OLYMPIA — House Democrats and Senate Republicans announced Monday they’ve reached a deal on the supplemental budget and will vote on it Tuesday, as lawmakers move closer toward a conclusion of their overtime special session.
A joint statement issued by the two chambers says the plan covers the costs of fighting last year’s wildfires and also puts more money toward mental health care. Lawmakers said the measure, which would alter the $38 billion two-year spending plan approved in 2015, also complies with the state’s four-year balanced-budget requirement.
Republican Sen. John Braun, a lead budget negotiator for the Senate, said that the plan “addresses the needs of Washington residents, including significant improvements in mental health treatment and care for some of our most vulnerable citizens.”
Full details of the plan will be released by Tuesday, when both chambers plan to start voting on the budget.
The announcement comes 19 days into an overtime special session after lawmakers adjourned their regular 60-day session earlier this month without passing the budget.
Democratic Rep. Hans Dunshee, the lead budget negotiator in the House, said that while the budget took longer than he had hoped, “this budget was worth the wait.”
“The Legislature will make key investments that address the teacher shortage crisis, improve mental health services, reduce homelessness, and improve the lives of foster kids,” he wrote. “It’s not everything we wanted, of course, but that’s the reality of a divided government.”
Meanwhile, the Senate returned to the floor Monday to pass several bills and to start taking votes to override the vetoes of 27 bills earlier this month by Gov. Jay Inslee. Inslee had vetoed the bills out of frustration because lawmakers were not able to complete their work during the regular legislative session.
The last time the Legislature overrode a veto was in 1998, said Hunter Goodman, secretary of the Senate.
In a statement Monday afternoon, Inslee said he had no objection to the planned veto overrides by the Legislature, which under the state constitution has to the power to take such action with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and Senate.
The House is not expected to return to take votes until Tuesday.
Democratic House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan said his caucus would discuss the veto overrides on Tuesday. Sullivan said now that the governor has signaled he was OK with the overrides, it’s now likely Democratic House members would be willing to take that rare action.
State Senate overrides Gov. Inslee’s vetoes
OLYMPIA — The state Senate on Monday voted to pass 27 bills with enough support to override vetoes by Gov. Jay Inslee, who struck down the measures when a supplemental budget deal wasn’t reached before the end of the 60-day legislative session in early March.
The House will now consider whether to override the vetoed bills, too, which requires a two-thirds majority vote.
Here are the bills re-approved by the Senate:
• SB 5145: Requires at least one member of the state’s Health Technology Clinical Committee to be appointed by the Washington State Medical Association or the Washington State Osteopathic Medical Association.
• SB 5265: Adds an exception to the list of instances when public money can be deposited outside of Washington.
• SB 5458: Allows local health districts to act as custodians of their money and grants health districts other powers.
• SB 5549: Allows the state Department of Health to charge registration fees for pharmacy assistants.
• SB 5767: Authorizes county treasurers to accept electronic payments for payments of any kind and lets treasurers charge processing fees.
• SB 6148: Adds trailers, recreational vehicles and campers to the list of vehicles that may be towed or removed from a self-service storage facility if the owner of the vehicle defaults on a rent payment.
• SB 6162: Lets the state’s Invasive Species Council operate for an extra five years, until June 30, 2022.
• SB 6170: Exempts financial and commercial information about a city employee retirement board’s investment in private funds from the state’s open records law under certain circumstances.
• SB 6177: Puts the state liquor and cannabis board in charge of approving marijuana research projects.
• SB 6196: Alters the administrative process for how the state Utilities and Transportation Commission manages deposits and cost reimbursements of the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council.
• SB 6206: Authorizes growth of industrial hemp as part of a research program.
• SB 6220: Aims to maximize the state’s use of federal economic development funding opportunities to promote economic development.
• SB 6281: Alters the state’s Uniform Athlete Agent Act in a number of ways.
• SB 6284: Bars municipal water-sewer districts from prohibiting multipurpose fire sprinkler systems in single-family homes and townhomes.
• SB 6290: Updates, organizes and clarifies laws relating to the state’s Apple commission.
• SB 6326: Requires a vehicle dealer to keep paper records of the purchase and sale or lease of all vehicles for one year before they can be stored only as electronic records.
• SB 6341: Allows a marijuana producer or processer to give pot retailers branded promotional items worth $30 or less.
• SB 6342: Alters some aspects of private activity bond allocation such as decreasing the bond cap for student loans to 5 percent.
• SB 6354: Requires four-year college programs in the state to work with the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges to create plans for allowing transfers of academic credits from four-year schools to community and technical colleges.
• SB 6398: Directs the state Board of Health to consider new rules for the storage of Asian rice noodles and Korean rice cakes.
• SB 6401: Requires certain businesses to keep commercial fishing records.
• SB 6466: Creates a work group aimed at removing barriers to higher education for students with disabilities.
• SB 6491: Allows the Secretary of State to certify the authenticity of the signature of a state public official as well as notary publics in certain circumstances.
• SB 6498: Gives sponsors of addicts in recovery legal protection from testifying in a civil court action or proceeding about anything said in their conversations.
• SB 6569: Requires the state Department of Health to create a task force to study patient out-of-pocket costs.
• SB 6606: Clarifies the definition of a wholesale vehicle dealer, and bars wholesale dealers from having offices with three or more wholesale or retail dealers in the same building.
• SB 6633: Allows the Washington Marine Resources Advisory Council to continue meeting for another five years, ending in June of 2022.
— Walker Orenstein, Associated Press
