It’s come to this. The editorial board of the Olympian says, “please.” More precisely, the editorial headline reads “Budget writers, ple-e-e-ase negotiate.” As we mentioned last week, it’s tough to refer to budget negotiator when there are no negotiations. In Sunday’s editorial, the Olympian pointed out that the clock is winding down.
…lawmakers are 2½ weeks into the 30-day special session that became essential because they couldn’t find agreement during a 105-day regular session.
Not much has changed. So everyone looks to this afternoon’s revenue forecast for relief. The Olympian concludes,
Our hope is that once a new two-year revenue forecast comes in Monday, the GOP can own up to the need to find more money — and to say what it’s willing to accept in taxes, or new “revenue.”
And Democrats can say what they are willing to forgo on the spending side.
Lawmakers will get a fresh set of revenue projections Monday — the result of the June revenue forecast being moved to May. But whether the news will be rosy enough to break the logjam over the budget seems unlikely.