Chance Of Special Session Looming Larger Over State Capital

With less than a month remaining in this year's Legislative Session in Olympia, and mounting disaccord among lawmakers and the governor regarding the state's latest operating budget, the likelihood of the need for a special session is becoming greater by the day.

Earlier this week, Gov. Bob Ferguson rejected both the House and Senate drafts of the ops budget, citing concerns about a number of items contained in both, including excessive overall taxation, an untested new tax on the state's wealthiest residents, and the tapping of the state's rainy day fund.

During Thursday's Legislative Hotline feature on the KPQ Morning Update, 20th District Sen. John Braun (R-Centralia) said he'd prefer going into extra time over passing a budget that doesn't suit the best interests of Washington's residents.

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"Nobody wants to go into special session. It's not fun for anyone. But frankly, if it's a choice between going into special session or laying billions of dollars in new taxes at the feet of the state's tax payers, I'll take special session."

Braun says he does see a way through the miasma that's being created by the current budget bickering among lawmakers, but believes Gov. Ferguson and members of each chamber on both sides of the aisle will need to make a few compromises in order to get that done.

"There is clearly a path to get done on time with a good and responsible budget that shows restraint and ideally has no taxes at all but certainly much less than the twenty-one billion being proposed by the Senate. Governor Ferguson has come out pretty strong against the wealth tax because of legal concerns and pushed back on other taxes being proposed as well, but he didn't close the door on them entirely, which worries me a little, but I do appreciate that he tightened down the box a fair amount."

Braun added that while he's optimistic a special session can be avoided, his 12 years of experience in the state legislature have made him pragmatic enough to know there's a good chance it will happen.

"I think the odds of us going into special session are, quite frankly, as high as they've been in a number of years. And while I don't relish the idea, if it's the path to keep the tax bill low for Washingtonians, then I think it's worth it."

The last time the state legislature went into special session was in 2023, when then-Gov. Jay Inslee called lawmakers back to draft revisions to a statewide drug possession law.

Prior to that, in 2017, lawmakers went into a special session which lasted for nearly a month to settle negotiations over the state's operating budget.

This year's regular 105-day legislative session is scheduled to conclude on April 27.