Blog

Boeing releases its annual Current Market Outlook

Boeing has posted its annual Current Market Outlook, covering the twenty-year period from 2015 through 2034. Over the period, Boeing predicts that the world-wide customers will demand 38,080 new commercial airplanes. Of these, 37,130 will be passenger airplanes and 920 will be freighters. (In addition, the company projects that 1,420 passenger aircraft will be converted […]

The American Legislative Exchange Council has cited our Brief on Gov. Inslee’s capital

New general fund–state revenue forecast: up $106.2 million for 2013–15 biennium; up $309.3 million for 2015–17 biennium

The state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council held its quarterly meeting today. The forecast of general fund–state revenue for the current biennium (2013–15) increased by $106.2 million to $33,652.8 million. The forecast of general fund–state revenue for the upcoming biennium (2015–17) increased by $309.3 million to $36,758.1 million. This is the ninth consecutive meeting at […]

New revenue forecast will be issued on May 18

In a special meeting held in Olympia today, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council voted to move the second quarter update to the state revenue forecast forward to May 18 from the originally scheduled June 17. As I noted earlier this week, over the three months since the last update collections have exceeded forecast by […]

Comparing State Sales Tax Rates

A new report from the Tax Foundation  compares average sales tax rates in the 50 states. Some states have no sales tax, including Oregon (as Vancouver, WA merchants and others along our southern border well know), Montana, Delaware, and New Hampshire (which also has no income tax). According to this report the five lowest states […]

Streamlined Permitting for Transportation Projects

The transportation package before the state Senate includes several elements designed to speed the completion of new construction and maintenance projects, including adding a 90 day processing requirement for new construction permits, limiting permit appeals to Superior Court, and exempting maintenance from state and local permits. This initiative to increase efficiency and reduce costs is mirrored […]

Washington's forecasted revenue growth is better than that of the average state

A recent post at TaxVox (the blog of the Urban Institute/Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center) examines state government revenue forecasts fore fiscal years 2015, 2016 and 2017. State forecasters expect revenue growth to remain sluggish through fiscal year (FY) 2016 according to an Urban Institute analysis of agency reports. In FY17, states project revenue growth […]

Business costs do matter

The Seattle Times reports that Cascade Designs is moving jobs to Nevada because the cost of doing business in Seattle is too high. Seattle-based outdoor-gear maker Cascade Designs will move about 100 jobs, roughly one fifth of its workforce, to a new manufacturing and distribution facility in Nevada as it seeks to keep costs down […]

Catching Up: Youth unemployment and pension policy

I discovered I’d forgotten to post this column from a couple of weeks ago that examines youth unemployment. In the last decade, the share of employed youth has fallen dramatically and it continues to drop. Nationally, the youth unemployment rate for those aged 16 to 19 years old is about 22 percent. In Washington, that number […]

State Supreme Court should take a McCleary timeout, let legislators fund basic ed in 2015

Here’s my column on the “show cause” order.