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OLYMPIA -- The Legislature adjourned from its 105-day session early Monday with a couple of pieces of business related to education and prison sentencing left undone.
Gov. Chris Gregoire said at a news conference that she plans to recall lawmakers for a brief special session to pass those bills and only those bills, considered necessary to implement the $31.4 billion operating budget.
No one knows when lawmakers might return to town. Gregoire plans to meet with House and Senate leaders today to form a plan, but she did say she wants them to go home, take a breath and make sure they're ready to do their work quickly when they come back.
Gregoire has the authority to call lawmakers back for a special 30-day session, but doesn't get to dictate the topics. But she said she won't bring them back unless they'll agree to limit their business to the bills necessary for the budget and not try to revive other bills killed in the rush to finish the session within the 105 days allowed by the state Constitution.
"I don't want them to come back and begin debate," Gregoire said. "I want them to resolve their issues when they go back (home), come and get it done in a day or two."
One of the bills in question would allow school districts to go to voters to raise their levies beyond the current legal limit to help get them through a tough biennium in which nearly $800 million was cut from K-12 schools.
House Bill 1776 was debated late Sunday, but tabled when lawmakers appeared to be running out of time.
House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, said the sticking point on the bill was whether to apply $60 million to a student achievement program or toward levy equalization, the program intended to help property-poor school districts with their budgets.
Republicans argued the money should be used for levy equalization because without that boost, many small and rural districts would be hurt.
Rep. Larry Haler, R-Richland, said he worries about districts such as Kiona-Benton and Prosser, which he believes would have no choice but to lay off teachers if levy equalization money is cut.
"If this is allowed to stand, it will devastate education across the state," Haler said.
School district officials in the Mid-Columbia said they couldn't say how a reduction in levy equalization money would affect them until they see final numbers.
Gregoire said she shares some of Republicans' concerns about levy equalization and hopes lawmakers will be able to reach an agreement on the topic before reconvening for a special session.
Chopp said he's willing to talk with Gregoire about levy equalization and try to find a solution.
"I'm glad the governor is thinking about that," Chopp said.
Despite having some unfinished business, Gregoire praised the Legislature for adopting a budget on time.
"Exactly what I asked to be done was done," she said. "It was the toughest legislative session in nearly 30 years. Maybe the toughest since the Great Depression."
Chopp noted that in addition to passing the operating, transportation and capital budgets, lawmakers approved bills expanding a health care program for children, rights for domestic partners and unemployment benefits for laid-off workers.
"We effectively got the job done on time," he said.
Though Chopp touted the session as a success, Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, repeated criticism made throughout the session that Democrats hadn't acted soon enough to reduce the $9 billion deficit.
"I am dumbfounded at the mismanagement that brought us to this point," Hewitt said in a written statement Monday. "A special session will cost the taxpayers at least $20,000 a day. Democrats had 105 days to finish their business. They wasted time, then tried to jam everything through in the final two days, and failed."
Republicans called on Democrats in December to make cuts in a supplemental budget for the 2007-09 biennium, which ends June 30 and to make government reforms that would save money.
"Had we done so, we could have avoided many of the cuts made in the budget passed over the weekend," Hewitt said. "We waited through January, through February, through March and through almost all of April. And after a full regular session, all 105 days allowed by the state Constitution, they said they're still not done."
