Republican leaders in the state senate have flat-out rejected Democratic calls to include new revenue (AKA taxes) in special session budget talks.

Earlier today, after Gov. Chris Gregoire announced that she is calling a special legislative session to deal with the $1.4 billion revenue shortfall that torpedoed the state's $32 billion budget last week, state senate Democratic leader Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane) and budget chair Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle), who've been talking about a revenue solution for weeks,  issued a statement asking Republicans not to start "drawing lines in the sand."

As legislators, we have many tools for balancing our budget – including giving the voters the option of approving new revenue to pay for the services they want. We strongly encourage our colleagues in both parties, in the House and Senate, to avoid drawing lines in the sand and instead to arrive in Olympia in November prepared to offer solutions and to be ready to discuss all the possibilities.

In order to give voters the chance to sign off on revenues, the legislature would have to pass a revenue package and send it to the voters. That package would certainly need GOP support to be credible at the polls.

However, Brown and Murray's Republican counterparts, Republican senate leader Mike Hewitt (R-16, Walla Walla) and budget leader Sen. Joseph Zarelli (R-18, Ridgefield) issued a statement that did draw a line in the sand—rejecting any talk of revenues.

We know from recent history that as soon as discussions begin about increasing revenue, all talk of reforms seems to evaporate. How to bring costs down and streamline state government should be the very first thing we explore with our colleagues to prepare for the special session in November.