Emily Makings

First Look at the 2011 Supplemental Deal

As Dick noted, the House and Senate have come to an agreement on the next round of spending cuts to make, in the ongoing effort to close the 2009-11 budget shortfall.  Senate Ways and Means has an intial comparison of the agreement to the bills that passed the House and Senate, and to the governor’s […]

Washington's UI Trust Fund

Stateline.org has more today on unemployment insurance — specifically that for many states interest payments on federal loans are coming due.  Washington is not one of them; in fact, our unemployment insurance trust fund is the healthiest in the country. So we’ve got that going for us, which is nice.

President's Budget and UI Taxable Wages

The Wall Street Journal reports that the President’s budget (to be released next week) will include a provision that would increase the level of wages subject to the federal unemployment tax, as a way to “restock strained state unemployment-insurance trust funds.”  Currently, the taxable wage base is set at $7,000; the President would increase that […]

Senate W&M 2011 Supplemental Plan

Today the Senate Ways and Means (W&M) Committee released its plan to chip away some more at the remaining 2009-11 budget shortfall.  Like the supplemental passed by the House, this proposal would not close the entire shortfall.  Also like the House-passed version, Senate W&M would make transfers from numerous accounts into the general fund.  In […]

Health Care Hot Spots

Last week's New Yorker has an article about the idea that we can lower health care costs by focusing on the neediest patients.  It profiles a Camden, N.J. doctor who took the medical billing records of the local hospitals and set about mapping the areas of the city whose residents had the highest hospital costs.  […]

Going Beyond Just Cutting Government

There is a good piece in the Wall Street Journal on reinventing government.  Written by Louis Gerstner (a former CEO of IBM), it ties in nicely with what the Washington Roundtable and the Research Council are doing with our Thrive Washington series.  Gerstner’s recommendations for governments (at all levels) are: Do not impose “across-the-board” cost […]

House-passed 2011 Supplemental

On Monday, the House passed a 2011 supplemental bill that reduces the NGFS shortfall by $346 million.  (The vote on final passage was 55-43.)  Our brief on the bill is available here. Unfortunately, although it does make significant spending cuts, the bill does not fully address the shortfall–some $160 million remains.  In the brief, we […]

House GOP 2011 Supplemental Amendment

Yesterday Rep. Alexander released an amendment to strike SHB 1086, the 2011 Supplemental bill that was approved by the House Ways and Means (W&M) committee earlier this week.  (The amendment and a summary of its effects can be accessed here.) Like the W&M bill, the amendment includes a combination of spending reductions and fund transfers.  […]

How to Contain Health Care Spending

Yesterday the latest paper in the Thrive Washington series was released: Containing State Health Care Spending While Improving Outcomes. This was a timely release, given the vote yesterday in the U.S. House of Representatives to repeal federal health care reform and the major cuts in health spending that are being contemplated in the Washington legislature. […]

The House Democrats' 2011 Supplemental

Yesterday the House Democrats released their proposed 2011 Supplemental (HB 1086).  It does not cut as deeply as the governor's proposal, which would cut $255 million (NGFS+Opportunity Pathways).  Instead, the House Democrats would cut $216 million.  Some differences are: The House Democrats would suspend the Becca/Truancy Program, to save $3.1 million. They cut Regional Support […]