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State revenue collections report for February 11-March 10 period

On Monday, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council reported general fund–state revenue collections for the February 11 – March 10 period in the monthly Economic and Revenue Update. For the period, collections exceeded forecast by $41.6 million (4.6%). EFRC staff attributes most of this positive variance to timing in payments and expects “payments in the […]

Repealing tax preferences is not a cure-all

Andrew Garber reports that Governor Inslee will propose “closing some tax loopholes” to fund education. (He has yet to announce which “loopholes” he’s talking about.) On TVW this morning, the governor said, I was very clear that the way we should move forward to fund our schools and improve our education is rather than from […]

Revenue forecast likely to be reduced

The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council met this morning in Olympia to discuss the preliminary version of the economic forecast that will underpin the updated revenue forecast scheduled to be unveiled on March 20th.  The preliminary economic forecast is discussed in this memo. Handouts and slides from today’s meeting are available here. The new economic […]

Why state pension reforms are coming

Sunday’s Seattle Times carries an excellent analysis of the state pension system by reporter Drew DeSilver. The crux: An analysis by The Seattle Times suggests that the system’s promised benefits are much bigger, and its real assets smaller, than official numbers indicate. The analysis, using market-based data and methods, pegs the total gap between the […]

Taxing Tech: Seattle Times op-ed emphasizes benefits of tax incentives

Legislators wanting to exercise their new taxing authority by boosting tech taxes should first read an important commentary in today’s Seattle Times by Susan Sigl and Bryan Mistele. Sigl, head of the Washington Technology Industry Association, and Mistele, founder and CEO of INRIX, remind policymakers of the economic importance of the industry to the state […]

Reactions to state supreme court rejection of supermajority requirement

This morning’s supreme court ruling has prompted a host of first reactions. Gov. Jay Inslee likes the decision. The state Supreme Court did the right thing today in ruling that a supermajority requirement for ordinary legislation would alter our system of government. The supermajority requirement gave a legislative minority the power to squelch ideas even […]

State Supreme Court strikes down supermajority requirement for tax increases

On a 6-3 vote, the state Supreme Court ruled that the supermajority requirement for tax increases imposed by Initiative 1053 is unconsititional. Here’s the opinion and dissents. The decision has been highly anticipated. I expected they’d scrap it years ago, writing in a December 2007 column: …most members of the court, possibly all except Justices […]

Sequester showdown stymies state budget writers, weakens recovery

It looks like the sun will rise Friday morning (that’s good, but not surprising, news) without Congressional action to avoid the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration(that’s bad news, but probably not as bad as the worst case scenarios we’ve heard). The axe doesn’t fall decisively March 1 and the various scheduled reductions have a […]

Should state pension reforms include shift to 401k-type plans?

Sen. Rodney Tom has introduced a bill that would shift new hires and younger workers to a defined contribution pension system, similar to the 401k plans common in the private sector. Here’s how the bill report summarizes it: The Washington Public Employees Savings Plan (PESP) is created as a new defined-contribution plan to replace PERS, […]

State budget worry mounts as federal sequestration deadline approaches

Even arbitrary, manufactured  and gimmicky fiscal crises have consequences. So it is with the federal sequestration – $85 billion in spending cuts – scheduled to hit at the end of the week. As the New York Times reported over the weekend, The point of sequestration, in fact, was to define cuts that were so arbitrary […]