Apparently some form of carbon taxation could still happen this year, despite the fact that it did not make it into either House or Senate budget proposal. It was a main source of revenue in Gov. Inslee’s proposed budget, but the House proposal would increase revenues in different ways. From Crosscut:

House Environment Committee chair Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon, D-Des Moines, said Thursday that he, administration officials, House representatives and even representation from the GOP Senate caucus have been meeting almost daily to discuss the possibility of reviving Inslee’s dormant proposal.

According to PubliCola, Fitzgibbon

says the house is still working with fellow Democrats who had questions about the plan “to get agreement on something we can move forward on and have [as] part of the final budget negotiation.”

He explained that “enough members of our caucus weren’t sure about the policy that we didn’t have consensus to move it forward. We needed 50 votes for any of the revenue in our budget.”

Fitzgibbon tells me there was more “comfort” with the B&O increase “because we’ve done it before.”

Here’s our report on the carbon taxation proposals, and here is our podcast episode on the topic.

As Opportunity Washington notes, “We’re approaching the anything-can-happen last days of the regular session, which can be the very definition of taxing times.”