Emily Makings

Policy Today: A look at the special session

In Focus this week: Free trade, minimum wage for actors, and rent control

Sundry links: Trade, the budget, McCleary

Economist Gregory Mankiw has an excellent column in the New York Times: “Economists Actually Agree on This: The Wisdom of Free Trade.” Former state senator Rodney Tom has an op-ed in the Seattle Times about the state budget: “It was easy to make a case for fiscal responsibility when the state was in desperate financial […]

The false hope of rent control

Last week Seattle City Councilmembers Kshama Sawant and Nick Licata held an affordable housing town hall. From the news reports of the meeting, it sounds like rent control was the main agenda item. As I’ve written before, this is a bad idea. Still, it seems like this may be the new hot topic in Seattle, […]

With special enrollment period over, Exchange still shy of goal

Open enrollment for health insurance coverage through the Washington Health Benefit Exchange (HBE) ended Feb. 15, but the Exchange held a special enrollment period from Feb. 17 through April 17 — for “Washingtonians who recently became aware of the tax penalty for not having health insurance or were unable to complete their applications due to […]

In Focus this week: The Exchange and the budget, March employment report, and an income tax for education?

Dueling op-eds on the budget proposals

The Seattle Times has op-eds from both the House and the Senate on their 2015-17 operating budget proposals. Reps. Ross Hunter and Reuven Carlyle and Sen. Andy Hill provide an overview of the differences between the chambers, as seen by the primary budget writers. (See here for a more inside-baseball take from Rep. Hunter.) Hunter […]

Policy Today: Levy Swap and Tax Increases for Education

Expanding opportunity through free trade

Former Gov. Chris Gregoire and former governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick had an op-ed in the Seattle Times on April 13 on the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The TPP is a free trade agreement being negotiated by the U.S. and 11 other countries. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate Finance Committee agreed on a compromise […]

Rep. Hunter on the budget and education finance

Rep. Ross Hunter, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, has a very interesting blog post about what is going on in the budget negotiations and education finance. As Hunter shows, there are a number of issues that must be resolved. If you’re interested in either topic, I highly recommend it.