The Governor's Cabinet Meets as Washington's Bills Go Unpaid
With public servants holding $103,000 in IOUs, Olympia officials debate whether to call the legislature back for an emergency session.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The banks of the state and the railroads are not in favor of an extra session. Nothing was done at the cabinet conference yesterday afternoon relative to calling an extra session. The majority of the state officers, as well as thousands of the creditors of the state, believe such a session is necessary, but no reason for calling it has been suggested that is convincing to the governor.
The governor has taken the advice of The Tribune at last and called a session of his cabinet to discuss the extra session matter. The attorney-general, who was not present, is strongly in favor of such a session. Messrs. Reed, Forrest and Jones believe an extra session is necessary.
Senator L. F. Thompson of Pierce says some of the reasons for an extra session are: the unavailability of the appropriations for various purposes; the complex conditions of the acts relating to the disposal of the state school and granted lands; the university disagreement; the delay in the construction of the agricultural college and school of mines; the alleged errors in the Hill code; the inability of public servants of the state to even obtain negotiable warrants for the amounts due them, aggregating nearly $103,000, for which they will be compelled to wait another year unless relieved by an extra session, by the hurried passage of a large number of measures without due consideration in the closing hours of the limited regular session, all of which would save the state $200,000 before another regular session can convene.
“The majority of the state officers, as well as thousands of the creditors of the state, believe such a session is necessary, but no reason for calling it has been suggested that is convincing to the governor.”
In 1891 Washington had been a state for only two years, and its new government was already tangled in unpaid warrants and unfinished institutions. The debate over an emergency session—and who bears the cost of delay—rhymes with modern state budget standoffs and shutdown brinkmanship.
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