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 […]
February 27 , 2013 - Richard S. Davis
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 […]
February 26 , 2013 - Emily Makings
Workers' comp, cumulative trauma, and pro sports
Over the weekend, there was an article in the LA Times about athletes and workers’ compensation in California. (I wrote about this issue in August.) All states allow professional athletes to claim workers’ compensation payments for specific job-related injuries — such as a busted knee, torn tendon or ruptured spinal disc — that happened within […]
February 26 , 2013 - Richard S. Davis
Business costs, regulation and economic growth
Joel Kotkin has an excellent op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal reviewing the nation’s “four growth corridors.” Sadly, unsurprisingly, the Pacific Northwest is not among them. …trends point to a U.S. economic future dominated by four growth corridors that are generally less dense, more affordable, and markedly more conservative and pro-business: the Great Plains, the […]
February 25 , 2013 - Richard S. Davis
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, […]
February 25 , 2013 - Richard S. Davis
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 […]
February 20 , 2013 - Richard S. Davis
Lower Business Costs, Better Education & Transportation = More Jobs
Gov. Inslee’s jobs plan, released last week, again highlights the state’s enduring problem: Too many people looking for work and not finding it. In my column, I lead with this: Nearly 17 percent of the state’s workforce — one in six of us — is either unemployed or underemployed. So much for the recovery. Nationally, […]
February 13 , 2013 - Emily Makings
President's proposal would increase federal minimum wage, nearly to Washington's level
In his State of the Union address last night, President Obama proposed increasing the federal minimum wage to $9.00 by the end of 2015 and indexing it to inflation. (It is currently $7.25.) Twenty-two states currently match the federal minimum wage, 19 states and DC have minimum wages above the federal requirement, four have minimum […]
February 05 , 2013 - Emily Makings
Paid sick leave in Washington, and a new study on Connecticut's law
The House Committee on Labor and Workforce Development held a hearing this morning on HB 1313, which would require Washington employers to provide paid sick and safe leave to their employees. The bill is very similar to Seattle’s paid sick and safe time ordinance, which has been in effect since September 1, 2012. We wrote […]
January 30 , 2013 - Emily Makings
Public libraries caught up in education funding lawsuit in West Virginia
As I wrote here, several states are facing education funding lawsuits. Apparently West Virginia is too, with a bit of a twist: In a special act, the legislature required nine counties in the state, including Kanawha, to use a potion of their state education funding to provide for public libraries. Public libraries in the 46 […]