November 11 to December 10 state revenue collections were $16.1 million less than forecasted
The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council issued its monthly Economic and Revenue Update last Friday. Here are the key bullets on revenue from the summary: Major General Fund-State revenue collections for the November 11 – December 10, 2015 collection period came in $16.1 million (0.8%) below the November forecast. The forecast included a $3.9 million […]
December 14 , 2015 - Mary Strow
December 03 , 2015 - Emily Makings
New report: Spending and Revenues of Select Washington Counties
In a new special report, we compare the spending and revenues of Benton, Franklin, King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. This is the second of several special reports we are producing on county revenues and spending. (The first focused on King County.)
December 01 , 2015 - Mary Strow
November 24 , 2015 - Mary Strow
November 23 , 2015 - Emily Makings
New report: King County: Spending and Revenues
In a new special report, we review the spending and revenues of King County. This is the first of several reports we are producing on county revenues and spending. On both the taxation and expenditure sides, local governmental activities are significant. We have started with our three largest counties and two more located in the […]
November 17 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Next level regulatory reform
Tyler Cowen links to a recent paper on Canadian regulatory reform by Laura Jones of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. In April, Canada enacted the Red Tape Reduction Act, under which the federal government must eliminate at least one regulation if it wants to create a new one. According to the paper, British Columbia has been doing this […]
November 10 , 2015 - Mary Strow
Aerospace tax incentives work
WRC President Lew Moore spoke to Seattle's KIRO TV yesterday about the benefits of Boeing and aerospace industry tax incentives for Washington state. In response to union criticism about 777X tax incentives originally approved in 2003 and extended by the Legislature and governor in 2013, Lew stressed that they are working: "The incentive was passed in 2003," said Moore. […]
November 09 , 2015 - Emily Makings
New opportunities for Washington students
Sean Gill of UW's Center on Reinventing Public Education has an opinion piece suggesting that traditional public schools may not deserve their monopoly status: Some will say education is a public good – not just something that benefits individual students or families – and I certainly agree. But just because the government pays for it does not […]
November 09 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Speedy delivery and the retail workforce
The Seattle Times had an interesting story last week about how online shopping is changing holiday hiring. The National Retail Federation estimates that 46.1 percent of holiday sales this year will be made online. Thus: Amazon is expected to hire 25 percent more workers this holiday season than it did last year. About one out of seven […]