OLYMPIA -- Thursday is Day 60, the last day of the regular session, and legislators have not yet announced a deal on the supplemental operating budget. That means the prospect of the sixth overtime session in the last seven years is a very real possibility.

It also means lawmakers will have to see whether Gov. Jay Inslee will follow through on his promise -- some might say his threat -- on the the fate of pending legislation if they don't pass a budget by midnight.

"Your bills are going to get vetoed if you don't do your job and get a budget by Thursday."

Under Washington law, bills passed before last weekend have a five-day stay on the governor's desk. They don't die at the end of that time if he doesn't sign them; instead, they become law without his signature unless he vetoes them.

Letting them become law without his signature is not much of a hammer. Oh, sure, there are some bills for which lawmakers would love to invite supporters of a particular piece of legislation to the Capitol for the official sign and smile for the camera ceremony in the governor's office. But giving that up is hardly like going to the nuclear option.

For those keeping track at home, here are the 37 bills whose due date is March 10:

Bill#/Title/Sponsor

5145 - Health tech clinical comm.	Bruce Dammeier
5265 - Public funds/recip. deposits	Don Benton
5342 - Human trafficking	Bob Hasegawa
5458 - Health district banking	Jan Angel
5549 - Pharmacy assistants	Pramila Jayapal
5767 - Local govt treasuries	Annette Cleveland
5864 - Annexed areas/sales & use tx	Sharon Nelson
6148 - Storage/personal property	Judy Warnick
6162 - Invasive species council	Jim Honeyford
6170 - Retirement info. disclosure	Pam Roach
6177 - Marijuana research licenses	Ann Rivers
6196 - Energy site eval. council	John McCoy
6202 - National guard empl. rights	Steve Hobbs
6206 - Industrial hemp growing	Bob Hasegawa
6219 - Vehicular homicide sentences	Sharon Brown
6220 - Federal economic dev. funds	Sharon Brown
6281 - Uniform athlete agents act	Joe Fain
6282 - Mortgage lending fraud/acct.	Don Benton
6284 - Fire sprinkler systems	Dean Takko
6286 - Offender assault victims	Kirk Pearson
6290 - Apple commission	Jim Honeyford
6295 - Coroner's inquests/venue	Bob Hasegawa
6326 - Automobile facility records	Curtis King
6341 - Cannabis producer services	Ann Rivers
6342 - Private activity bond alloc.	Mark Miloscia
6354 - Reverse transfer agreements	Marko Liias
6376 - Human trafficking awareness	Karen Fraser
6398 - Cultural foods	Bob Hasegawa
6401 - Secondary fish receivers	Christine Rolfes
6421 - Epinephrine autoinjectors	Kevin Ranker
6463 - Crime of luring	Kirk Pearson
6466 - Higher ed. disabled students	Cyrus Habib
6491 - Apostille services	Jamie Pedersen
6498 - Recovery sponsor privilege	Joe Fain
6569 - Patient out-of-pocket costs	Annette Cleveland
6606 - Wholesale vehicle dealers	Curtis King
6633 - Marine resources adv council	Kevin Ranker

 

Stay tuned. We could be here late.

---

---