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Comparison of the Budget Reduction Proposals

I was glad when the House Democratic Caucus released its suggested budget reductions for FY2011 last week that they provided the exact list of cuts by program area. Unfortunately, I have not been able to completely reconcile the lists of possible budget reductions from the Governor, the Senate Republicans and the House Democrats.  That said, […]

Budget Reduction Ideas Galore

The House Democrats have joined Republicans in offering budget reduction options.  For your spreadsheeting pleasure, I have put their full list of reduction ideas into an Excel document, which you can access here: HDC reduction list I am still going through the list, but I already have questions.  The full list compares the reductions to […]

Unemployment rate climbs to 9.8 percent

Here’s the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner’s statement on the latest employment situation. In a nutshell, the commissioner reports: Nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged in November (+39,000), and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 percent.  The jobless rate had been 9.6 percent in each of the prior 3 months.  Payroll employment has increased […]

Budget Fun

A post at Politics Northwest this afternoon highlights the Governor’s suggestion that June K-12 payments be delayed until July, as a way to save $240 million in FY2011 (more on the Governor’s proposed reductions here): Educators and staff would still get paid on time. It’s essentially a budget trick that would allow the state to […]

Governor's Reductions

Last week, Governor Gregoire released a list of programs that have been reduced or could be reduced to close the budget shortfall for FY2011.  In addition to across-the-board cuts, fund transfers, and payment delays, the Governor’s proposal would cut education, health, corrections, and other social services funding. As the Governor says in a letter to […]

One More Time: Revenue Forecast Reduced Again

The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council met yesterday and adopted revised forecasts of general fund revenues for the current (2009–11) and upcoming (2011–13) biennia. For 2009–11, the new forecast is $28,127 million, a decrease of $385 million from the September forecast. Of this decrease, $64 million is due to the passage of Initiative 1107, which […]

21st Century Trade Barriers

Earlier this week, Google released a white paper on trade and the Internet: "Enabling Trade in the Era of Information Technologies: Breaking Down Barriers to the Free Flow of Information."  We tend to think of information freedom in human rights terms (or at least I have), but Google makes an interesting case for it being […]

Nine Steps to Budget Sustainability

Yesterday the second paper in the Thrive Washington series was released.  Nine Steps to Budget Sustainability in Washington State recommends changes to the state budget process and highlights areas requiring special attention. The steps are: 1. Manage the size and compensation of the state workforce to improve efficiency. 2. Improve budget transparency. 3. Reinstate a […]

Economic and Revenue Update

The state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (EFRC) yesterday issued its monthly Economic and Revenue Update (available here). The November Update is the second since EFRC’s September revenue forecast, and, as was the case in October, collections have come in above forecast. Major General Fund-State (GF-S) revenues for the October 11, 2010 – November 10, […]

I-1098 Roundup

The TaxProf blog has a roundup of local and national articles on the rejection of I-1098.