Blog

States should pay attention to business climate studies, because costs matter

Good Jobs First, a left-leaning nonprofit, attracted a lot of attention this week with a new study claiming business climate studies are …politicized grab-bags of data. They have no predictive value and should not be used to inform public policies. Some of the attention came from one of the groups they criticized, the Beacon Hill […]

State Supreme Court will hear public pension gain sharing case

According to the Department of Retirement Systems (DRS), the state Supreme Court will hear the appeal in the gain sharing case. The court may also hear the case regarding public pension automatic cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). Gain sharing was established in 1998. Under the program, extraordinary investment returns were used to enhance retirement benefits for certain […]

STEM, bachelor's degrees and the value of education

A recent Wall Street Journal commentary examined the value of a bachelor’s degree, adding fuel to simmering discussions of the student debt crisis, young adult unemployment, rising tuition, and degrees without workplace relevance.The piece by Jeffrey J. Selingo should be read in its entirety, but here’s a sample. Think a community-college degree is worth less […]

Oregon Medicaid study calls benefits of expansion into question

A closely watched study of Oregon’s 2008 Medicaid expansion has prompted some scholarly second-thoughts on the benefits of the program. While not all bad news, the results published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine (link is to free preview) are less than optimal. This randomized, controlled study showed that Medicaid coverage generated no […]

Arteries of Commerce

Here are a couple of cool maps showing flows of goods by truck to, from and within Washington state.  Flows include domestic and international freight moving by truck on highway segments with more than twenty-five trucks per day and between places typically more than fifty miles apart. The first map, for 2007, is based on […]

Focus on budget in Washington legislature's special session

As Emily posted earlier, Gov. Inslee has laid out an expanded agenda for the special session. Senate Republicans have called for a budget and jobs agenda. In my column, I encourage lawmakers to keep the focus tight. The governor’s proclamation:

Washington gets generally high marks in new U.S. Chamber report, lags in "talent pipeline"

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce released its annual report on states’ economic and policy performance, with a special focus on small business. The 2013 Enterprising States report provides a lot of good, well-documented information for business owners and policymakers. We’ve written about it before before. As the state did last year, Washington shows up well. […]

Special session called, but operating budget not the only agenda item

The regular session of the legislature came to a close on Sunday, with no agreement on an operating budget for 2013-15. Gov. Inslee has called for a special session to begin May 13, but he did not limit its focus to the budget. In his press conference, he listed the following as priorities for the […]

Divergence in non-education spending in House and Senate budgets

In the 2013-15 operating budgets, both the House and the Senate increase spending over 2011–13. The Senate increases near general fund-state plus opportunity pathways (NGFS+) spending by 6.72 percent, and the House increases NGFS+ spending by 10.44 percent. In the Senate budget, spending on the department of early learning (which includes pre-school and is part […]

Tax bill passes House

Yesterday the House passed the Houses finance committee’s tax bill (ESHB 2038) with one amendment, which concerned section 401. (My previous posts on this bill are here and here.) As it passed the House finance committee, section 401 of the bill eliminated the sales tax exemption for goods (other than motor vehicles, boats and trailer […]