Emily Makings

Washington Health Benefit Exchange asks for $147 million for 2015-17

State Rep. Reuven Carlyle writes about the Washington Health Benefits Exchange’s (HBE) proposed 2015-17 budget: At a time when state agencies are being asked to model and potentially cut 15% from their budgets, the Washington Health Benefits Exchange is poised to ask the legislature to lift the cap on their budget to an astonishing $147 […]

Rent control would be a bad idea for Seattle

A Seattle Magazine article asks, “Is it Time to Bring Back Rent Control in Seattle?“ Socialist candidate Jess Spear thinks not, and has made ending the statewide rent control ban [RCW 35.21.830] a central tenet in her campaign against Frank Chopp for the 43rd Legislative District spot this year. . . . The ’60s and […]

Trade-offs of a higher minimum wage include automation

McDonald’s had a “dreadful” earnings report this week, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial. So even one of the world’s most ubiquitous consumer brands cannot print money at its pleasure. This may be news to liberal pressure groups that have lately been demanding that government order the chain known for cheap food to somehow […]

With ballots arriving, here's our take on I-1351

Ballots are in the mail or already delivered, so I thought I would re-post the link to our policy brief on one of this year’s initiatives: Initiative 1351 Class Size Reduction: A $4.7 Billion Unfunded Mandate with Dubious Educational Merit. It may also be helpful for voters to consider I-1351 in the broader budget context. […]

Balancing infrastructure needs and debt levels

As the Washington Roundtable’s Benchmarks for a Better Washington show, the condition of Washington’s infrastructure is poor compared to other states. The Everett Herald recently editorialized that the Legislature should have only two items on its agenda next year: education and transportation. A story in Bloomberg Business Week notes that, nationally, “local governments are not […]

Dutch-style pensions may be a good example for the U.S.

The New York Times published an interesting story on Dutch pension plans over the weekend. They are very different from those in the U.S.: The Dutch system rests on the idea that each generation should pay its own costs — and that the costs must be measured accurately if that is to happen. . . […]

I-1351 in the news

There have been several articles written about I-1351 over the past few days. For an initiative without an organized opposition campaign, it has been getting a lot of press. For good reason: the devil’s in the details. The Columbian writes, By Evergreen School District Superintendent John Deeder’s math, if Initiative 1351 were to pass this […]

Measuring workers' compensation costs

This week the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services released its workers’ compensation premium rate rankings for 2014. By this measure, Washington looks slightly better than in 2012, but still not good. Our premium rates rank 17th, compared to 13th in 2012, 26th in 2010, and 38th in 2008. As Kris Tefft of the […]

Links: King County "living wage," WA cell phone taxes, and Microsoft predictions

1. Earlier this week the King County Council adopted a “living wage” for county employees and county contractors. The new requirement will be phased in to reach $15 in 2017. The Seattle Times notes that it “applies only to people working directly or indirectly for taxpayers, partly because the county has limited authority over how […]

Ports of Seattle and Tacoma to form Seaport Alliance

Today the ports of Seattle and Tacoma announced a plan to unify the management of the two ports’ marine cargo terminals and related functions under a single Seaport Alliance in order to strengthen the Puget Sound gateway and attract more marine cargo for the region. The Seaport Alliance will manage marine cargo terminal investments and […]