Richard S. Davis

Jobless rate climbs to 8.5%, but some good news for retail

Washington’s unemployment rate jumped from 8.3 percent to 8.5 percent, as reported by the employment security department, which may want to consider a name change if this keeps up. OLYMPIA – Preliminary estimates of the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate and job numbers in Washington last month are seemingly at odds again, similar to the national […]

"Brainpower is spreading out:" More cities attracting the college educated

In the New Geography, Joel Kotkin reports that America’s college graduates are increasingly found outside the dominant metro areas. …The New York Times recently opined that “college graduates gravitate to places with many other college graduates and the atmosphere that creates.” Yet an analysis of Census data shared with Forbes by demographer Wendell Cox tells a different story. […]

WA and CA only states showing negative FY12 balance in NCSL budget update

While it’s not necessarily cause for alarm, the negative balances reported in the 2012 state budget update isn’t the happy news one hopes for in these things. As the National Conference of State Legislature’s notes: In Washington, FY 2012 marks the midpoint of the biennium; the shortfall will be eliminated over the remainder of the […]

August revenue collections report shows taxes track with forecast

Today’s revenue collections report, though possibly foreshadowing a softening, shows receipts continuing to track the June forecast. The press release has the yin and yang. It’s a good news/bad news thing. Major General Fund-State (GF-S) revenue collections were $45.0 million (3.8%) lower than the June forecast, but cumulative receipts for the last two months are […]

Gauging the size of the next budget shortfall

Yesterday OFM released its outlook for the state budget through FY 2017. (Here’s a link to today’s slightly revised version, a tweak to footnote h). Kriss presented a biennial look at the outlook yesterday. There’s been some news coverage. I’m quoted in Washington State Wire. Richard Davis, president of the Washington Research Council, said the […]

Primary day thoughts on electing too many statewide office holders…

In my column this morning, I write that, by electing nine statewide executives, our state weakens the office of governor and dilutes accountability. Only a handful of states elect nine or more executives. Diluting executive authority, however, frustrates accountability. Moreover, it allows special interests an inordinate influence on offices that matter mightily to them, but […]

So the best news is that we're not likely to fall into a double-dip recession

University of Michigan economist Mark Perry examined five economic reports yesterday and suggests they tell us that, though growth remains dismal, the U.S. economy was not sliding into recession. He asks the provocative question: All five indicators accurately signaled the last recession in 2007-2009, so they can’t all be wrong this time, can they? Take […]

Medicaid expansion will add to state budget stress

In my column this morning I look at the costs of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Earlier, Emily and I have reported on the findings of the State Budget Crisis Task Force (here and here). Medicaid costs are one of the six major budget threats identified by the group and the one most […]

WA business taxes are 5.5 percent of private GSP; 14th highest in nation

The Council on State Taxation today released its new report on state and local business taxes. We watch for the annual updates of this comprehensive report, conducted for COST by Ernst and Young. While there’s a lot of good information in the report, we turn to Table 4, which reports state and local business taxes […]

Good news: more online education coming to UW

Today’s Seattle Times report that the University of Washington has signed on with Coursera to offer online education represents good news and a welcome extension of a model designed to expand access to higher education. Coursera is “a huge experiment that is transforming the face of higher education,” said Daphne Koller, a Stanford University computer-science […]