No one need worry about whiplash incurred by following the slow budget lobs across the rotunda. The House passed another budget proposal yesterday. Olympian reporter Brad Shannon calls it a fresh sign of life. The plan’s fate in the Senate, which is missing Republican Leader Mike Hewitt due to health issues, remains unclear. Lt. Gov. Brad Owen could provide the 25th vote, if necessary.

Shannon says Ways and Means Chair Ed Murray thinks he could wrap it up, with one more vote.

Murray said he thinks he has 24 Democratic votes to pass the House version of the spending plan, which would drop the controversial delay in a $330 million payment to K-12 public schools and replace it with a new accounting system for sales-tax receipts collected on behalf of cities, counties and other local governments.

Of course, one more vote has been what this is all about for some time. The AP reports House budget leader Ross Hunter says the vote was to keep things moving.

Hunter said the Senate would have the opportunity to amend the budget as negotiations between the parties continue.

“Mostly, this is about making sure we can continue to negotiate and continue to have a product to move forward,” Hunter said.

The Spokesman-Review notes that the budget contains no new taxes, though the chamber has passed a new tax on roll-your-own cigarettes. The report also quotes lead House Republican budget writer.

Republicans said the budget doesn’t go far enough to rein in state spending practices.

“It’s not sustainable without the reforms,” said Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia. “It detracts from the negotiations process.”

Erik Smith at Washington State Wire examines the politics and doesn’t think this changes things much.

The lack of significance was underscored by the fact that the House spent a grand total of 11 minutes debating the measure on final passage. … Republicans afterward said they really didn’t see any point in a floor fight – all it did was establish the House Democrats’ negotiating position.

As it’s been for a while, it’s all about the reform measures.

Members of the Senate coalition say they won’t move on the budget until the big reform debates of the session are resolved. The coalition is holding out for changes to K-12 health-insurance policy, elimination of early-retirement incentives for newly hired public employees, and a balanced-budget constitutional amendment that would prevent maneuvers like the shift in school-district payments that the Democrats pushed this year.

As we’ve written before, the legislature must look beyond the immediate budget shortfall and establish a sustainable budget for the long-term. Meanwhile, prospects for an on-time, overtime resolution seem dim.