Richard S. Davis

Moderate Democrats get workers' compensation reform bill moving again

Yesterday’s move by moderate Democrats in the House to amend the bipartisan workers’ compensation reform bill passed by the Senate has revived prospects for legislative success in the waning days of the legislative session. This is an issue the Research Council has followed closely for a long time. Most recently, we published The Time Has […]

Tax Day column on assessing the tax burden

In my column in the Puget Sound Business Journal today I look at Tax Freedom Day, the level and distribution of the tax burden and how our state’s revenue structure compares with other states. It’s behind the firewall, so access is limited to subscribers. Here’s a sample. The tax discussion generally comes down to the […]

Closing tax "loopholes" won't solve the state budget problem

Kriss and I draw on our Clarifying the Role of Tax Preferences policy brief for this article in Crosscut.In both pieces, we point out the state’s already high business tax burden and the importance of tax preferences in offsetting tax pyramiding (multiple taxation of transactions in the production cycle). We also note that many so-called […]

The case for workers' comp reform

In my column this morning, I review the U.S. Chamber of Commerce 50-state study of employment costs. Washington ranks in the third tier of states, those with poor employment policies and high costs. (Emily notes here that the chamber’s data are a couple of years old. We’d look worse now.) Jason Hagey at Olympia Business […]

New Thrive Washington paper on employment cost drivers published today

The latest in the series of white papers published by the Washington Research Council and Washington Roundtable examines workers’ compensation reform and unemployment insurance. In particular, the report urges lawmakers to act this session to fix the state’s broken workers’ comp system. Here’s the link to Employment Cost Drivers in Washington State: The Case for […]

Keeping the best teachers in the classroom when it's necessary to downsize

That’s my subject in today’s Everett Herald column. Right now, layoffs are handled by seniority — last hired, first fired, with no regard for teacher performance. A pair of bills (HB 1609 and SB 5399) would create a performance-based system for staff reductions. The legislation calls for making layoff decisions based on teachers’ average evaluation […]

More thoughts on the revenue forecast and budget shortfall

Kriss posted the WRC policy brief on the March revenue forecast. Today, Crosscut ran my article on the forecast and budget gap. A couple of excerpts: Lawmakers facing a multi-billion dollar shortfall will want to spend everything Raha has identified for them. They shouldn’t. Remember, he also said downside risks are twice as high as […]

Perspectives on public pension problems…

Over the last week, we’ve seen some conflicting reports on the status of state and local plans nationally. A McClatchy story carried in several local papers suggested that the widely cited problems have been overblown. Quick dissent followed, but let’s allow the no-problem voices to go first. From McClatchy: There’s simply no evidence that state […]

Consumer confidence falls sharply

Kriss noted that state revenue collections were falling below projections, signaling a possible large downward revision in the forecast that will be released March 17. The predictive art faces increasing challenges in a dynamic and changing global economy, as discussed here and here. Now factor in another sign of tough times ahead. U.S. consumer sentiment […]

No pot of gold likely in St. Patrick's Day state revenue forecast ….

That’s the theme of my column today. Given the increasing difficulty of forecasting state revenues and the significant downside risks, I suggest legislators underspend the revenue forecast this year. And, they should resist the temptation to kick the can forward with one-time gimmics. That these ideas continue to surface signals a lack of legislative seriousness, […]