WA Special Session Enters Week Three
It was only supposed to last seven days. But Monday marks the start of week three of the Washington legislature's overtime session. Majority Democrats remain deadlocked over whether to raise the state sales tax. However, there are signs of softening. The longer the special session drags on, the more Governor Chris Gregoire ratchets up her rhetoric. On Friday she said, "I'm just disgusted. Nothing is going on that I can tell. No matter how many offers I've given for compromise, they haven't resulted in a compromise. Time's up.”Gregoire is talking about her fellow Democrats in the legislature. For the most part, the House and Senate have agreed on a rewrite to the state's two-year budget. They've also settled on the bulk of an $800 million tax package to help close a nearly $3 billion hole. But there's still one major sticking point. That's whether to raise Washington's sales tax. The Governor and House say no. The state Senate, yes. But Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown says she's starting to look for an alternative to the sales tax. “We're going to look and see if we can come up with something that comes up with the needs of both the House and Senate," she said. Brown offered no specifics. But a coalition of labor and social service advocates has an idea. They're calling for a tax hike on soda pop to break the budget bottleneck.
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