Editorial support for bipartisan Senate workers' compensation bill…
The Senate passed ESB 5566 last weekend, a good workers’ compensation bill that will move Washington closer to the national mainstream, benefiting both injured workers and employers. The Washington Research Council last year published Mainstreaming Workers’ Compensation: Reforms for 2010. The bill refines several of our recommendations and represents a major step forward for the […]
March 04 , 2011 - Emily Makings
Understating Public Pension Shortfalls
The Washington Post reports that while official figures put state and local public pension shortfalls at $344 billion, some economists estimate the underfunding is more in the ballpark of $1.9 trillion. The discrepancy occurs because of what the article calls the "government method of accounting." Most states, including Washington, use the actuarial method of accounting in […]
March 03 , 2011 - Emily Makings
New Ways to Get Our Research
The Washington Research Council is now on Facebook and Twitter. Please follow us for all the latest!
March 03 , 2011 - Emily Makings
"The young versus the old"
As I noted yesterday, Bill Gates gave a talk at the TED conference on state budgets. Video of the talk is not yet available, but the Wall Street Journal has reported on it, here and here. Mr. Gates said states are stuck in a system that pays out vast amounts for early retirement, health care […]
March 02 , 2011 - Emily Makings
Gates on State Budgets
Today Bill Gates is speaking at the yearly TED (technology, education, design) conference. In a blog post, he says that his talk will be about state budgets: This time, I wanted to share some of what I’ve been learning about state budgets. I got interested in them because states supply most of the money for […]
March 01 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
As we were saying about compensation comparisons …
… they’re not easy to get right. USA Today headlines today that Wisconsin is one of 41 states where public workers earn more than their private sector counterparts. According to the paper’s analysis of data from the U. S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, State, city and school district workers earned an average of $50,774 in […]
February 28 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
Sorting the data on public sector compensation …
Well before the protests in Madison, Wisconsin, touched sympathetic nerves around the country, the disparity between public and private sector employee compensation drew controversy. A headline in Sunday’s Seattle Times asks, “Have Washington state workers given their fair share?” It’s both unanswerable and, in many respects, off point. Compensation for services provided is not the […]
February 28 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
An Oscar miss on an education breakthrough
As I rarely go to movies and don't own a TV, my thoughts on the Academy Awards are not worth sharing. So I'll just refer you to AWB president Don Brunell's post on Waiting for Superman.
February 28 , 2011 - Emily Makings
The Art of Budget Cutting
We're already at the end of February, which means the legislature has only four months to close out the 2009-11 budget. There's a lot of work ahead, but let's start the week with the funnies.
February 25 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
Unemployment insurance compromise tough to replicate for workers' comp reform
In the Puget Sound Business Journal today, my column examines the 2011 legislative session’s big accomplishment so far: an agreement on unemployment insurance that drew overwhelming bipartisan support. It’s a good deal, providing tax relief to 90 percent of the state’s employers and increasing benefits for 70,000 unemployed workers. Conditions aligned for this to be […]