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Labor regulations and unintended consequences

There has been a lot of comment over the past month or so about the scheduling issues faced by part-time workers. Steven Greenhouse wrote in the New York Times: As more workers find their lives upended and their paychecks reduced by ever-changing, on-call schedules, government officials are trying to put limits on the harshest of […]

GE labeling, fear, and "consumer choice"

Michael Specter has a good blog post at the New Yorker today — “The Problem with G.M.O. Labels.” He makes some of the same points we made in our report on Initiative 522, which would have required labeling of genetically engineered foods but was rejected by Washington voters last year. (An initiative requiring labeling will […]

Seattle Times columnist writes about that mythical $8.7 billion tax break for Boeing: not a giveaway!

Erik Smith used our recent policy brief as a peg for an excellent column on tax policy in today’s Seattle Times. Though the Department of Revenue calculated it exactly as it was supposed to, a more realistic view is that the legislation costs taxpayers nothing. He summarizes, drawing on points we developed in the brief. […]

States should preempt the ability of cities to set their own minimum wage

Blue metros – like Seattle, San Francisco, and NYC – are the new darlings of the progressive left. That’s the theme of my column today. The wave has been building for more than a decade. But elections of liberal mayors like Ed Murray in Seattle and Bill De Blasio in New York City give it […]

The sharing economy

In this week’s EconTalk podcast, host Russ Roberts talks to Mike Munger about the sharing economy (particularly companies like Uber and AirBnB). It’s very interesting. About the important issues, Munger says, One is that this is sort of subversive to past rent-seeking victories by licensing and other competition-restricting groups. It’s a way of taking advantage […]

Class size Initiative 1351 hides costs, consequences

My column today compares and contrasts Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1325 with the Washington Education Association’s Initiative 1351. The former failed to qualify for the November ballot; the latter apparently did. Eyman’s sales tax reduction would have cost the state about $2 billion over the two-year budget cycle without specifying what programs and services would be […]

Libraries and WiFi funding

PubliCola says that public libraries are “the latest battlefield between cities and suburbs.” According to the Washington Post, Through a public program known as E-Rate, Washington gives institutions a bit of money each year to defray the costs of buying Internet service and equipment. That initiative got a big boost recently, with the Federal Communications Commission announcing […]

Export-Import Bank reauthorization could come up for a Senate vote this month

It looks like the U.S. Senate may vote on re-authorization of the U.S. Export-Import Bank sometime this month. According to The Hill, Schumer said he expects a bipartisan bill renewing the bank’s charter will reach the Senate floor before the August recess, creating pressure on House Republicans to act. The bank’s charter is set to […]

State Supreme Court orders lawmakers to explain why they should not be held in contempt on school funding

The Court’s has long signaled its impatience with the legislature’s slow progress toward meeting the McCleary obligation to fund basic education. Wait until next year wasn’t going to work again. Yesterday’s action – an order to appear at a show cause hearing – steps up the pressure. The state’s response to the order is to be […]

Thumbtack gives Washington a C grade for "small business friendliness" – low marks for regulation

Another business climate ranking came out recently. This one comes from Thumbtack.com, with support from the Kauffman Foundation.  Washington doesn’t do so well. Unsurprisingly, the regulatory environment pulled the overall score down considerably. Some of the key findings for Washington include: Washington earned one of the worst grades in the country for its regulations – […]