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A business perspective on recent legislative session

That’s what I try offer in this commentary in Crosscut. Here’s how I frame it. Legislative post mortems generally report that business interests had a good session. That’s a fair but incomplete conclusion. The progress made this year in Olympia will improve Washington’s economic competitiveness. However, much more remains to be done. Let’s look first […]

Protecting state pension funds

Following up on Jay Inslee’s proposal for the state to invest a small part of pension funds in start-up companies, Erik Smith examines the issue at Washington State Wire. We’ve been skeptical of the idea in the past. The simple, singular goal of the investment board is, well, Smith has a good quote from the […]

Washington wins some, falls some in competitiveness rankings

In my column in the Puget Sound Business Journal today (subscriber content), I comment on Washington’s favorable ranking in a new study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Washington ranks 10th on its measure of entrepreneurship and innovation, scoring well on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) job concentration and job growth. Other high marks […]

Minnesota fails to reach budget accord; others wrap up on time.

Yesterday we noted that Minnesota, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Iowa had come to the last day of the fiscal year without an approved budget. All but Minnesota managed to get the job done. (h/t Stateline.org) The Star Tribune reports on the Minnesota shutdown. It’s a familiar face-off. Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton wants to raise taxes. Republicans […]

Fiscal Year Ends at Midnight: Four States without Adopted Budgets

Stateline.org reports that Minnesota, Iowa, Oregon and Massachusetts have yet to meet the deadline for adopting a state budget. Iowa and Oregon are likely to wrap up their work by today’s deadline; Massachusetts and Minnesota are likely to miss it. Only Minnesota, however, faces the prospect of a government shutdown, which hasn’t happened on a protracted […]

Budget Gimmicks

Stateline has a handy article today on common budget gimmicks used by the states, with copious examples.  Not surprisingly, many of these will be familiar to Washington budget-watchers: Putting off payments Accelerating revenue Using temporary money for recurring expenses Counting on savings that aren't likely to materialize Counting on revenue that isn't likely to materialize […]

June revenue forecast: Down $183 million and not much cushion

Today’s official revenue forecast went according to the well-worn script. Bad news accumulates. As Kriss anticipated in our earlier blog post on the collections report, the ending balance for the current biennium, which ends in a couple of weeks, vanished. The balance sheet distributed today shows the current biennium with a negative ending balance of $84 […]

Improved competitiveness from legislative session, but just a start

That’s the theme of today’s column. Employers have been cheered by some legislative outcomes. Nonetheless, it’s amazingly difficult to get the right things done in Olympia. The state’s abundant assets — trade, technology, natural resources, brilliant innovators and skilled workers — keep us competitive, but tax, regulatory and labor policies and inconsistencies weigh heavily on […]

June Revenue Collections Report

The June Economic & Revenue Update issue today by the Forecast Council (available here) shows a shortfall in collections that almost completely exhausts the projected 2009-11 ending balance in the near general fund. Here are the key paragraphs on revenue collections from the update: Major General Fund-State (GF-S) revenues for the May 11 – June […]

Washington ranks #40 in new Economic Freedom Index

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University recently released Freedom in the 50 States. Here’s how they describe the index: This study comprehensively ranks the American states on their public policies that affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. It updates and expands on the Center’s inaugural edition, published in 2009. For […]