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New Brief: Governor's 2012 Supplemental Budget Proposal

In a new brief, we detail Governor Gregoire’s proposed 2012 supplemental budget. Not only does the governor propose a long list of spending cuts and fund transfers, she also recommends a number of revenue raisers — including, of course, an increase in the sales tax.  Should voters and the legislature agree to increase taxes, the […]

2012 Workers' Comp and UI Taxes

Today the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) and the Employment Security Department announced the workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance tax rates for 2012. For workers’ compensation, there will be no overall increase in premiums.  The L&I press release states: In September, the agency proposed a 2.5 percent increase. The decision to hold overall rates […]

WA One of Four States with Current Year Budget Shortfall

Today the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) released a Fall 2011 State Budget Update: Better revenue performance is driving the improvement in state finances. Collections in most states have stabilized or are growing, and the general revenue outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year reflects confidence in continued modest growth. However, recent global […]

Washington ranks 7th on Forbes "best states for business" list

In a lousy economy these rankings tend to get less attention. Given that the "best states" concept is itself full of subjective assessments, that's probably not a bad thing.  But for the list inclined, here's the Forbes scorecard. Utah's No. 1; Maine comes in last. 

Perspective on changes in state revenue collections

In my column this morning, I discuss how and why state revenues have fallen as a share of the economy. State revenues have fallen as a share of the economy. But it’s mostly because taxpayers rejected the higher burdens. Please go to the column for context. And, yes, revenues have even fallen since 1995 on […]

A Preliminary Look at the Governor's 2012 Supplemental

On Monday, Governor Gregoire released her proposed 2012 supplemental budget for 2011-13.  This follows alternatives for reductions that she laid out in October (and which I wrote about here). The Budget Highlights document explains the problem: When Governor Gregoire and the Legislature approved the 2011–13 budget last spring, the state was projected to end the […]

Trends in Washington's Life Sciences Industry 2007-2011

An economic impact analysis of the state’s life sciences industry by the Research Council was released today at the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association’s Governor’s Life Sciences Summit and Annual Meeting. We estimate that the various segments of the life sciences industry directly employed over 33,500 people in the state in 2010. Those life science […]

State revenues recovering slowly – still below peak

After yesterday’s forecast, we received some questions about how state revenues have performed historically. Kriss put together a graph showing Near General Fund State (NGFS) collections, including the forecast through 2013. These projections show tax receipts not climbing back to 2008 levels until the end of the biennium. This chart, tracking NGFS spending since 2000, […]

State revenue forecast for 2011-13 reduced by $122 million

The state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council updated its forecast of general fund-state revenues today. The forecast for the 2011-13 biennium was reduced by $122 million, while the talley of revenue for 2009-11 was increased by $25 million. The net bad news was thus a reduction of $97 million. From the press release: Our current […]

Will Washington voters approve higher taxes? It's a tough sell.

In my column this morning, I take a look at recent election results and the state revenue collections report to consider the likelihood of voter approval of new taxes to balance the state budget. It’s never risky to bet against tax hikes. Good times or bad, voters are reluctant to part with their money. Colorado […]