This post was updated at 2:40 p.m.

Gov. Chris Gregoire this morning said she expects to call a special session soon to deal with unfinished legislation.

"If we can get the job done by coming back for another day, let's do it," she said at a news conference.

Gregoire said she'll likely talk to lawmakers Tuesday. By law, she can call a special session for 30 days. But the governor said she will only call a session if lawmakers agree to limit the scope and length of time of a new session.

"I'm not going to bring them back until I have an agreement," she said. "I want an agreement ... on what bills will be discussed and how much time. This is not an opportunity to spend 30 days and begin another legislative session. This is a time to finish the job. It should be done quickly."

Gregoire said she does not have the authority to dictate the length of the session within the 30-day time period, or the bills covered. "It's my job to ... negotiate with them what are the subjects and how long are we going to be here and then I take them at their word. If they can't agree, then I'll look at whether it's really necessary to bring them in," she said.

State lawmakers ran out of time on their last regular day of business on Sunday. By midnight, the House still had several key bills to pass and lawmakers called a press conference to say they may hold another session to finish their business.

If a special session is called, it allows other bills that previously died back into play.
Those could include a plan to alter Initiative 937 -- which requires some utilities to get a certain percentage of their power from sources such as wind or solar -- and Gregoire's requested legislation on climate change.

"Once we're called back, the Legislature has the ability to bring up other topics," Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said on Sunday. "But I'm not sure there's a large appetite for that. The good news is that almost all the key things are done."

Gregoire said she was only interested in bringing back bills neccesary to complete the budget.

The governor's budget office said there were three bills they wanted to take care of: Senate Bill 6160, Senate Bill 6183 and House Bill 1776.

Of the three, House Bill 1776, which deals with school levies, represents the most money. It contains a provision that changes state law to allow a $60 million cut in levy equalization funding, according to the governor's office. Specifically, it would change subsection 5 of this statute.

UPDATE

Senate Republican Leader Mike Hewitt this afternoon blasted Democrats for contemplating a special session. Here's his news release:

Today Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, issued this statement on the proposed legislative special session:

"I am dumbfounded at the mismanagement that brought us to this point. A special session will cost taxpayers at least twenty thousand dollars a day. Democrats had one-hundred-five days to finish their business. They wasted time, then tried to jam everything through in the final two days and failed.

"Republicans called on the Legislature last December to act on our looming budget deficit. Had we done so, we could have avoided many of the cuts made in the budget passed over the weekend. Democrats failed to act before the session, but promised swift action within the first couple weeks. We waited through January...through February...through March and through almost all of April. And after a full regular session, all one-hundred-five days allowed by the state Constitution, they say they're still not done.

"While the governor said she would be calling legislators back only to wrap a few 'last minute details,' there is no guarantee that we'll stick to a certain list of bills once we return. As the governor herself admitted this morning, a special session will open a Pandora's box that could result in the passage of even more tax hikes, like her cap-and-tax measure. Why would the governor and the Legislature want to charge citizens twenty-thousand dollars a day to hit them with even more taxes?

"During the final two days of the regular session we spent at least twelve hours sitting around while the majority party met behind closed doors. There is absolutely no reason why they should not have finished their business on time. This is an embarrassment for Democrats, and shows their gross mismanagement of time and of running the Legislature.

"The majority party blew it during the regular session, and there's no reason to think they would do any better during a special session."

House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, responded that Hewitt "likes to complain."

"He's wrong," Chopp said. "We effectively got the job done on time. We passed the three major budgets on time and passed an enormous amount of other legislation that will be of great benefit to the people of the state of Washington."