“Let’s get to work!”

With that, House Speaker Frank Chopp urged a focused, down-to-business, start for Washington’s new legislative session.

Foremost on lawmakers’ agenda is rebalancing the two-year $30 billion state budget, which currently has a projected gap of $2.6 billion.  Governor Gregoire, who presents her State of the State Address and some new budget proposals on Tuesday,  has announced support for a combination of further spending cuts, additional Medicaid dollars and other federal help, and revenue increases.  Majority Democrats have largely adopted that view, with Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown calling that a “moral necessity.”  Republicans are warning against tax hikes, saying it would chill the recovery by hurting families and job-creating businesses.

Initiative activist Tim Eyman was at the Capitol just before opening gavels fell at 10 a.m., filing an initiative that would make it harder to raise taxes during 2011 and 2012.  He presumes lawmakers will suspend his earlier initiative requiring a two-third vote of both houses to boost revenue.  If approved this fall, his new measure would reimpose the requirement, which could not be amended by the Legislature for the following two years.

The legislative news can be tracked via the news media and TVW gavel-to-gavel coverage on cable TV and at tvw.org on the Internet.

FOOTNOTE:  Olympia got a rare bit of good news from the state’s economic forecasters.  Actual tax collections have actually risen by more than $50 million since the abysmal November forecast came out.  That’s not much, compared with a multibillion-dollar gap, but the trend line is in the right direction.  The new report also says no major new layoffs are expected and that some employers are “beginning to consider expanding their workforce.”