Senate Republicans set to release state budget plan

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Senate Republicans in Washington state are set to release their two-year state budget proposal.

The plan is scheduled to be released Tuesday morning and will receive a public hearing in the afternoon. House Democrats will release their proposal next week.

Lawmakers are in the midst of a 105-day legislative session that is scheduled to end April 23. They need to write a new two-year operating budget that satisfies a state Supreme Court order requiring them to fully fund the state's basic education system.

There are differing ideas between the politically-divided chambers on how best to do that. House Democrats have passed an education plan but have not yet indicated how they'll pay for it. Senate Republicans previously passed a plan that seeks to replace local school levies with a statewide uniform rate earmarked for schools. The plan would raise the local school levy in some places, like Seattle, and decrease it in others.