The long and short of it ...
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Gettin' out of Dodge? Not so easy for lawmakers this year.
The calendar says we're about two weeks from the adjournment deadline (April 26) for the Washington Legislature's grueling 15-week regular session. In recent years, lawmakers have prided themselves on their on-time adjournment. But we've begun to catch rumblings from discouraged legislators that their high-centered budget-and-tax talks just might force overtime -- or even "rolling recesses" where rank-and-file lawmakers go home and leave negotiators behind to work out a House-Senate-Governor deal. The Senate has suggested cutting off daily per diem checks ($100-a-day in House and $90 in Senate) for any overtime days.
Check out The Olympian here .
Meanwhile, Representative Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, is suggesting that lawmakers trim a couple of weeks off of next year's session. He figures it would save $3 million by having a 45-day election-year session instead of the 60 days provided in the constitutional amendment that gave us annual sessions. He also would cancel committee days during the interim between sessions, saving thousands in mileage and per diem.
We're just guessing here, but we'd think his plan is DOA.
Check out the News Trib here
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Secretary of State
Steve Hobbs
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