As Opportunity Washington noted this morning, it’s been a little too quiet in Olympia. No longer: Today Gov. Inslee held a press conference in which he said that the two sides are not hung up over a capital gains tax (or any other new tax). Instead, he said there are still disagreements over the amount of total spending and the various priorities. For example, apparently there is no agreement on how to deal with I-1351.

He said that the House agrees with the governor that the additional revenues that have been projected since the beginning of the year mean that a capital gains tax is not needed. (For more on capital gains tax proposals, see this report.)

But Gov. Inslee proposes that the House and Senate agree to close some “loopholes.” He said that $300 – $350 million would allow the two sides to come to an agreement on spending priorities. Although he didn’t make a specific proposal, he did mention the tax exemptions for extracted fuel and for non-resident sales taxes as examples of “loopholes” that could be closed. The original House budget proposal was accompanied by a revenue package (HB 2224) that was never acted on. Both the extracted fuel and sales tax proposals were included in that; together they would increase revenues by $81.8 million in 2015-17. (Here’s an estimate of the revenue impacts of other proposals in that bill.)

Gov. Inslee also talked about the importance of passing a transportation revenue package.