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More reforms for workers' compensation

Washington’s workers’ compensation benefits paid are the highest in the country, as we’ve documented here and here. And, as the National Academy of Social Insurance says, “several studies . . . demonstrate that the level of statutory benefits is a major determinant of the costs of workers’ compensation in a state.” In 2011, the legislature […]

Public libraries caught up in education funding lawsuit in West Virginia

As I wrote here, several states are facing education funding lawsuits. Apparently West Virginia is too, with a bit of a twist: In a special act, the legislature required nine counties in the state, including Kanawha, to use a potion of their state education funding to provide for public libraries. Public libraries in the 46 […]

Washington imposes 2nd heaviest cell phone tax

The combined state-local tax on cell phone users in Washington is 18.62 percent. According to a new Tax Foundation study, that’s the second highest rate in the nation. Only Nebraska, at 18.67 percent, is higher. The weighted state-local across the country is 11.36 percent. The feds tack on another 5.82 percent. The Tax Foundation notes, […]

A capital gains tax for Washington? Probably not, but they're discussing it again.

Senate Democratic Leader Ed Murray has proposed a new capital gains tax. Murray is proposing a 5 percent tax on capital gains to start in 2015, which he said would raise between roughly $600 and $700 million per year to help fund basic education and higher education. He proposed something similar last year. Under Murray’s […]

WA union membership, 2012

Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released 2012 data on unionization in the U.S. (Dick wrote about it here.) In 2012, the total union membership rate in the U.S. was 11.3 percent, the public-sector union membership rate was 35.9 percent, and the private-sector union membership rate was 6.6 percent. Washington’s total union membership rate […]

Lawsuits and education finance policy

An article in Education Week calls attention to education funding lawsuits that are pending in several states, complicating policymaking: As state budgets slowly recover from several years of economic contraction and stagnation, significant court battles continue to play a related yet distinct role in K-12 policy, even in states where the highest courts have already […]

Union membership continues to fall across the nation

The Bureau of Labor Statistics yesterday reported another year of decline in union membership. In 2012, the union membership rate—the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union—was 11.3 percent, down from 11.8 percent in 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The number of wage and salary workers […]

Louisiana and Kansas consider scrapping income taxes to improve business climate

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback have both voiced support for pro-growth tax reform based on eliminating personal income taxes. From NRO: “Eliminating personal income taxes will put more money back into the pockets of Louisiana families,” Jindal said in a statement earlier this month, “and will change a complex tax code […]

"Big Sort" author Bill Bishop to speak at WRC's annual dinner June 4

Bill Bishop, author of the Big Sort, will be the featured speaker at the WRC annual meeting June 4. Bishop’s book, published in 2008, authoritatively documented America’s shifting demographics. Going far beyond the simplistic red state/blue state divide, journalist Bill Bishop (in collaboration with sociologist and statistician Robert Cushing) marshals original data and incisive reporting to show […]

Potential changes for workers' comp voluntary settlements

In a Seattle Times op-ed over the weekend, two state representatives, Christopher Hurst and Cathy Dahlquist, call for more changes to workers’ compensation. Some reforms to the system were enacted in 2011 (we wrote about them here), and some savings have been realized. As Reps. Hurst and Dahlquist note, The single largest projected saving from […]