From the Director - Legislature Passes 2nd "Cutoff": Activity Picks Up

All legislation, other than budgets, and measures needed to implement the budget, that had not passed the house of origin, are deemed "dead" for the 2006 session. As mentioned in previous Bulletins, the Legislature adopts at the beginning of each session joint rules designed to program legislative activity for completion of the session in the allotted 60 days. This 2nd cutoff basically separates the live from the dead bills and focuses attention on measures that have a reasonable likelihood of becoming law.

For AWC, reaching the 2nd cutoff is both good and bad. A number of major AWC priorities have moved to the second house and have been scheduled for committee hearings, and hopefully will move along for floor action. Concurrently, a number of "stinkers" are still on life support and our lobbyists are working aggressively to derail them in the second house. Within this Bulletin is a description of those key measures still in play. It is critical that legislators hear from their city officials regarding these measures.

Revenue Forecast up $158.9 Million: Senate Democrats Release Their Budget

This past Wednesday, Dr. Chang Mook Sohn, Director of the Office of the Forecast Council, released his February update of revenues for the 2005-7 biennium. That forecast predicted an additional $158.9 million, giving the state a $1.6 billion surplus. That same day, the Senate Ways and Means Committee released a supplemental budget approximately $100 million above that submitted by Governor Gregoire. The Senate budget maintains a reserve in excess of $950 million, which is expected to be needed to balance the next biennium’s budget. The Senate budget allocates more then the Governor’s in the areas of pension funding, higher education, and to rebuild and restore minor league baseball facilities. It is anticipated that the House Democrats will submit their budget the week of February 20th. Expectations are that the House, Senate, and Governor’s Office will amicably resolve their budgetary differences in time for the March 9th scheduled adjournment.

On a Closing Note

With less then three weeks left before adjournment, the pace of the session will pick up. Legislators, and lobbyists will be working to move their legislation and others will be endeavoring to derail unpopular bills. At this point, we are feeling guardedly optimistic that many of our measures will be enacted into law. However, we’re still working to kill those that are harmful. Again, if we can be helpful in assisting in your efforts to contact your legislator, don’t hesitate to contact either myself or one of our lobbyists.

[ return to top ] [ next article ]