OLYMPIA -- The House is expected to vote on a transportation budget sometime before lunch today.

This is not the transportation budget with a proposed gasoline tax hike. This is the "current law" transportation budget, which spends the money currently being collected in transportation taxes and fees. It would be moved quickly to the Senate, which could vote on it today or tomorrow, which would mean it wouldn't need another vote in the House when everything "resets" for the second special session that starts Friday.

But there is some additional urgency to move this budget through the Legislature: It has the salaries for the State Patrol, ferry workers and some other Department of Transportation employees. If it passes, they won't need to get notices of a possible layoff while negotiations continue on the larger operating budget and the end of the fiscal year approaches. 

Under state law, notices have to go out to state employees in the coming weeks if there's no budget deal as a contingency plan for a possible -- albeit unlikely -- government shutdown. If the Legislature goes past midnight on July 1 without passing a budget, there's no authority for many state agencies to spend money, and state law doesn't allow the agencies to wait until the last few days to send out notices to employees

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