Notable budget dates

By Jason Mercier
With the first special session winding down here are a few dates to pay attention to as lawmakers work to adopt the state's 2015-17 budget:
• May 26: Public hearing on collective bargaining reform bill. Today the Senate Ways & Means Committee is considering a bill to help bring more transparency, accountability and fiscal discipline to the negotiating process used for future state employee contracts. SB 6126 (Addressing collective bargaining) is an omnibus bill that includes many of the reform provisions from prior bills heard earlier this year. Whether to fund the secretly negotiated contracts has been a sticking point in reaching a budget deal. The Senate's lead budget writer, Sen. Hill, has indicated the Senate would approve the contracts but not without first securing important transparency and accountability reforms for the negotiations going forward. Here is the Spokesman Review's editorial from this weekend in favor of SB 6126.
• May 28: End of first special session. The 30 day special session called by Governor Inslee to finish work on the 2015-17 budget officially ends at midnight on May 28.
• May 29: Beginning of second special session? Governor Inslee has said that if lawmakers aren't done by May 28 he will immediately call a second special session.
• June 1: By law state budget required to be adopted. With lawmakers already under one court contempt citation will they care if they break another state law on June 1? According to the state's Budget and Accounting Act - RCW 43.88.080 (emphasis added):
"Adoption of the omnibus appropriation bill or bills by the legislature shall constitute adoption of the budget and the making of appropriations therefor. A budget for state government shall be finally adopted not later than thirty calendar days prior to the beginning of the ensuing biennium."
The new fiscal year for the ensuing biennium begins July 1. Although the penalties for violating the state's Budget and Accounting Act are a misdemeanor (RCW 43.88.270), a 1979 Attorney General's Opinion says that though the Legislature would be in violation of the law lawmakers couldn't be prosecuted.
• June 15-21: U.S. Open in Tacoma. With the U.S. open coming to Tacoma in a few weeks there will be no hotel rooms in the South Sound area for traveling lawmakers to stay in. So unless lawmakers plan to sleep on the floor of the capitol building they will need to get their budget work done before then.
• July 1: Partial state government shutdown. This 1977 Attorney General's Opinion describes the consequences of a budget not being enacted by June 30:
"In conclusion, however, except for these various special situations, the basic consequences of a failure by the legislature to have adopted a biennial budget by June 30, 1977, is quite simple; namely, no expenditures may be made for salaries or anything else, and no obligations to make such payments may be incurred by any state agency including, we should note, the legislature itself in the absence of some special appropriation for that purpose."
Sounds a lot like a government shutdown.
Lawmakers have approximately $3.2 billion in new revenue to increase state spending with. Despite this 9.2% increase in revenue, whether to increase taxes and whether to ratify the secretly negotiated state employee contracts remain points of contention.
So what will be the biggest motivator for lawmakers to finish their work on the budget: Compliance with state law, no place to stay in Olympia or avoiding a partial government shutdown? We'll know soon.