Governor Says He Hasn’t Decided On Special Session

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The Washington state Supreme Court is ordering the state pay $100,000 a day in sanctions for its lack of progress toward fully paying the cost of basic education.

In a written statement, Gov. Jay Inslee said he will talk with the attorney general, legislative leaders and other to analyze the order. He did not say if he would call a special session of the legislature, as the Supreme Court encouraged him to do in the order.

The ruling is the latest development in a long-running impasse between lawmakers and justices, who in 2012 ruled in a lawsuit that the state is failing to meet its constitutional duty to pay for the cost of basic education for its 1 million schoolchildren.

Plaintiff's attorney Thomas Ahearne said that the court's action "is long overdue."