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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 […]

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 […]

I-1098 Roundup

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

Total Votes Cast

After an election, I think it is interesting to see which issues or candidates actually persuaded voters to care enough to vote one way or another. This year, with all ballots not yet counted, the Secretary of State’s office is predicting very high turn out for a midterm election, and record amounts of money were […]

Thrive Washington

It’s clear from yesterday’s defeat of I-1098 and approval of I-1107 and I-1053 that Washington voters do not want to be taxed more. At the same time, the state budget status quo is unsustainable.  To make policy recommendations that will put state government on a better path, the Washington Roundtable and the Washington Research Council […]

60 Minutes on I-1098

Just in time for the election, yesterday 60 Minutes ran a segment on taxing the rich and Initiative 1098.  The Seattle Times’ Politics Northwest blog called it “a general overview of the campaign here, in the context of the national debate over increasing taxes on the rich.” (And they provide a link to the video.) […]

Employment Growth: Metro Seattle vs. the Bay Area

The chart below compares job growth since 1990 in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara Metropolitan Statistical Areas. Employment is seasonally adjusted and indexed so that in each case the January 1990 value is equal to 100. The Seattle MSA (comprising King, Snohomish and Pierce Counties) had 28.1 percent more jobs in August […]

The Bigger Initiative Picture

An article in the Wall Street Journal today is worth reading.  It’s about what is going on with the Washington ballot initiatives: So look past the billionaires. At issue on this Washington ballot is how government is to respond when it is spending more money than it takes in. We have posted policy briefs on […]

Taxes Influence Decision-making

In a New York Times op-ed over the weekend, the economist Greg Mankiw, using himself as an example, illustrates how higher taxes on the rich incentivize them to work less, thereby providing fewer services to the non-rich.  The article is a response to the general idea of increasing taxes on the wealthy, in light of […]

Two New Briefs

Today we have posted two new briefs. The first, Now is Not the Time To Raise Seattle Taxes, is available here. The second, I-1098 Income Tax Proposal: Wrong Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription (Second Edition), updates our June 8 brief on Initiative 1098 and is available here.