I saw a response to this question from WDFW on another site. Apparently WA waits to set the seasons until after they get the herd counts in the spring. The other states you mention base their permit numbers on year-old data. Each state has to choose...do you want the best info for setting your permit numbers and a late draw, or are you willing to use old data but have an early draw. Personally, I'd rather them use the best info they can get. Imagine if in the 2004-2005 winter there was great survival so they publish the regs in late 2005 for the 2006 season with a bunch of doe tags. But then the herd gets slaughtered by the winter of 2005/2006. What do they do then, go and ask for the doe tags back? If they go with the old data and early draws, they would have to be very conservative with the permit numbers, which translates into less opportunity (i.e. fewer permits) for us.