OLYMPIA -- The House and Senate budget chairmen reached a tentative agreement today on a spending level for state services for the next two years, one of the major stumbling blocks in budget discussions that have already driven the Legislature into its second special session.

That level was not released but described generally by Office of Financial Management Director David Schumacher as "about halfway between" the latest operating budget proposals by Senate Republicans and House Democrats. Those numbers are about $37.9 billion and $38.4 billion, respectively.

That agreement, reached in discussions that ended around noon with Gov. Jay Inslee, Senate Ways and Means Chairman Andy Hill, R-Redmond, and House Appropriations Chairman Ross Hunter, D-Medina, is a key piece of reaching a final budget deal. But Hill and Hunter must now get support from their caucuses, which hold the majority in each chamber. 

"It's the big thing that nobody moved on for a month," Schumacher said. The agreement comes after a week of at least daily closed-door meetings  between Inslee and legislative leaders in the governor's conference room.

Still to be determined are spending levels for individual departments and programs, and what taxes and fees -- if any -- would have to be raised to produce the amount of money needed to support that tentative spending level.

---

---