Governor threatens Legislature with vetoes
Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday he would veto all bills passed by the Legislature unless a budget was made by Thursday.
OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee announced Monday he would veto bills passed this session if the Legislature did not finish an operating budget by Thursday.
“I will not entertain any delays in this job,” Inslee said about the budget.
He said there are 35 bills, which he has not signed yet, that he will veto if an operating budget is not on his desk by midnight Thursday.
Inslee said some progress was made over the weekend on budget negotiations, but not enough.
“I’m trying to focus legislator’s minds on their first priority and that is to produce a budget on time,” he said.
Inslee gave the announcement on the 57th day of a 60-day legislative session. During a short session, the Legislature creates a supplemental budget. The two-year operating budget was written last year after three special sessions.
Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, said he is optimistic the budget will be completed on time.
“I’m still the leader that says the glass is half full,” Schoesler said.
The proposed House and Senate budgets differ greatly on plans to finance programs and services. The House budget proposes to eliminate some current tax exemptions. The Democratic-led House wants to repeal tax breaks on purchases of large private corporate airplanes, international banks, and on fuel extracted to help the timber industry.
Republican-led Senate leadership has said they want to avoid eliminating tax breaks, and only use it as a last resort.
There are also differences is what the two bodies are attempting to fund. The House budget includes appropriated funds for raising the beginning pay for teacher salaries. The Senate budget does not include a salary increase, but includes money for charter schools.
Both the proposed budgets fund mental health and wildfire relief, but they are set apart by more than $400 million in overall spending.
Although there are marked differences in the budgets, Inslee said there is nothing extraordinary about this session to cause a delay.
“This should be totally unnecessary to talk in these terms, because the legislators have had 56 days to deal with this,” said Inslee. He added, “there’s just no excuse” for not producing a budget by Thursday.