State budget expected Saturday as WA legislative session enters final days

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Lawmakers have reached a deal for a two-year operating budget, though crucial elements of the proposal are still being worked out in these final days of the legislative session.

"We’re pretty much coming to the end of the budget process," said Sen. Derek Stanford, D-Bothell.

What they're saying:

The Senate Ways and Means vice chair said the final budget will be released on Saturday, with votes to follow throughout the weekend. This comes after the House and Senate passed their own versions earlier this month, and went into the conference committee process to settle their differences.

While he would not go into specific details about the negotiated budget, Stanford said there have been substantive changes from the Senate’s initial $78.5 billion proposal – including "significant cuts" because the state will be bringing in less revenue than budget writers originally proposed.

"But we want to stick to our values and put people first, and try to focus especially on funding public schools and housing," he said. "But it has been a difficult process with the budget situation."

Sen. Derek Stanford

The budget will depend on various revenue proposals like increases on business, capital gains and sales taxes. The bills introduced last week are still going through the legislative process in these final days of the session, including votes in Senate Ways and Means on Friday. Though Stanford feels good about their prospects.

"We don’t want to have to reopen things and make major changes, but it looks like there’s a path forward from where we are now," he said.

The other side:

On the other side, legislative Republicans continue to criticize the budget and tax proposals fundamentally and procedurally.

"Legislators are being asked to raise taxes without understanding the necessity for doing so," said House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary at a press conference Wednesday.

"Nobody has seen the final conference budget yet. Legislators have no idea how necessary these taxes are, how many cuts they’re going to stave off and how many cuts are going to be made," he added.

Senate Republican budget leader Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, said he has been shut out of conference negotiations, frustrated with substantive changes being made behind closed doors and tax bills being rushed through the legislative process.

"It’s a disservice to the people of Washington state to introduce a bill on a Wednesday–a series of bills on a Wednesday, pass them out of the Senate on a Saturday," he said about the tax proposals. "With that limited amount of public input, time for public input, I think it’s a travesty, it’s an injustice to the people of Washington state."

Sen. Chris Gildon

In terms of meeting Sunday’s deadline for the legislative session to end, Stanford said it is his "expectation that we will finish on time."

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