Emily Makings

Budget Reduction Ideas Galore

The House Democrats have joined Republicans in offering budget reduction options.  For your spreadsheeting pleasure, I have put their full list of reduction ideas into an Excel document, which you can access here: HDC reduction list I am still going through the list, but I already have questions.  The full list compares the reductions to […]

Budget Fun

A post at Politics Northwest this afternoon highlights the Governor’s suggestion that June K-12 payments be delayed until July, as a way to save $240 million in FY2011 (more on the Governor’s proposed reductions here): Educators and staff would still get paid on time. It’s essentially a budget trick that would allow the state to […]

Governor's Reductions

Last week, Governor Gregoire released a list of programs that have been reduced or could be reduced to close the budget shortfall for FY2011.  In addition to across-the-board cuts, fund transfers, and payment delays, the Governor’s proposal would cut education, health, corrections, and other social services funding. As the Governor says in a letter to […]

21st Century Trade Barriers

Earlier this week, Google released a white paper on trade and the Internet: "Enabling Trade in the Era of Information Technologies: Breaking Down Barriers to the Free Flow of Information."  We tend to think of information freedom in human rights terms (or at least I have), but Google makes an interesting case for it being […]

Nine Steps to Budget Sustainability

Yesterday the second paper in the Thrive Washington series was released.  Nine Steps to Budget Sustainability in Washington State recommends changes to the state budget process and highlights areas requiring special attention. The steps are: 1. Manage the size and compensation of the state workforce to improve efficiency. 2. Improve budget transparency. 3. Reinstate a […]

I-1098 Roundup

The TaxProf blog has a roundup of local and national articles on the rejection of I-1098.

Total Votes Cast

After an election, I think it is interesting to see which issues or candidates actually persuaded voters to care enough to vote one way or another. This year, with all ballots not yet counted, the Secretary of State’s office is predicting very high turn out for a midterm election, and record amounts of money were […]

Thrive Washington

It’s clear from yesterday’s defeat of I-1098 and approval of I-1107 and I-1053 that Washington voters do not want to be taxed more. At the same time, the state budget status quo is unsustainable.  To make policy recommendations that will put state government on a better path, the Washington Roundtable and the Washington Research Council […]

60 Minutes on I-1098

Just in time for the election, yesterday 60 Minutes ran a segment on taxing the rich and Initiative 1098.  The Seattle Times’ Politics Northwest blog called it “a general overview of the campaign here, in the context of the national debate over increasing taxes on the rich.” (And they provide a link to the video.) […]

The Bigger Initiative Picture

An article in the Wall Street Journal today is worth reading.  It’s about what is going on with the Washington ballot initiatives: So look past the billionaires. At issue on this Washington ballot is how government is to respond when it is spending more money than it takes in. We have posted policy briefs on […]