Kriss Sjoblom

Preliminary March Economic Forecast

The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council posted the Preliminary March Economic Forecast today. The summary memo from Arun Raha (ERFC Executive Director) to the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors is here; calendar year tables are here; fiscal year tables are here. With regards to the national economy Raha’s memo has this good news: The near-term […]

Tuition Transfer Update

As I discussed in an earlier post, the Senate version of the early action supplemental budget cut general fund–state funding to the higher education coordinating board (HEC Board) for the state need grant by $25.4 million. The Senate supplemental budget backfilled this loss in two steps. The first step was an appropriation of $25.4 million […]

Minimum Wage Proposal Is Misguided

For 2011, Washington state’s minimum wage is $8.67 per hour. This is the country’s highest state minimum wage. Legislators are considering a misguided proposal to revise the manner in which the state’s minimum wage is indexed for inflation; this proposal would over time push the wage much, much higher.

February Economic and Revenue Update

The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council's February Economic and Revenue Update was released today. The key number is $44.8 million. This is the cumulative shortfall in collections over the three months since the November update to the general fund revenue forecast. Today's report increases the likelihood that the next revision to the revenue forecast, which […]

Tuition Transfer

This follow-up to Emily’s earlier post on the Senate’s early action supplemental budget proposal (Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1086) provides a bit more detail with respect to higher education. The Senate-passed early action budget (the Senate Ways and Means Committee staff summary of the chair’s proposal is available here, the bill [big file] is available […]

Is Manufacturing Back?

John Talton had a column titled “Manufacturing Is Back, But It Isn’t Pretty” in the Sunday Seattle Times. He sure got the “it isn’t pretty” part right. Here are three charts to give some perspective on how manufacturing has fared in and after the Great Recession:

Union Membership in Washington State, 2010

In January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual report on union membership, which shows that Washington remains the 4th most highly unionized state in the nation. In 2010, 19.4 percent of Washington workers were members of a union. This is down from the 20.2 percent reported for 2009. Nationally, 11.9 percent of workers […]

Washington drops from 5th to 6th in Milken Science and Technology Index

The Milken Institute today released its 2010 State Science and Technology Index. Washington fell to 6th from the 5th place it held in the 2008 Milken rankings, while Utah moved up to 5th from 8th. Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado and California retained the top four spots. The report notes: Washington slipped to sixth overall this year […]

S&P/Case-Shiller Indices Show Seattle-Area House Prices Continue to Decline

Standard and Poor’s today released the S&P/Case-Shiller House Price Indices for November. S&P’s Davd Blitzer noted:  “With these numbers more analysts will be calling for a double-dip in home prices.” As the chart below shows, Seattle’s first dip has yet to hit bottom. The November value of the seasonally adjusted index for Seattle is 140.77, […]

Pacific Place Garage

Fewer people have been parking at the city of Seattle’s Pacific Place garage, and the facility is losing money as a result. In an op-ed in today’s Seattle Times, Matt Griffin and I suggest that the city should cut rates to regain volume. For a garage, even more so than an office building, the capital […]