Gov. Chris Gregoire says she has suggested to lawmakers new ideas for raising more tax revenues in an attempt to break the impasse keeping legislators in Olympia. That includes renewed pushes for some tax proposals that had fallen by the wayside in negotiations.

Gregoire would particularly like to see legislators tax soda pop and limit the tax exemption banks get for home mortgages. And she has suggested some ways those proposals could be changed to allay concerns, she told reporters today at Auburn Senior High School.

“We’re offering up some alternatives,” Gregoire said.

Gregoire suggested an excise tax on soda pop in her budget, but legislators didn’t put it in their budget proposals. House Democrats proposed a cap on banks’ mortgage deduction, but many Senate Democrats don’t like the idea, predicting effects on community banks and home buyers. I wrote about the bank exemption in today’s paper.

Gregoire disputed that community banks would be hit, saying: “We can make sure that our big banks are paying their fair share in the state of Washington and not have it fall on the backs of our community banks.”

And she said as a soda drinker, she’s “willing to pay a couple pennies” on the price of a bottle of  pop to avoid budget cuts hitting preschool and hospice care.