Lawmakers say no special legislative session

OLYMPIA — Gov. Chris Gregoire will not call a special legislative session for lawmakers to finish their last few bits of work on the state budget, officials said Thursday.

The decision comes after House and Senate leaders failed to agree on a limited agenda for a possible special session, which the governor wanted to last just one day.

Gregoire wanted lawmakers to take up only three bills tied to the budget, which were not approved after getting caught in a political logjam between the House and Senate's majority Democrats.

Senate leaders, however, also wanted to resurrect a bill that amended Initiative 937's clean-energy mandates. But that measure could not pass the House amid heavy opposition from Pierce and Clark county lawmakers.

Legislative leaders downplayed their inability to agree on a special session agenda Thursday, noting that they finished the vast majority of their work — particularly a $35 billion two-year budget that whacks about $4 billion from projected state spending.

"All in all, we got a tremendous amount of the job accomplished," said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane.

The three bills that didn't make it past the regular session's finish line would have saved the state about $70 million. By not passing them, the state's budget reserves drop to about $755 million.

The biggest savings would have come from a bill to cut spending on a program that benefits "property-poor" schools, while allowing school districts to collect more money from property taxes.

The remaining two bills would have cleared the way for illegal immigrants in state prisons to be deported, and tweaked criminal sentencing guidelines to shorten prison time.

But House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said the savings were not urgent enough to haul the entire Legislature back to Olympia for a quickie special session.

"I don't think the electorate cares," Kessler said. "We got out of Dodge, and did what we had to do."

Kessler did acknowledge that some school districts might be upset that lawmakers will not pass the education budgeting bill. That measure would have raised a cap on property tax collections by 4 percent, allowing districts to get more money from local voters while the state cuts spending on K-12 education, particularly for teachers.