Document Recording Fee HB2048/SB 5952:

Summary:  The document recording fee supports state and county approaches to preventing and ending homelessness ncluding housing vouchers, eviction prevention services, short-term housing assistance, and emergency shelter.  The DRF bills extend the sunset of a $20 real estate document recording fee set to expire in 2013. The $20 fee will be extended for four years and a new temporary $10 fee (set to expire in 2015) will be added to compensate for fewer documents during the recession.

Status: This bill died in the final hours of the last session as the Senate ran out of time.  The bill was reintroduced this session in the House and Senate, passed out of Senate Committee on Financial Institutions and Housing & Insurance and sent to Senate Ways and Means.

Housing Trust Fund:

Summary: The Housing Trust Fund is a capital fund that creates and preserves affordable housing in all communities across Washington State.  The HTF leverages more than four times its funding from other sources and acts as a stimulus to the local economy by providing jobs. More than seventy percent of people served by Housing Trust Fund units make less than $17,540 per year, making it a vital resource in the fight to end homelessness.

Status: Thought before session to be an impossibility, the HTF is now part of a larger jobs bill package rolled out in a Wednesday press conference.  Funding for Housing Trust would be $100 million.

Housing and Essential Needs (HEN):

Summary:  Housing and Essential Needs (HEN) is a new program created last session and enacted in November 2011 in place of the Disability Lifeline cash assistance program.  Instead of providing $197/month in cash  assistance to all eligible clients who were disabled (physically and/or mentally) and temporarily unable to work, the HEN program supports housing costs for
some former DL-U clients who are eligible for Medical Care Services (MCS) because of their disability and are homeless or at risk of being homeless. The state allocation for HEN was less than half the allocation for DL-U cash assistance. Clients receiving medical care services are referred to HEN for evaluation and could be eligible to receive up to $400 in housing support as well as essential needs including bus passes.

Status: The program operates in all counties but with HEN being a relatively new program and not an automatic part of MCS, referrals are taking a while to build.  With only a few months experience in running the program and smaller than anticipated expenditures, the budget for next year may be at risk.

In the budget that has been approved by Congress, and is expected to be signed by President Obama, we are pleased to share that the majority of programs that United Way has prioritized have stayed intact or even increased in funding. Given the conomic and political landscape, this is good news. Please see below for highlights of FY2012 program funding in our building block areas. Note: There is an additional 0.189 percent across the board cut to all programs not reflected in these numbers.

INCOME

• Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP): $120 million – the same as FY2011. (A special thank you to the nearly 700 advocates who spoke up for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program in the past couple of weeks. Given the 40% cut xperienced last year, we consider it a win that the EFSP maintained funding).
• Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) matching grants: $12 million – the same as FY2011
• Workforce Investment Act (WIA) adult training, youth training and dislocated worker grants: $2.61 billion – down $55 million (2.07%) from FY2011
• Workforce Innovation Fund (created last year with the input from several United Ways and written testimony from United Way Worldwide): $50 million – down $75 million from FY2011
• Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP): $3.48 billion – down $1.22 billion from FY2011
• Individual Development Account Initiative: $19.91 million – down $4.07 million from FY 2011
• Child Care and Development Block Grant: $2.28 billion – up $60 million from FY2011
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): $80.4 billion – up $15.19 billion from FY2011 (Passed November 18, 2011 in H.R. 2112)
• Section 8 Housing Vouchers: $17.24 billion – up $474.6 million from FY 2011  (Passed November 18, 2011 in H.R. 2112)
• Community Development Block Grant: $3.3 billion – down $192.9 million from FY2011 (Passed November 18, 2011 in H.R. 2112)

HEALTH

• Healthy Start: $104.78 million – up $415 million from FY2011
• Medicaid total grants to states: $184.28 billion – up $11.14 billion from FY2011
• Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion: $760.7 million – down $53.29 million from FY2011
• Women, Infants and Children (WIC): $6.6 billion – down $130 million from FY2011 (Passed November 18, 2011 in H.R. 2112)
• Child Nutrition Programs: $18.15 billion – up $830 million from FY2011 (Passed November 18, 2011 in H.R. 2112)
• Community Health Centers: $1.58 billion – the same as FY2011
• Maternal and Child Health Block Grant: $646.32 million – down $10 million from FY2011

EDUCATION

• Head Start: Funded at $8 billion – $424 million above FY 2011
• Title I Grants: Funded at $14.5 billion – $60 million above FY 2011
• Special Education programs: Funded at $11.6 billion – an increase of $100 million above FY 2011
• School Improvement Grants (SIG): Funded at $534.6 million
• Striving Readers Comprehensive Literacy Program: Funded at $160 million – this is a restoration from FY 2011
• Investing in Innovation Fund (i3): Funded at $149.7 million
• Race to the Top: Funded at $550 million, and continues to allow those funds to be used for the Early Learning Challenge competition
• 21^st Century Community Learning Centers: Funded at $1.151 billion
• Promise Neighborhoods Initiative: Funded at $60 million – $30 million above FY 2011

We at Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center have a distinct evolutionary lens we look through every day.  We believe to be elevant, timely and responsive to both the changing needs in the community and the changing economic  environment, continuous evolution and being nimble is critical to success.  We are always looking for opportunities that improve who we are and what we do.  That perspective has led us to some interesting and rewarding adventures.

For 75 years, Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center has been serving the Pacific Northwest as a nonprofit business.  During those years, the organization has evolved through ongoing work with all three sectors of nonprofit, corporate and government.   Several collaborations have resulted in entities like the Shared Services Coalition, a group of 8 nonprofit leaders* regularly meeting to explore new levels of partnership and sharing of intellectual capital…a kind of innovation incubator.  Now Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center has taken its evolution to a new level by acquiring the assets of a mission-aligned for-profit business, SignOn Interpreting Services, Inc.

The acquisition increased the Center’s staff to 50 and added $1.2 million to its budget which is now at nearly $4 million.  It certainly increased the reach and sustainability of the Center but more importantly, it increased the capacity to serve and serve more fully.   While SignOn was a for-profit company, the mission and culture alignment was so strong that it made great sense to partner up.  As a nonprofit, we acquired the assets of the company (not the company itself) and because it serves the identical
constituents served by Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center this fit seemed like the most natural extension of who the Center is.

The Center, which serves over 5,000 people a year, provides services to people who are deaf or hard of hearing in 13 counties of Western Washington.  Services begin for newborns and carry through to elderly clients, and represent all socio-economic levels.  SignOn has a list of 500 clients including schools and universities, heath care providers, government agencies, the legal system, corporations, small businesses, nonprofits and the arts.   Through the asset acquisition Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center, the largest and most established nonprofit agency in the Pacific Northwest serving deaf and hard of hearing people, and SignOn, the largest sign language interpreting agency in the Pacific Northwest, will continue providing unparalleled communication access.

SignOn officially began  its new chapter as a program of Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center on December 1, 2011.  SignOn only uses certified, qualified interpreters and specializes in high quality customer service, matching the right sign language interpreter for each situation.

*Shared Services Coalition: Susie Burdick, Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center; Shelley Rotondo, NW Harvest; Megan Karch, FareStart; Mike Hatzenbeler, Provail; Melany Brown, Alliance for Nonprofits; Barry McConnell, Make-A-Wish Foundation; Kathy Alm, Little Bit Therapeutic Riding; and Janis Avery, Treehouse

This recession is unique among recent recessions in the overall loss of jobs and revenue as well as the depth of the loss making the recovery not a swift recovery back to “normal”  but an extended period of high unemployment, rising costs of goods, high foreclosure rate and  overall lack of consumer confidence.  To illustrate, Washington has lost 195,000 jobs since the beginning of the recession and regained only 62,000.

The combination of deficits in anticipated revenue collections, caseload growth (reflecting greater needs) and higher than average inflationary costs have resulted in reductions totaling over $10 billion in state general fund dollars in the last three years.  The November 16 caseload forecast and the November 17  revenue forecast are expected to result in more shortfalls in
state revenue.

At an October 10 Senate Ways and Means budget briefing, the budget shortfall problem was described in these terms:  a $2 billion shortfall could be resolved if everyone in the state donated $3-400 or if all higher education and state employee salaries and benefits were reduced by half for 18 months.  Ending support for all higher education or closing the Department of Corrections did not generate enough savings to close the shortfall.

Since two-thirds of the state budget is constitutionally or legally protected (debt service, pensions, K-12 education), the $2 billion plus budget shortfall needs to be taken from $8.7 billion of the state budget resulting in a 23% cut.

Governor’s response

In anticipation of the September 15 revenue forecast, the governor had asked her state departments to submit 10% reductions in 5% increments.  Using that information, the Governor unveiled a Roadmap of $2 billion and $4 billion cuts on October 27.   The Roadmap is a picture of the cuts necessary to balance the budget without any new revenue sources.  This  picture shows how the deep cuts will decimate many of the state’s model safety net programs and includes such egregious reductions as:

Eliminating state support for domestic violence programs (affecting 16,700 people)
Eliminating Disability Lifeline medical (affecting 21,000 people), chemical dependency treatment (affecting 15,000 people), and cash assistance (affecting 15,000 people)
Potentially eliminating in home care for 25,000 developmentally disabled and elderly people
Suspending adult Medicaid pharmacy benefits (affecting 277,000 people)
Eliminating Basic Health Plan (affecting 35,000 people; reducing or eliminating Maternity Support Services (affecting 55,000 pregnant women)
Eliminating State Food Assistance Program (affecting 13,000 people)
Reducing state funding for subsidized child care (affecting between 4-6,000 children)

Susan Dreyfus reminded those attending the Seattle DSHS budget briefing in October that cutting state general fund also results in loss of federal dollars.  DSHS draws down 50 cents in federal money for every state dollar invested.

The governor will be presenting her FY2012-13 budget during the week of November 21 in anticipation of having the legislature back in special session beginning November 28. The Governor has said that her budget could include new revenue to balance the budget if she feels relatively confident that the revenue would be adopted by a two-thirds vote of the legislature.

Advocates meeting with the Governor

A group of human services advocates met with the Governor on Oct 31 to discuss the reductions, priorities and potential revenue responses.  The governor clearly conveyed several themes including: had Congress done its job in August, all states would be in a better financial position buoyed by stronger consumer confidence; she hopes the focus of the special session will be on the budget and the focus of regular session on how to get people back to work; advocates and policy makers need to focus on what services they would most like to save and how those investments/cuts would look 10 years down the road; and she would entertain all viable suggestions about revenue enhancements.  The advocates presented some revenue options and asked to maintain flexibility in use of reduced funding i.e. do not dictate how services would be delivered to vulnerable populations by program type.

The main takeaways from the training:

• The pressures on the budget are real, significant and won’t be gone soon. As a person from Texas put it “If you are not at the table (during budget discussions) you are on the menu (of cuts)
• Federal deficit spending is the highest since WWII and represents 10% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Deficit reduction actions taken by the feds will put more pressure on the states and the states in turn will move more responsibilities to the county level.
• Federal funds (grants, salaries, procurement, direct payments) account for 25-30% of state’s budgets (in WA state, federal funds account for 20% of the state budget). Big federal reductions combined with the current 10%+ reductions that need to be taken on the state level will hit inordinately hard on health and human services.
• The Joint Select Committee (also known as the Super Committee) is tasked with finding $1.2 trillion in budget reductions over the next 10 years. Their recommendation or plan needs to go to Congress by Nov 23 and Congress needs to approve the package (with no amendments –an up or down vote) by December 23. If Congress does not approve the package then across the board cuts will kick in January 2013 (one year after no agreement is reached).  This is called sequestration and is not a process that electeds like because it indiscriminately cuts programs without factoring in merit.
• If the Joint Select Committee proposes less than the $1.2 trillion and Congress agrees to the plan, then the remaining amount up to $1.2 trillion will be subject to sequestration. Fifty percent of the across the board cuts will need to be taken in defense and 50% in non-defense. The cuts would amount to about $109 billion/year for 10 years. One presenter suggested that states would do better (have less cuts) under sequestration than through the regular federal budget appropriation process.
• The Joint Select Committee has no content restrictions on the plan that it proposes to Congress by November 23—it can: include tax reform, make major cuts to entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and SS or do any combination in between. With so little time, speakers felt that there will not be major tax reform proposed but rather the focus will be on cutting entitlement programs (Worldwide reminded us that more than half of people served by Medicaid are children). A representative from the Republican Whip’s office stated that the package could include a reduction in health care (in the form of payment reduction to providers and LTC facilities), some tax reform, adjustments to Social Security and changes to TANF in order to make it more “efficient”.
• Speakers emphasized that if you advocate “don’t cut spending for programs” you have to be prepared to talk revenue.  One speaker encouraged people not to react always to cuts but to respond to outcomes and use outcome statements.
• This fall, the focus in Congress will be on jobs creation, economic development, loosening federal environmental and other regulations (“get government out of the way of economic development”) and education.
• A speaker from the Committee for Economic Development showed in a recent survey that business leaders want to be involved in advocacy but are not. United Ways can use their brand name to advantage as a way to engage business leaders. As a speaker from Texas said, you can only do so much with money, but without voices change will not be accomplished.
• A speaker from the White House posited that there should be a national debate about the role of federal  government and the level of support necessary. He pointed out that the President’s budget (the third one presented this year) cuts more than the Budget Control Act requires and lays out a plan to support the American Jobs Act. He felt the use of federal funds is most successful when there is a connection to the non-profit sector and that reductions now need to come more from the wealthier.
• There has been much national discussion about the “Buffet rule” where Warren Buffet said he should pay at least as much in tax rate as his secretary (51% of people don’t pay income tax)

The main takeaways from the Day on the Hill:

• I was able to meet with five congressional offices including those of Congressmen McDermott, Inslee, Reichert and Senators Murray and Cantwell (Inslee was the only Congressman that I met with in person)
• With each congressional office, I introduced UWW (largest non-governmental funder of human services in the US with 95% of funding from private sources and a network of over 1200 United Ways throughout the country), thanked the Congress person for his/her specific past support of United Way priorities, and made 4 asks: Restore Emergency Food and Shelter program to its 2009 and 2010 funding level; Preserve the charitable deduction; Continue EITC (earned income tax credit)-it is an important piece of free tax preparation; and Reauthorize SNAP (food stamps) as part of the Farm bill reauthorization this fall
• Congressman Inslee supported all 4 asks and stated that we should let funders know the clear trade-offs that are being considered e.g. cuts to human services while protecting tax deductions; Congressman Reichert’s legislative aide would pass the information along to the appropriate people but the Congressman was all about jobs and support of working families; Senator Murray’s staff said she has been supportive of these issues in the past, was all about preserving support for the most vulnerable (including food stamps) and would be taking a thoughtful look at tax policies (as co-chair of the Joint Select Committee); Senator Cantwell’s office was sympathetic to the asks but did not offer specific support; and Congressman McDermott’s office said that he championed EITC, redefined the discussion around poverty, and understands the issues around charitable deductions.

• The president will be allowed to raise the debt ceiling in three stages up to $2.4 trillion through the end of 2012
• The federal budget will be reduced by at least $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years
• The bill imposes spending caps that will reduce the deficit by $917 billion over the next 10 years
• A bipartisan budget committee with equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats will be created to seek up to another $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction.  Should the Congressional committee members not agree to an additional $1.5 trillion in reduced government spending by November, that would set off automatic across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion over a decade, with about half coming from the military.
• Congress will be required to vote on a constitutional amendment requiring it to balance its budget.

Even though the compromise allowed the federal government to keep its doors open and bills paid through 2012, the jury is still out about whether the arrangement will result in the federal government and some local governments being able to keep their triple A credit rating.  The Moody’s agency said late Tuesday it will maintain the U.S.’ top AAA rating, but warns that the outlook for the country is negative and that it could downgrade the rating of local governments and the University of Washington .  A downgraded credit rating would increase the government’s cost to borrow money, and could raise interest rates on many consumer loans.

While some analysts say that downgrading to double A status will not seriously affect the economy, others believe that a downgrade will cause serious complications.  Washington state treasurer, Jim McIntyre recently shared his view of the possible fall out of a downgrade on the state.

On or around July 29^th, you will receive your 2011 Primary Ballot in your mail. That’s just one week away, and the renewal of the King County Veterans & Human Services Levy is Proposition 1 on that ballot.  

The current Veterans & Human Services Levy was passed by nearly 58% of the voters in 2005, but it is set to expire at the end of this year.  Over the past 5 years, the current levy has helped more than 82,000 veterans, their families and others all across King County.  The proposed measure would continue the existing levy for six years at the current tax rate.  This is not a tax increase! The average homeowner would invest $17 annually. Half of the proceeds would be dedicated exclusively for programs to assist veterans and their families. The other half would support general human service programs available to all King County residents.

 The Veterans and Human Services Levy funds essential services like:

• Employment training
• Veterans treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Housing with support services
• Behavioral health services
• Services for new mothers and infants

Specifically, the King County Veterans & Human Services Levy has provided $34 million in funding to programs that help end homelessness.  The Levy has funded initiatives that identify, engage, and house long-term homeless individuals, projects that increase permanent housing with support services, and programs that link education & employment to supportive housing. At the end of 2010, the Levy had helped fund a total of 25 affordable housing projects, creating more than 1,200 new units with 177 reserved for veterans.

However this funding source, which works to help end homelessness, treat veterans with PTSD, and help veterans and others across the county find employment and get back to work, will end on December 31, 2011 if it is not approved.  If you would like more information or would like to support the levy please contact kelly@housingconsortium.org or visit: http:///www.vetsandhumanservices.org

 2011-2013 Budget Outcomes

Updated as of June 17, 2011

Information subject to revision as we further analyze a very complex set of budget provisions.  For more information contact UWKC Public Policy Director Carol Wood, cwood@uwkc.org 

The 2011 Legislative Session was the most challenging I’ve experienced in my 18 years working in Olympia, resulting in 135 intense days of Regular and Special Sessions, due to the combination of many factors: 

Budgetary Circumstances

The Great Recession’s impact on the economic growth of Washington, as with the rest of the nation, has taken the same kind of toll on the state’s budget as well.  The 2010 Legislature cut about $5 billion from a range of state programs, but the economy’s continued stagnation resulted in further revenue shortfalls to maintain existing programs.  Washington’s tax system relies disproportionately on the sales, property, real estate excise, and business & occupation (B&O) taxes, all of which are growing much more slowly than other portions of the economy.  This is because each relies on some form of consumer spending, which is continuing to lag substantially despite the current slow economic recovery. 

To address the ongoing budget shortfalls, the Governor instituted administrative cuts in October 2010, but these were insufficient to maintain a balanced budget, so the Legislature had to return for a one-day Special Session in December to make additional budget cuts to the 2010 budget. 

The 2011 Legislature had to make many more cuts to the budget to balance it for the remainder of 2010, as well as nearly $5 billion more for the upcoming 2011-13 biennium that begins on July 1 of this year.  No part of the budget was sacrosanct. Significant cuts were made across the board:  K-12 education, higher education, environmental protection, economic development, human services, health care, infrastructure investments, and state employee and teacher salaries and benefits all fell victim to the budget axe to various extents.  Selected details of the cuts to programs most closely monitored and worked by United Way of King County are summarized in another blog post.

Ballot Measures

The 2010 elections saw a range of measures on the ballot with significant impacts on the 2011 Legislative Session:

• I-1053 by Tim Eyman once again reinstated the requirement that any tax increase, no matter how small, either garner a 2/3 majority of both houses in the Legislature, or else be sent by the Legislature to the voters for decision by a simple majority vote. 
• I-1107 repealed a range of taxes on soda pop, candy, bottled water, and food processors that had been enacted by the 2010 Legislature, exacerbating the existing deep hole in the budget.
• I-1098 would have enacted a high-earners income tax, but was soundly defeated by the voters.

The combination of these three measures’ results caused many in Olympia to decide that the state’s voters had decisively sent them a message to rule out new taxes as a method for helping to balance the budget.  Governor Gregoire indicated “The problem is those legislators upstairs [in the Capitol] believe, as I did, they heard ‘three strikes’ when it comes to revenue.”

In addition, three policy measures were defeated by voters, but were nonetheless revisited by the 2011 Legislature:

• I-1082 would have significantly overhauled the state’s workers compensation system; and
• I-1100 and I-1105 would have privatized the state’s liquor store sales system.

Politics

Another result of the 2010 elections was a significant trimming of the legislative majorities enjoyed by the Democrats in Olympia.  The Senate had previously been controlled by a 31-17 Democratic majority, and the House by 61-37.  For 2011, these majorities had shrunk to 27-21 and 56-42, respectively. 

As a result, the influence of the moderate Democrats in both houses was sharply increased.  These moderates, who titled themselves the “Roadkill Caucus” to emphasize the perils of being in the “middle of the road”, were able to band together with the Republicans on issues of importance to them, to ensure compromise on the part of the remainder of their Democratic colleagues in the Senate, and with the House in negotiations over policy and budget issues. 

This resulted in a bipartisan Senate budget crafted in concert between Senator Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle), the Chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee, and Senator Joe Zarelli (R-18, Ridgefield), his Republican counterpart.  This type of bipartisan coordination on the budget has not been seen in many years, probably not since the 49-49 tie in House membership between Democrats and Republicans during 1999-2001. 

Major Policy Issues of Contention

As a result of the above factors and the resulting political and policy disagreements, the 2011 Legislative Session was relatively unique in the number, type, and significance of budget and policy issues that were on the table for serious discussion and consideration.  A few of these are highlighted below, underscoring the practical challenges tackled by the 2011 Legislature.

Budget philosophy:  The Governor’s proposed 2011-13 budget, released in December 2010, eliminated a number of programs to save money, such as the Basic Health Plan, Disability Lifeline (formerly General Assistance-Unemployable).  The House budget preferred to retain many of these programs in their entirety, instead making deeper cuts elsewhere.  The Senate’s approach, which eventually prevailed, was to make serious cuts across the board in many programs, but to resist eliminating them, preserving the programs but scaling them down in funding, eligibility, or enrollment, or changing the nature or focus of the programs.

Debt limit:  The State Treasurer, Governor, and Senate wished to limit the amount of the state’s operating budget that can be obligated for debt service on public works and other capital projects through a Constitutional amendment, while the House wished to retain the previous system of paying for such projects.  The disagreement threatened to potentially send the Legislature into a second Special Session, but marathon negotiating in the waning hours of Special Session (concluding at 5 am on the last day) resulted in a compromise being reached that limited the amount of state debt through statutory means and established two new commissions to better oversees the state’s amount and use of debt. 

Workers Compensation:  Strong disagreements between many business and labor interests regarding the way the state pays for compensation of injured workers once again resulted in the Governor and the Senate negotiating extensively with the House, and a substantial reworking of the system (opposed by the labor community) was eventually agreed upon and enacted.

Taxes / Revenue:  Due to the election results on the “three strikes” of I-1053, I-1098, and I-1107, major discussion of taxes and revenue as a method for balancing the budget was relatively rare during the 2011 Legislative Session.  Under I-1053, it would have required a 2/3 vote of both houses of the Legislature to enact any tax increases, or else a simple majority vote to send the decision to the voters.  Because of the results of the 2010 initiatives, many legislators felt that new taxes either should not be enacted, or that it would unwise to send such taxes to a vote of the people.  In the end, though there were some fee increases that were approved by the Legislature, only one significant tax measure (House Bill 2078) reached a full vote, on the floor of the House, where it failed to reach the 2/3 majority required by I-1053.

Privatization:   Though recent Legislatures had made significant reductions to the number of state employees, their hours, and wages and benefits, there had been relatively little private contracting for existing state functions.  A spirited debate occurred in the 2011 Legislature around this topic, including another discussion of privatizing the state’s liquor stores.  In the end, there were a number of state functions that were consolidated or transferred into a Department of Enterprise Services and Consolidated Technology Services, and some additional functions opened for private contracting, including authorization to seek a private contractor to administer the state’s liquor distribution system (though not the actual liquor stores).  Both of these proposals are currently on the Governor’s desk awaiting her consideration.

Overall, it is likely that the 2012 Legislative Session will be similar to the ones just concluded, as many of the dynamics that made 2011 challenging will remain, there were many issues of contention that remained unresolved at the end of the Special Session, and there will be new situations that arise in the months between now and next January.