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 17 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Tax incentives get additional attention after NYT series
Last week we wrote about the NYT series looking at tax incentives. Since then, I’ve come across a number of reports that shed additional light on the issue. Economist Tim Bartik, quoted in the Times stories, points out that the paper flubs the figures on Michigan’s tax breaks. …most public finance economists would argue that […]
December 17 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Washington slips to 11th place in Forbes business climate rankings
Last week Forbes released its annual list of the best states for business. Washington fell out of the top 10, coming in at No. 11 for 2012. We’ve been sliding since ranking No. 2 in 2009. As we’ve written before, it’s a mistake to assign too much weight to any of these things. There’s always […]
November 26 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Maps of Unemployment Benefits Maximum Duration Since 2008
In 2008, the federal government enacted temporary emergency unemployment compensation (EUC) for people who run out of their regular state unemployment benefits. The program expires at the end of the year. Washington workers are eligible for 26 weeks of regular unemployment benefits, and under the EUC program, they may currently be eligible for 37 additional […]
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 01 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Charter Schools and Low-Performing Students
In an October 2012 preliminary working paper, Ron Zimmer of Vanderbilt and Cassandra Guarino of Indiana University consider whether public charter schools “push out” low-performing students. The idea is that charter schools might try to improve their performance by “educating fewer challenging students.” But, as the authors say, “the claim of ‘pushing out’ low-achieving students […]
October 24 , 2012 - Emily Makings
New Brief: A Complex Maze of State and Local Laws and Regulations
As we have noted previously (see here and here), the state auditor’s office is working on a performance audit of the state regulatory system. So far, an inventory of state regulations and a report on communicating regulatory information and streamlining business rules have been completed. Two key points from the latter are: Ultimately, anything other […]
October 23 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Washington ranks 28th in Tax Foundation new tax burden report
State and local taxes in Washington amount to 9.3 percent of state income, according to a new analysis by the Tax Foundation, ranking the state No. 28 in state-local tax burden. The Tax Foundation estimates for 2010 differ from most governmental reports, in that the Foundation accounts for “tax exporting.” This is most dramatic in […]
October 19 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Area Development magazine's "top states for doing business" leans to the Southeast
Area Development Online, a site and facility planning publication, recently posted its annual “top states for doing business” rankings. The top 10: 1. Texas 2. South Carolina 3. Georgia 4. Alabama 5. North Carolina 6. Louisiana 7. Tennessee 8. Indiana 9. Mississippi 10. Oklahoma The rankings stem from a survey of location consultants. The magazine offers short profiles of the top states (No. 1 Texas […]
October 19 , 2012 - Emily Makings
Charter Schools: Flexibility, Variety, Accountability
This week Partnership for Learning, along with UW’s Center on Reinventing Public Education, released “Examining Charters: How public charter schools can work in Washington state.” The report should be useful for voters as they decide whether to approve Initiative 1240, which would allow a limited number of public charter schools in Washington. (Our policy brief […]