Emily Makings

Thanks to Gov. Gregoire and Budget Staff

I've only just started going through Governor Gregoire's 2013-15 budget proposal, but I'd like to thank her and her budget staff for finally showing the balance sheet in terms of near general fund-state plus opportunity pathways (NGFS+). In the past, the governor's proposals have been in terms of the general fund-state, while legislative fiscal committee […]

A Few More Items on Health Care

Here is a map showing what states have decided to do about setting up health care exchanges, as of today. Nineteen states will set up their own exchanges, seven will partner with the federal government to set up exchanges, and 25 will leave it to the federal government entirely. On Monday, the Department of Health […]

The Costs of Medicaid Expansion for Washington

The Kaiser Family Foundation released “The Cost and Coverage Implications of the ACA Medicaid Expansion: National and State-by-State Analysis” in November. (Dick mentioned it in a post earlier this week.) Thanks to the June Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, states may choose not to implement the law’s Medicaid expansion. (There had been […]

Unemployment Insurance and Workers' Compensation Rates for 2013

Today the Employment Security Department (ESD) announced that unemployment insurance rates will either stay the same or be reduced for most employers in Washington for 2013. In 2013, 14 percent of employers will move into lower rate classes, 61 percent won’t change, and 25 percent will move into higher rate classes. More than one-third of […]

Maps of Unemployment Benefits Maximum Duration Since 2008

In 2008, the federal government enacted temporary emergency unemployment compensation (EUC) for people who run out of their regular state unemployment benefits. The program expires at the end of the year. Washington workers are eligible for 26 weeks of regular unemployment benefits, and under the EUC program, they may currently be eligible for 37 additional […]

Can WA Eliminate Public Pension COLAs?

In 2011, the legislature eliminated future automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for members of the Public Employees’ Retirement System Plan 1 (PERS 1) and the Teachers’ Retirement System Plan 1 (TRS 1). As we wrote in an April 2011 policy brief, In 1995, the legislature passed a bill providing retirees in PERS 1 and TRS 1 […]

Charter Schools and Low-Performing Students

In an October 2012 preliminary working paper, Ron Zimmer of Vanderbilt and Cassandra Guarino of Indiana University consider whether public charter schools “push out” low-performing students. The idea is that charter schools might try to improve their performance by “educating fewer challenging students.” But, as the authors say, “the claim of ‘pushing out’ low-achieving students […]

Study: Fully funding public pensions in Washington would require $1,371 per household per year

As Josh Barro wrote this summer, Pensions are complicated, and when they are not causing huge problems, they are boring . . . . Consequently, it has been easy for lawmakers to ignore the long-term risks to which they have been exposing taxpayers; it has not been hard for public-employee unions to talk these lawmakers […]

New Brief: A Complex Maze of State and Local Laws and Regulations

As we have noted previously (see here and here), the state auditor’s office is working on a performance audit of the state regulatory system. So far, an inventory of state regulations and a report on communicating regulatory information and streamlining business rules have been completed. Two key points from the latter are: Ultimately, anything other […]

New Brief: Labor Costs in Washington

In a new policy brief today, we take a general look at some aspects of labor costs in Washington. Unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation have been reformed recently by the legislature, but they remain costly compared to other states. Additionally, Washington’s minimum wage is the highest in the country, and laws regarding prevailing wage, paid […]