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State revenue update

The state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) released its April report on state general fund revenue collections today. For the sales tax, the use tax, the business and occupation tax, the public utility tax, the tobacco products tax, and penalties and interest, this report covers payments received between March 11 and April 10, which […]

18,906 Washington small businesses have received paycheck protection loans

Yesterday the Small Business Administration (SBA) released some data on the paycheck protection program. The program offers forgivable loans to small businesses, and it was funded with $349 billion in the third federal aid bill. Nationally, 1,035,086 loans have been made in the amount of $247.5 million. (The data is through April 13.) Loans made […]

Reductions in treasury service fee could save state agencies $13 million

Last year state Treasurer Duane Davidson reduced the treasury service fee from 0.32 percent to 0.25 percent. Now, to help the state during the downturn, he has reduced the fee to 0.2 percent. Together, the reductions are expected to save state agencies $13 million. The treasurer “stated that he would consider lowering the fee even […]

Treasury releases more information on aid for state and local governments

This week Treasury released more information on the $150 billion relief fund for state and local governments. Treasury confirmed that the total allocation for Washington (state and qualifying local governments) is $2.953 billion. Eligible local governments are King County, Seattle, Pierce County, Snohomish County, and Spokane County. They must apply for the funds by April […]

More estimates of local government shortfalls, and an AG memo on local government options to help individuals and businesses during this time

Snohomish County expects a $24 million (about 10 percent) hit to its general fund budget. In response, the county is considering freezing hiring, eliminating discretionary raises, and cancelling travel and training. According to the Everett Herald, the County Council will consider two hiring freeze ordinances tomorrow: One would last through the end of the year and […]

Seattle real estate market still hot for now

The Wall Street Journal has an article about the Seattle-area real estate market: Despite Stay-at-Home Order, Seattle’s Real-Estate Market Continues to Show Up Multiple offers. Bidding wars. All-cash deals hours after listings go live: This is all still happening in Seattle, the city that four weeks ago was considered an epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, […]

Looking back at state budgeting in the Great Recession, part 2: How the governor and Legislature responded

Before the Great Recession, actual spending in the 2005–07 biennium increased by 17.6 percent over 2003–05 and the original 2007–09 budget increased spending by 10.8 percent. State revenues began to drop in the November 2007 revenue forecast, but as I noted in the first part of this series, it was a slow drip. During the […]

More on initial claims

Yesterday I posted a chart showing initial claims for unemployment insurance in Washington from March 1 to April 4 by individual sector as a percentage of sector employment. Here is an update to this chart that includes a bar for private employers overall: From March 1 to April 4, overall private sector claims were 14.9 […]

Initial claims by industry

I have updated three charts I posted previously showing initial claims for unemployment insurance by sector to include data for the week of March 29 to April 4. The first chart shows initial claims sector as a proportion of the sector’s employment in February: Accommodation and Food Services; Arts, Entertainment and Recreation; and Construction remain […]

In Washington 170,063 filed for unemployment insurance last week

This morning the state Employment Security Department reported that it received 170,063 new claims for unemployment insurance during the March 29-April 4 week. This is a decrease of 11,912 from the 181,975 claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of claims is 123,721, up from 82,842 for the preceding week. We estimate […]