Jmercier

Based on the details of the House budget released today hopes of a grand budget compromise being within reached are quickly evaporating.

Here is a quick cheat sheet on the last two budget proposals:

That's what a visibly irritated Governor Gregoire said during a March 15 press conference:

According to the Office of Financial Management, however, that figure was based on the Governor’s November budget being implemented as proposed. With changes in caseloads, the revenue forecast and actions taken in December the savings lost figure isn’t that high but there is a cost with each day’s delay without a budget.

As we enter day 11 of the budget balancing special session a new proposal to end the logjam has emerged. According to the Tacoma News Tribune:

An accounting maneuver being considered at the state Capitol might allow Democrats and Republicans to cast aside the biggest point of contention in their ongoing budget negotiations . . .

Last week was National Sunshine Week, when open government defenders worked to highlight the need for government officials to be transparent and accountable to the citizens they serve.

Among those writing about the need for more transparency reforms was State Attorney General Rob McKenna. McKenna's first piece was a blog post honoring State Auditor Brian Sonntag for his tireless work to improve government accountability (in-part):

Lawmakers in the House this week helped put to doubt the claim that "title only" bills are indispensable to the legislative process. We've been told that lawmakers have to use "title only" bills (a.k.a. blank bills) due to the restriction in Article 2, Section 36 of the state Constitution on introduction of new bills with less than 10 days to go in session unless two-thirds of lawmakers vote to hear the bill.

After a historic turn of events Friday night in the Senate, two budgets have now been adopted: A House Democrat budget (supported only by Democrats with three Democrats voting no) and a Senate Republican budget (supported by all GOP Senators and three Democrat Senators).

Today’s historic actions on the Senate floor would not be occurring if lawmakers had been living under the recommendations we’ve made to improve legislative transparency. They include: