Emily Makings

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 […]

About Those Tuition Increases…

The theme of this week's posts at the Becker-Posner blog is tuition increases at public universities.  Posner argues that keeping tuition low for all students–regardless of ability to pay–is unwarranted: In any event, there is no case at all from an overall social standpoint for subsidizing students who would pay full college tuition, without the […]

Public-Sector Unions

The Economist has an interesting article on public-sector unions in the U.S. and elsewhere (and the challenges they face as governments cut back on spending).  They note that union density in the public sector is much stronger than that in the private sector. This is true both nationally in the U.S. and in Washington.  

Health Care and Employee Benefits Spending Charts

In her State of the State address yesterday (reported on by the Seattle Times here), Gov. Gregoire pointed to two areas of state spending that must be tackled, for the long-term health of the budget:  health care and pension spending.  The governor noted that health care costs have doubled over the past decade, while pension […]

Fixing the Budget Problem by Reducing Waste and Fraud?

A recent Elway Poll, according to the Seattle Times, found that 71 percent of those polled think the budget could be balanced simply by reducing waste and fraud.  This is wishful thinking.  While reducing waste and fraud can certainly contribute to the budget solution, the magnitude of the problem ($4.6 billion) is such that it […]

Governor's 2011 Supplemental

We have a new policy brief on Gov. Gregoire’s proposed 2011 supplemental budget.  Although the legislature made deep cuts to the 2009-11 budget during its special session a few weeks ago, they did not completely close the gap.  The governor’s proposal would do so.  It takes into account revised estimates as to the costs to […]

Better Services, Lower Costs!

The third paper in the Thrive Washington series is now available.  The Case for Contracting Out: A Vital Tool to Help Balance Washington’s Budget and Improve Public Services shows how the state could save money by contracting out a variety of services it currently provides. Other states have had success with opening services to competitive […]

Only the Beginning

Today we published a policy brief on the special session that took place on Saturday.  As discussed in the brief, legislators made good headway in addressing the $1.1 billion 2009-11 budget shortfall:  They reduced it by $588 million. The $588 million comes in the form of budget reductions ($490.4 million), fund transfers ($54 million), a […]

More on the Special Session Agreement

The House Democrats have released the full list of reductions in the agreement that legislators and the Governor came to yesterday.  I have added these proposals to my spreadsheet comparing the different ideas; it can be accessed here: Reduction Comparison 12.10.10 The agreement cuts DSHS, Natural Resources and Legislative by less than any of the […]