No sales tax boost? Not so fast.

Reports of the death of a proposal to have a ballot measure to raise the sales tax prove premature, though the tax bill is still unlikely
Reports of the death of a proposal to have a ballot measure to raise the sales tax prove premature, though the tax bill is still unlikely

The story in Olympia is changing by the hour as the Legislature heads into what is supposed to be the final week of the session. Senate Democrats are backpedalling from a statement Friday night that there's not enough support — from the public or within the caucus — to put a tax measure on the November ballot. (Although I'm still hearing that it's unlikely a tax bill would move out of the Senate.)

Meanwhile, the Washington State Hospital Association announced Saturday it had abandoned plans to help fund a campaign for a tax measure (assuming the Legislature put one on the ballot), only to change its tune Saturday afternoon. Now, apparently, the organization is reconsidering whether it will in fact pony up $1.5M in partnership with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Saturday brought a flurry of meetings and phone calls between stakeholder groups and lawmakers. The tea leaves I'm reading suggest House Democrats are still seriously considering a three-tenths-of-one-percent sales tax increase for health care. But there hasn't been a discussion with the entire membership yet. In the Senate, there are certainly Democrats who support putting a tax package on the ballot. But most Senators I talk to say if they had to predict it's unlikely a tax will pass. Of course anything could happen between now and Sine Die (Olympia speak for adjournment).

In the end, the tax talk is really just a distraction. House and Senate Democrats still have to agree on and pass a budget that closes a $9 billion budget shortfall. That's what threatens to send them into overtime.

  

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