Stateline.org has a good summary of three new reports that suggest state governments could face long-term budget problems as the result of a recession that is already believed to be over.

"The bottom line is that states will not fully recover from this recession until late in the next decade," said Raymond Sheppach, executive director of the National Governors Association.

You can find the report here. It raises the possibility that the worst is yet to come for state governments, as the toughest budget environments often emerge during the two years after a recession is declared over.

The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled today to reverse a lower court ruling that previously deemed Washington's education funding formula unconstitutional.

Pete Callaghan at the Tacoma News Tribune has a write up about it here. Brad Shannon from the Olympian covers it here. And the Everett Herald's Jerry Cornfield writes about it here.

You can read the decision yourself here.

On day two of her trip to Morocco, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, reports social change has been a little slower to come by than what she's used to back home.

There leading a delegation for the Center for Women and Democracy, Brown has discovered that while she was first being elected to the Legislature, Moroccan women were first obtaining the right to be asked by their husbands before they took another wife.

For more about change coming to Morocco, check out Brown's latest post.

The state's Office of Financial Management has produced a handy document that, in simple terms and round numbers, charts out how the state plugged a $9 billion budget shortfall this year, how a new $1.7 billion shortfall emerged, and the areas of government that are eligible to be cut.

As you'll see, 70 percent of the budget is off limits. If that sounds higher than what you heard a year ago, it should. That's because there are fewer programs eligible to be cut after the Legislature this year slashed $3.3 billion from the budget.

So what's left that could be cut? Big ticket items include care for low-income seniors, mental health and developmental disabilities programs, prisons and community supervision programs plus limited options for cutting more out of education and higher education budgets.

The governor is expected to release her proposal for closing the gap in mid-December. The Legislature convenes Jan. 11 to begin crafting its version.

It's being widely reported that Sen. Fred Jarrett, D-Mercer Island, will resign his Senate seat to take a job as deputy executive in King County.

Jarrett was named to the position by newly-elected county executive Dow Constantine.

Jarrett has served in the Legislature for nine years. He was elected to the Senate in 2008.

Jerry Cornfield at the Everett Herald is reporting that supporters of Referendum 71 do not anticipate pushing legislation during the upcoming 2010 legislative session to legalize gay marriage.

"The closeness of the results indicates we have a lot of work to do before we move marriage legislatively or on the ballot," said Seattle Sen. Ed Murray, chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus.

You can find the story here.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, is in Morocco this week leading a delegation organized by the Center for Women and Democracy to explore leadership challenges faced by women there.

She's also blogging about the experience at her It's Not Enough To Be Right blog. In her first post Brown lays out, in detail, her first impressions.

Brown was named to lead the delegation in part for being the first woman in Washington to lead a Democratic majority in the Senate.

Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, announced today that his is renewing his push for legislation that would encourage state agencies to award 3 percent of goods and services contracts under $35,000 to businesses owned by veterans.

Senate Bill 5041 is modeled after legislation already approved at the federal level.

Read more about it here.

After Tuesday’s vote, the Associated Press has projected a victory for Referendum 71 . Senate Bill 5688 will take effect on Dec. 3, expanding the rights and responsibilities for Washington’s registered domestic partners. The original bill’s prime sponsor, Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle ...

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Over at Stateline.org they've got a pretty good write-up about the state of recovery for all 50 states and put Washington in a group of 38 where the recession is slowing. Eleven states are deemed to have started their recovery and one state -- Nevada -- is still mired in a deep recession.

You can find the report here.

One common thread among states already in recovery is housing markets that didn't bottom out the way it did in most states, including Washington.