They had plenty of time during the year to pass meaningful bills such as the gender neutral bill removing the words "penmanship, freshman, manhole cover, etc" but can't pass a budget. Welcome to Washyourhandsington..........

As usual, it's the other sides fault.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52208786/ns/local_news-seattle_wa/

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The Legislature's first overtime session this year was the most unproductive gathering of lawmakers in state history. That doesn't mean it didn't cost taxpayers.

Not a single bill passed through both chambers by the time the Legislature adjourned the 30-day session on Tuesday. Still, many lawmakers from both parties have continued claiming regular per diems totaling at least $77,000, according to an Associated Press review of records.

Those politicians are now back in Olympia for another special session because of squabbling over the budget, and they still have the option of collecting $90 per diems for every day until their work is complete. At the same time that legislators are adding to their overall compensation, agencies are preparing to send out notifications to state workers who may be temporarily laid off if no budget deal is reached.

Spending is one thing but you cannot chop the head off the chicken and still expect to get eggs!


Fishy

Just learned of another scam yesterday from DIL. She works as a contract counselor for L & I. Clients, some legal, some illegal, were injured on the job, so they wisely sign up for job re-training, as often the injuries are on construction jobs that they won't be able to return to. So while they are enrolled in this re-training program they can receive "time loss compensation" for on the job injuries, which is a % of their former pay. A big part of the job is ferreting out fraud. Last week she found one who signed up for classes but instead of attending class, had taken another job earning $4,000 a month while also getting his time loss compensation checks. Another signed up for retraining, but hadn't completed his training even though the course was in its third cycle. He never bothered attending, and just got by living on his time loss checks. These are the guys who give social programs a bad name. Yet there are others, hopefully the majority, who get injured on the job, and there's no way they can return to the construction trades. So it's good to have insurance programs that cover both their injuries and re-training. I know of a couple guys who did this and became computer dweebs and became gainfully employed instead of having to go on permanent disability until Social Security kicks in.

Hmmm, not sure what this has to do with the Legislature not being able to do the job they were sent to Olympia for. Obviously they need to keep the fraud unit funded, since there's no shortage of people who will abuse the system. And maybe Legislators should only be paid their salary for the regular session. No pay nor per diem for special sessions. That would be a strong incentive to get the job done on time.

Sg