OLYMPIA -- The Legislature will start the last day of its scheduled session without showing the public its supplemental budget.

The budget, which is the update of the biennial budget passed last year, is said to be close, with only relatively small things in the way of a handshake between negotiators. Plans as of Wednesday evening call for the final product to be unveiled in caucus meetings for both chambers around 10 am. and a public roll out after that. For niggling clock-watchers, that means the Legislature will have something less than 14 hours to pass the budget, without amendment, in both chambers.  Plus any ancillary legislation that changes things that will be needed to make the budget work.

They have until midnight, and there's a good chance they'll need it.

The budget, in its current iteration, is 292 pages long. That raises the obvious question: How many legislators will read the whole thing before voting on it?

 

 

---

---