4.10.17
Suggested lead: In Olympia, a Republican ultimatum
threatens to push the Legislature into overtime. Dan Frizzell has that story.
Wrap (:76 total): Lawmakers
in Olympia have two more weeks to get their business done, but a refusal by
Republican senators to meet House Democrats at the negotiating table looks
likely to make on-time adjournment impossible. Republicans
run the Senate and voted for a multi-billion-dollar tax increase earlier this
session, a tax increase designed mostly to hike property tax rates around the
state. Now they are refusing to
begin talks on a final state budget unless the Democratic majority in the House
also votes for a tax increase first.
It’s an interesting situation, but not one that Democrats are embracing.
Democratic House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan is tired of waiting.
SULLIVAN: "We’re very frustrated in the fact that the Republicans won’t sit
down and start negotiating a budget solution. I think the public expects and
demands that we put aside partisan politics.
If we can’t agree that we’re going to sit down at the table and actually
negotiate a budget, we’re going to be here for a long time.
And I think that’s a disservice to the public." [:18]
The Legislature has one job this year:
Come up with a budget that fully funds public schools – as ordered by the
Supreme Court – while also paying for the other necessary functions of the state
government. Sullivan knows
compromise will be necessary, but says that’s impossible as long as Republicans
refuse to negotiate. In the meantime, April 23 gets one day closer. In Olympia,
I'm Dan Frizzell.