Emily Makings

Retirement and Life Expectancy

The Economist Online has an interesting chart today on retirement. It shows life expectancies, official retirement ages, and effective retirement ages in 1970 and 2010, for 22 countries. As the Economist notes, pensionable ages have failed to keep pace with longevity.This comes at an increasing cost to the state. The OECD expects governments' expenditure on […]

State Auditor on Spending in Public Schools

Yesterday I pointed out the legislature’s new 2012 Citizen’s Guide to K-12 Finance. The state auditor’s office has also released a report on public school spending. The performance audit considers: What percentage of Washington’s educational dollars is spent on classroom instruction, and how does it compare with other states? How do expenditures at individual school […]

Public Schools Financing

The Senate Ways and Means Committee has released its 2012 Citizen's Guide to K-12 Finance.It talks about recent court rulings related to state funding of education (and legislative responses to them), looks at how much is spent on education (by several different measures) and where the money goes, and makes some comparisons to other states. […]

Public Pensions Face a "Painful Reckoning"

Over the weekend, the New York Times ran a good overview of the problem with public pension assumed rates of return on investments. As the article begins, “Few investors are more bullish these days than public pension funds.” The issue is that many public pension funds assume rates of return around 8 percent — much […]

New Brief: Increasing the 2011-13 Capital Budget

When considering the state budget, we tend to focus on the operating budget. Shifting gears, in a new policy brief, we discuss the 2012 supplemental capital budget. Unlike the operating supplemental, which reduced spending, the capital supplemental (enacted in April) increased spending by over $1 billion. About half of the increase is funded with general […]

New Brief: Balancing the Operating Budget

At the end of the first special session, the legislature passed SSB 6636. Beginning in 2013-15, the legislature will be required to enact operating budgets that are balanced over four years. Right now, the governor must propose a balanced budget, but there is no requirement for the legislature to actually pass one. Additionally, the Economic […]

New Brief: A Small Step for Public Pension Reform

During the budget negotiations, reforms to public employee pensions was a sticking point. In the end, the legislature adopted changes to the assumed rate of return on pension investments and reduced subsidized early retirement for new employees (hired on or after May 1, 2013). Current employees may retire early (before age 65), but their pensions […]

New Brief: Changes to Public School Employee Health Insurance Coverage

During the second special session, the legislature enacted a bill that makes some changes to the purchasing system for K-12 employee health benefits. The current system had been the subject of a February 2011 report by the state auditor, which suggested that the system be streamlined, standardized, and even consolidated. The new bill doesn’t go […]

New Brief: Repealing I-728, Grading Teachers, and Other 2012 Education Reforms

The legislature passed several education reform bills this year, which we consider in this policy brief. Significantly, as part of the budget compromise, legislators finally repealed I-728. By doing so, they helped clear the way for basic education funding needs. They also improved the 2013-15 fiscal situation by removing I-728 from the maintenance level. In […]

New Brief: Legislature Closes the 2011-13 Budget Gap, At Last

Our overview of the 2012 supplemental passed by the legislature last week is here. Future briefs will focus on the reforms that were passed as part of the compromise, and readers should keep in mind that the governor will not act on the budget bill until May 2 (so the numbers are still in flux). […]