Western Legislative Review: Special session underway

[ Editor's note: This article was first printed on Western Legislative Review. ]

Governor Inslee called legislators into a 30-day special session beginning April 29 after the regular session concluded on April 24 without a state budget being adopted. Since the recent Great Recession, special sessions have become common in Washington State, highlighting the complexity of crafting a state budget that legislators can agree upon.

As outlined in a previous WLR blog post, the state Senate and House of Representatives have each released their 2015-17 operating and capital budget proposals. The main purpose of the current special session is for legislators to create a biennial budget that will be adopted by both the Democrat-led House and the Republican-led Senate. While budget deliberations are underway, legislative committees are holding periodic work sessions in Olympia regarding interim planning and a variety of other topics, and the governor has been signing a steady stream of bills that successfully navigated the legislative process through the House and Senate.

The WLR will continue to provide updates as the special session progresses. Until next time, go Vikings!