Special Session Virtually Certain As Budget Negotiations Stall In Olympia

Budget negotiations have stalled with just a few days left in the Washington legislature’s 105-day session. The clock runs out on Sunday.

They will have to adjourn the 105-day session and then the decision will be whether the governor calls them back right away or sends them home for a while to stew and think about it and then calls them back. That’s always a great debate.

It is the governor who calls them back. Once the governor declares a special session, it’s 30 days on the clock. They can use some of it or all of it. If they go beyond that then there needs to be another special session.

In 2013, it took two special sessions and a near government shutdown to get a final budget.

Special sessions do come with a cost. In 2012, the 30-days of overtime added up to about $290,000 in extra expenses.

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