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NLRB complaint against Boeing unwarranted

In my column today I consider the NLRB complaint against Boeing. The NLRB acting general counsel filed the complaint, asserting that the company’s decision to open a new production line in South Carolina was impermissible retaliation against the machinists union. I write: The NLRB’s charges are factually inaccurate, unprecedented and contrary to precedent. To support […]

Tax amnesty produces more than expected …

Yesterday Gov. Gregoire announced the results of the state’s tax amnesty program. Much better than expected. (Sorry, I don’t have a link to her comments, which don’t seem to be on the governor’s website yet.) Here’s some of what she said. Our original estimate was that in the three month amnesty period we would be […]

New Brief on How Public Schools Fare in 2011-13 Budgets

Following last week’s brief on proposed 2011-13 expenditures in the human services budget area, today we take a look at public schools.  (See also this brief for an overview of the House and Senate budget plans.) Spending on public schools would increase over 2009-11 levels in both the House- and Senate-passed budgets.  Maintenance level changes […]

Annual vs. Biennial Budgeting

In March, the Pew Center on the States and the Rockefeller Institute of Government released a study on revenue estimating in the states.  They found that in 2009, the errors by states in forecasting personal income, sales, and corporate income tax collections added up to a $49 billion unexpected revenue shortfall. Additionally: In the states […]

Pew on Public Pensions

This week the Pew Center on the States put out a report on state pensions and retiree health care costs.  Pew finds that the gap between the promises states made for employees’ retirement benefits and the money they set aside to pay for them grew to at least $1.26 trillion in fiscal year 2009, resulting […]

New Brief: For Human Services, Cuts All Around

A policy brief from last week, So Close and Yet So Far Away, gave an overview of the spending plans and balance sheets of the House- and Senate-passed 2011-13 budgets.  It also promised more details on a few key budget areas. The first of these additional briefs provides a comparison of spending on human services […]

Regulatory Overlap in Washington

Today the latest Thrive Washington paper was released: Confronting Washington State’s Overlapping Regulatory Structures. Regulatory reform efforts are being undertaken in numerous states and in the federal government.  As President Obama said in the Wall Street Journal, “Sometimes . . . rules have gotten out of balance, placing unreasonable burdens on business–burdens that have stifled […]

Barone on the "death of the 'defined benefit'"

Last week, we published a brief on reforming public pensions. It’s timely, then, to link to Michael Barone’s column on the last days of the defined benefit pension. This sounds right: Defined benefit policies assume a static society. But we live in a dynamic society, and defined benefit policies cannot keep up with constant change. […]

What's wrong with the NLRB complaint against Boeing's S. Carolina expansion

Plenty. We’ve spent at lot of time at the WRC looking business decision-making and considering how public policies shape the competitive environment for employers. A fundamental premise: Investors and employers have choices. Last week, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against the Boeing Company, alleging that the decision to open a second 787 […]

New WRC Policy Brief Comparing House and Senate Budgets

We have posted a Policy Brief (So Close and Yet So Far Away) comparing balance sheets and high-level spending plans for the House and Senate budgets.