announced the deadline after meeting with Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and Senate.
“We’re prepared to go to work whenever we have to,” Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, said after the meeting.
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said Senate Democrats will push for a Friday start, with work to continue through the weekend. She noted that lawmakers are already in town for prescheduled committee meetings that will last all week.
“It makes more sense than going home and coming back at some point,” she said.
House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, hasn’t yet offered up a suggested start date, but issued a statement saying that leaders are “making good progress toward an agreement that will significantly address the shortfall in the current operating budget.”
Gregoire has been in talks with legislative leaders for weeks on ideas to patch the current state budget, which covers general spending through June 2011.
Gregoire made across-the-board cuts to many programs earlier this year, but the deficit recently grew to more than $1 billion because of slow growth in tax collections.
Gregoire said that she’s not asking lawmakers to come up with a supplemental budget in a special session, but to instead agree on taking early action on things that can be done now “so we can advance the ball dramatically so when they come back in January, they can finish the job.”
Brown told reporters today that her caucus will likely be looking at $400 million to $500 million of reductions in the current budget that they can get immediate agreement from their House counterparts and Republicans, some of which may be part of the cuts ordered by Gregoire.
She said she wasn’t sure they would be able to get to the $650 million mark that the governor had hoped they could reach.
“I don’t think that our goal is a number, I think our goal is early action that can be done in a five-corner way so all caucuses participating can set the tone for a more bipartisan process as we go forward into the much tougher two-year problem,” Brown said.
Gregoire has already put forth some budget-balancing options, including elimination of the Basic Health Plan and raiding federal education dollars.
Brown said that budget negotiators would be meeting Tuesday to discuss potential areas of agreement.
© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
2 home invasion robberies in Spokane 
hawken on December 06 at 3:13 p.m.
Ah…. reality has visited the WA state house! This could be a good sign.
liarsinnews on December 06 at 3:40 p.m.
It may be a bad sign. Sounds to me like your pocket book is in danger.
Blondscence on December 06 at 3:47 p.m.
It’s ALL your money.!! Mine too! SHe mismanaged it with the unions and now the people suffer. It’s not Bush, it’s not you and me..it’s HER! Liberal Democrats are finally seeing the end of the tunnel. She spent and STILL spends like she’s drunk. All she must do is decert the unions and she she automatically gains 30% in union fees.
I’m going to lose my job because her! Worse though…she will damage the people who can least afford it. This woman is a terrible administrator. I hope people like her style because they just voted for her clone in Patty Murray. Mayor Verner’s done the same thing. I will NEVER vote for these people again. It’s just gone too far.
bdr on December 06 at 3:56 p.m.
Man this has got to be the worst economic collapse Ive seen in my entire life.
I waiting now for round 2 of disaster after the Republicans blow the entire deficit lid completely off.
(The deficit has been Republican bread and butter for over 20 years).
misjustice on December 06 at 4:06 p.m.
Gregoire says special session inevitable; get ready to pony up $18,000.00 + per day of a “special” session.
west on December 06 at 4:32 p.m.
Spend, spend ,spend… all the revenue is going to state employee pensions and salaries..nothing left for social programs. This is happening all over US., Ca, NJ.,Ct. State employees have to give…the economy just cannot support their unions demands. How about a 401k plan for you state employees? Just like we in private sector have,you are the investor…you make the decisions.How about paying 50% of your premiums..like we do. How about getting no 401k match because companies are struggling?Why are you, who serve us the peons, entitled to more than us? Arrogant liberal, Demo leaders..they are all a clone of Patty Murray…hope the budget gets worse..then the state will cut the fat.
misjustice on December 06 at 4:58 p.m.
“…hope the budget gets worse..”
Be careful what you wish for; you just may get it.
hawken on December 06 at 5:03 p.m.
How frugal of misjudgment…. she’s wringing her hands over $18k a day…. when her liberal left, big government, commune has put us in the red to the tune of $8 billion in this state.
Was it Benjamin Franklin who coined the phrase…. “penny wise, pound foolish?” I think it was.
JBlim on December 06 at 5:17 p.m.
hawken, once again your logic is flawed. Even states with Republican governors are having similar problems. How do you explain that? Are they really liberal governors in disguise? I’m beginning to doubt that you really have a PhD like you claim.
Bob_Knows on December 06 at 5:21 p.m.
This stinks of lame duck politics. The new Legislature takes office next month, but Governess Haywire is trying to push some lame duck manure on to the people.
hawken on December 06 at 5:35 p.m.
Jblim… the topic here is Washington State…..
JBlim on December 06 at 6:15 p.m.
yes, hawken, but the cause of the problem is due to the national economy, not the state’s social spending.
lowtechmaster on December 06 at 6:24 p.m.
From my perspective, the Governor has a very real problem with which she is trying to deal. She has called the state employee unions back to the bargaining table. She has ordered “across the board” budget cuts. She has asked the legislature to recommend further cuts. The “brave” legislature, however, eager to get re-elected, seems determined to make the Governor take all of the cuts, and then “wash their hands” of the budget cuts. “I didn’t vote for that”; “I didn’t suggest that”; etc. They are a bunch of gutless, self-serving, elected officials who care more for themselves and their legislative pay and perks than for their constituents.
hawken on December 06 at 6:44 p.m.
Jblim… then tell me why Texas is doing so well in the face of our economic melt down.
“Texas’ economy gained 174,900 jobs from October 2009 to October 2010, an annual growth rate of 1.7 percent. Over the same period, the U.S. economy gained 626,000 jobs, an annual growth rate of 0.5 percent. Texas’ private sector continues to play a key role in creating more jobs in Texas. The state’s private sector posted an annual employment growth rate of 2.1 percent compared with 0.9 percent for the U.S. private sector from October 2009 to October 2010.”
Texas is a conservative state, ideologically. Texas is not the social welfare state that WA state has proven to be in the past.
That will hopefully change beginning in January.
Scoutster on December 06 at 8:06 p.m.
The governor is acting as the states chief executive.
She’s not my favorite, but she’s who we have, and, contrary to popular belief, she doesn’t have a lot of tools.
lewis8457 on December 06 at 8:10 p.m.
and yet she got re-elected, those that voted her back in are to blame. We all will be paying a lot more. sure we might have got the tax taken off candy but now they will tax something else….like air.
i think it needs to crash. the house of cards needs to come down before we have hope of rebuilding t to what it was meant to be. and then we might be smart enough not to leave in the hands of any one person or organization.
Its we the people for a reason folks.
i think we can see in our own town authority knows nothing other then spend waste and control.
Scoutster on December 06 at 8:13 p.m.
lewis…
It’s crashing.
cryssT on December 06 at 8:59 p.m.
not sure where the logic for this came from:
“All she must do is decert the unions and she she automatically gains 30% in union fees.”
The State pays no money to the various Unions (and that includes Washington Education Assn). For WFSE general bargaining unit - the dues are 1.5% of pay with a maximum of $76.50 a month.
The Legislature is meeting in January, there’s no need to call a special session as nothing sensible will be done between now and January.
People forget that back in the early 1980’s then Gov. Spellman changed the employees pay date from the last working day of the month until the 10th of the following month. State workers had to go 13 extra days before they got their pay which made many employees eligible for food stamps or AFDC.
It’s getting to the point where Office Assistants working for the State would qualify for various State programs if there are any programs left.
This recession there will be no WPA or CCC, but there are soup lings.
JBlim on December 07 at 5:49 a.m.
hawken, Texas has a $4.6 budget shortfall, it must be all the deficit spending by those reckless Republicans.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=711
drywitt99 on December 07 at 5:55 a.m.
hawken: Must be all of those illegal immigrants in Texas. You know…..those people who move up here to collect welfare
and…no,,,,Wait a minute??? They come up here and work and pay taxes…..doing jobs those teabagger patriots refuse to do!
Bless them!!