Democrats, who hold majorities in both chambers, agree on an amount, $800 million, but not on how to generate all of those dollars.
They're deadlocked on about a quarter of that sum, with the Senate saying it should come from a higher sales tax and the House disagreeing. That chamber is pushing an end to tax breaks for large banks, out-of-state residents and buyers of custom-made software programs.
Yesterday, Kitsap Sun writer Steven Gardner reported on a possible end date to the special session
[State Senator Tim] Sheldon predicted the session will end on April 6 or 7, assuming Gov. Chris Gregoire gets assurances from the federal governmentthat it will commit to health care money that the state can “book” into its budget.
The conspiracy theory would be: they did not know how much help they were going to get from the federal government so they have been running in place for a month while they wait.
So, maybe we will see things start back up in Olympia, and hopefully some bills I have been following will get some action.
