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Tax Foundation releases state/local tax burden study: WA ranks 29th

The national Tax Foundation published its annual review of state/local taxes. Here’s the PDF of the report. And here’s the press release. TF uses a different methodology for calculating tax burdens than that used by some other familiar sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau. Here’s how TF describes it: For each state, we calculate the […]

Minimum Wage Proposal Is Misguided

For 2011, Washington state’s minimum wage is $8.67 per hour. This is the country’s highest state minimum wage. Legislators are considering a misguided proposal to revise the manner in which the state’s minimum wage is indexed for inflation; this proposal would over time push the wage much, much higher.

Liberty Mutual CEO discusses U.S. inflation and more

I know a lot of folks who follow the WRC blog care about the economy, inflation trends, and the like. If you’re in that camp, I think you’ll enjoy this interview on Bloomberg with Liberty Mutual CEO Edmund “Ted” Kelly. Liberty Mutual is a good WRC member.

About Thrive Washington …

In the latest edition of AWB’s Washington Business magazine, I write about Thrive Washington, the research and communications partnership between the WRC and the Washington Roundtable. It’s seems wrong to quote myself. Please go to the column and let me know what you think.

Governor scheduled to sign UI bills this afternoon

A week of anticipation culminated in a welcome compromise on unemployment insurance legislation. The state Senate this morning concurred with the House, passing EHB 1091 (41 yea, 4 nay, 3 excused). The Wednesday, the House passed the measure, which provides permanent unemployment insurance tax relief to a reported 90 percent of employers and temporary extension […]

President's UI tax plan far from a done deal…kind of like the governor's better idea

Yesterday Emily wrote about President Obama’s plan to allow states to raise their unemployment insurance taxes and provide some temporary debt relief to states that have borrowed from the feds. Today that plan appears to be in a little trouble. The Wall Street Journal reports that Capitol Hill Republicans oppose the proposal, though states that […]

House unanimously passes UI bill

Unanimous votes on important legislation are rare. Following the recent unemployment insurance contention, this outcome looks pretty good. Brad Shannon has the story in the Olympian. The state House of Representatives swiftly and unanimously voted today to approve an unemployment insurance deal that came after days of negotiating on a sharply contentious issue. If ratified […]

Reducing the number of elected state officials and increasing accountability

That’s the theme of my column today. The Research Council has looked at the issue many times over the years. Gov. Gregoire’s call for education reorganization, with specific implications for the elected superintendent of public instruction, raises the question: why stop there? Let me know what you think.

Thrive Washington suggests positive ideas to put state on sustainable budget path

Thrive Washington, a research and communications partnership between the Research Council and Washington Roundtable, has looked at budget reforms, contracting out, and health care policy. This series of white papers provides a good platform for responsible state budgeting in hard times. And, these proposals will accelerate the transition to better times. Sunday, the Herald of […]

Going Beyond Just Cutting Government

There is a good piece in the Wall Street Journal on reinventing government.  Written by Louis Gerstner (a former CEO of IBM), it ties in nicely with what the Washington Roundtable and the Research Council are doing with our Thrive Washington series.  Gerstner’s recommendations for governments (at all levels) are: Do not impose “across-the-board” cost […]