Talent shortage a bigger threat to software industry than the fiscal cliff?
Here in Microsoft’s backyard, we’ve heard this story for a while. Today Investors Business Daily leads with the tale of the tech talent shortage. The big challenge facing the U.S. software industry might not be the economy, looming fiscal cliff or growing competition. First things first — the companies are begging for qualified job candidates. […]
December 18 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Gov. Gregoire proposes new taxes in final budget release
Gov. Chris Gregoire offered her final biennial budget proposal this morning. In addition to required “current revenues” proposal – one that doesn’t rely on new taxes – she presents a plan to make the billion-dollar downpayment on the increased public school funding required by the state Supreme Court’s McCleary decision. From the governor’s press release: […]
December 14 , 2012 - Emily Makings
The Costs of Medicaid Expansion for Washington
The Kaiser Family Foundation released “The Cost and Coverage Implications of the ACA Medicaid Expansion: National and State-by-State Analysis” in November. (Dick mentioned it in a post earlier this week.) Thanks to the June Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act, states may choose not to implement the law’s Medicaid expansion. (There had been […]
December 12 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Making tax incentives work for economic efficiency
My column this morning cites a recent New York Times series on tax incentives and their effects on state and local government revenues. The three part NYT report is here, here, and here. Without question, there have been some major boondoggles in the subsidy game routinely played as corporations and government officials attempt to land […]
December 11 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Coming to grips with the costs of the Affordable Care Act
Costly Calorie Counting. In his column today, AWB president Don Brunell lays out some of the lesser-known but not inconsequential costs associated with the ACA. For example, tucked away in the 2,000-plus pages of the legislation is a requirement that restaurants and “similar” food retailers display calorie counts on their menus. Sounds reasonable in this health-conscious […]
December 11 , 2012 - Kriss Sjoblom
November 11 – December 10 state revenues were $72.7 million more than expected
The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released its monthly Economic and Revenue Update today. For the November 11–December 10 collection “month,” revenue was well above forecast. However, it is likely that much of the excess will be reversed next month. From the summary: Major General Fund-State revenue collections for the November 11 – December 10, […]
November 21 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Can WA Eliminate Public Pension COLAs?
In 2011, the legislature eliminated future automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) for members of the Public Employees’ Retirement System Plan 1 (PERS 1) and the Teachers’ Retirement System Plan 1 (TRS 1). As we wrote in an April 2011 policy brief, In 1995, the legislature passed a bill providing retirees in PERS 1 and TRS 1 […]
November 19 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Flat revenue forecast, 4-year budget outlook remains grim
The official state revenue forecast released today is little changed from the September report. Overall changes to the revenue forecast are slight. Forecasted revenue for the current biennium has been increased by $8 million, with a $31 million positive variance in collections since the September forecast partially offset by a weaker forecast going forward. Forecasted […]
November 19 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
From fiscal cliff to affordable care act, plenty of post-election unfinished business
Remember when elections settled things? OK, I don’t either. But there’s more than the usual clutter of unresolved issues on the agenda this year. The Los Angeles Times has a nice roundup of the states of health care, as more Republican governors opt not to set up the state exchanges prescribed by the Affordable Care […]
October 31 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Study: Fully funding public pensions in Washington would require $1,371 per household per year
As Josh Barro wrote this summer, Pensions are complicated, and when they are not causing huge problems, they are boring . . . . Consequently, it has been easy for lawmakers to ignore the long-term risks to which they have been exposing taxpayers; it has not been hard for public-employee unions to talk these lawmakers […]