Richard S. Davis

Seattle Times business columnist faults Legislature for failing to renew R&D incentives

Jon Talton, business columnist for the Seattle Times, skipped subtlety and got right to the point in writing about the effects of some Legislative inaction in the recently completed session. Noting that it’s not correct to say lawmakers did nothing, he writes, In fact, legislators delivered a sledgehammer to state competitiveness by killing the nearly […]

NW Clean Air Agency finds no emissions problems from coal transport

The Northwest Clean Air Agency monitored air quality near a Bellingham rail crossing for twenty months – months during which coal was safely transported by rail through the crossing – and found, well, no problems. The Bellingham Herald reports: During the 20 months when the monitor was on the job sampling particulate pollution, it registered air […]

How public policy supports low-wage workers and the high cost of the minimum wage

There’s no dearth of good analysis on the effects of raising the minimum wage. Let me call attention to a few of them here. First, a look at the income supports available to low-wage workers, as shown in this graph from a short and incisive AEI blog post.   AEI fellow Robert Doar concludes, So […]

Looking ahead to the McCleary session: Education funding takes center stage

Our new policy brief on the supplemental budget passed by lawmakers notes that the minor changes made this year set the stage for a much more active budget writing session next year. By the end of next month, the Legislature will have to deliver a funding plan for meeting the state Supreme Court’s order to […]

Investment slows when tax policies are uncertain

The National Association of Manufacturers recently conducted a survey of businesses. Here’s the short form. The release today of NAM/IndustryWeek Survey of Manufacturers confirms what manufacturers have long known, the expiration of the on-again and off-again investment tax incentives have companies holding off on making key purchases and thus delays the robust economic growth we […]

Bill Gates on raising the minimum wage: "I worry about what that does to job creation"

So should we all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkh6ovLgUWE Additional comments from Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post.  

Victory for teachers' union – defeat for local schools

One of the more critical things left undone in the waning hours of the legislative session was the failure to make necessary changes in the state’s teacher evaluation program. TNT reporter Melissa Santos explains. Washington lawmakers adjourned Thursday without changing the state’s teacher evaluation system, which probably means Washington will lose its waiver from the […]

Headline writers give lawmakers an incomplete

Detect a pattern? Washington legislature adjourns; punts on big issues Legislative session ends without tackling some major issues State budget OK’d by Legislature, but much left undone Lawmakers pass budget, little else, as session ends

Teen employment in Seattle area among nation's lowest, says Brookings Institution. We knew that.

The Seattle Times reports this morning on a new study from the Brookings Institution. The employment rate for teens 16 to 19 in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area fell from 45.8 percent in 2000 to 25 percent in 2012, according to Brookings. That 20.8 percentage-point decline represents the 14th-deepest drop nationwide and puts Greater Seattle in the […]

Economists wrangle over $10.10 minimum wage, CFOs say increase will slow hiring

Among the challenges faced by policymakers (and that includes voters) trying to determine the effects of raising the minimum wage is sorting through the flood of conflicting information. Much of the conflict comes because people who are supposedly talking about the same thing are not, really, talking about the same thing. There’s a difference between […]