Yesterday House Democrats proposed their 2014 supplemental budget (documents here). It’s the time of year when things happen quickly; the Appropriations Committee hearing was last night at 6:00 In addition to a base budget, which closely resembles the plan introduced earlier by the Senate Majority Coalition, the House rolled out a proposal to increase taxes by about $100 million for education spending.

We’ll publish a brief later today. Meanwhile, it might be useful to review some of the press coverage.

Erik Smith at Washington State Wire discusses the political implications of the separate base budget and education plan. He walks through the strategy of proposing a base budget independent of the more ambitious proposals to boost taxes for education.

If the House proposal was written the normal way, it might mean a special session for sure – months of argument in the back rooms that would keep Washington’s gang of 147 lawmakers glued to their seats in the House and Senate and staring out their office windows during a long and dull springtime, while they watch the cherry trees on the Capitol campus blossom and then shed their leaves. But the thing is, the House puts the most controversial stuff in separate bills. Those things aren’t even mentioned in what the House is calling its “base budget” bill. And really, that base budget doesn’t look much different than the spending plan the Senate presented on Monday.

That doesn’t mean they’re not serious.

Democrats said Wednesday they will rewrite their budget bill if they can find support in the Legislature to end the tax breaks, raise teacher salaries, and launch the early-learning program. They’ll pass all their bills off the floor of the House this week and throw the matter into negotiation with the Senate.

But don’t hold your breath waiting for the Senate to swallow the big-picture ideas, says state Sen. Bruce Dammeier, R-Puyallup…

As we’ve seen before this election-year session, the positioning makes a political point. But pragmatic considerations will likely allow lawmakers to adjourn on time, saving the fight for another day, which may give the Senate has the upper hand. That’s how the Seattle Times sees it.

However, the House proposal to fund teacher-pay increases by closing tax breaks seems unlikely to go far in the Republican-led Senate, which maintains that’s a debate for the 2015 session.

AWB president Kris Johnson says lawmakers should focus on what they have to do, the base budget, and forego new taxes.

“The tax increases singled out by House and Senate Democrats — taxes on bottled water, out-of-state shopping, prescription drugs and recycled fuel — are arbitrary and would have an immediate negative impact on our state’s competitiveness,” said Johnson.

…“Right now, everyone should remain focused on what it will take to get our economy up and running and creating jobs across the state. We encourage legislators to work together and finalize the supplemental budget in the remaining days of session.”

Additional coverage in The News Tribune and Crosscut.