Tax simplification supported by governor and business community, some major cities opposed
AWB president Don Brunell blogged recently about the advantages to businesses of the B&O tax simplification measure endorsed by Gov. Chris Gregoire. Brunell writes: AWB has pointed out the B&O tax is different than the sales tax because at least 39 cities collect B&O taxes independently using their own rules, penalties and fees. B&O taxes […]
January 12 , 2012 - Kriss Sjoblom
State Revenue Collections Remain On Track
The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released the January Economic and Revenue Update yesterday. Here is the summary: The U.S. economy is performing as expected in the last forecast, but downside risks remain extremely high. Washington’s economy is benefitting from solid performances by aerospace, software and agriculture. But overall growth is being held back by […]
January 09 , 2012 - Richard S. Davis
Puget Sound region among "top 5 regions" to watch for economic growth
Joel Kotkin has a good Forbes piece on the nation’s economy. Pointing out that the national economy is made up of many economies, he highlights “the five regions…poised to flourish…” Read the article for the assumptions and his analysis. The good news here is that the Pacific Northwest makes the cut. More especially, the Puget […]
December 14 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
Boeing contract a good deal for all Washingtonians … bonus checks tomorrow
As part of the agreement ratified last week by Boeing Machinists, members get a $5,000 signing bonus. The checks go out tomorrow, a day I call Boeing Thursday in this morning's column in The Herald of Everett. Not quite Cyber Monday or Black Friday, but a good deal for Puget Sound area retailers and our […]
December 12 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
Scant Good News for Budget Writers in Report on November 11 to December 10 State Revenue Collections
The Washington State Economic and Revenue Council (EFRC) today issued its December Economic and Revenue Update. Here is the summary: The U.S. economy continues to “muddle through.” The risk of a renewed financial meltdown stemming from the European sovereign debt crisis remains high. We continue to expect Washington’s economy to outperform the U.S. in the […]
November 30 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
Washington ranks 7th on Forbes "best states for business" list
In a lousy economy these rankings tend to get less attention. Given that the "best states" concept is itself full of subjective assessments, that's probably not a bad thing. But for the list inclined, here's the Forbes scorecard. Utah's No. 1; Maine comes in last.
November 30 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
Perspective on changes in state revenue collections
In my column this morning, I discuss how and why state revenues have fallen as a share of the economy. State revenues have fallen as a share of the economy. But it’s mostly because taxpayers rejected the higher burdens. Please go to the column for context. And, yes, revenues have even fallen since 1995 on […]
November 18 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
Trends in Washington's Life Sciences Industry 2007-2011
An economic impact analysis of the state’s life sciences industry by the Research Council was released today at the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association’s Governor’s Life Sciences Summit and Annual Meeting. We estimate that the various segments of the life sciences industry directly employed over 33,500 people in the state in 2010. Those life science […]
November 18 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
State revenues recovering slowly – still below peak
After yesterday’s forecast, we received some questions about how state revenues have performed historically. Kriss put together a graph showing Near General Fund State (NGFS) collections, including the forecast through 2013. These projections show tax receipts not climbing back to 2008 levels until the end of the biennium. This chart, tracking NGFS spending since 2000, […]
November 17 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
State revenue forecast for 2011-13 reduced by $122 million
The state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council updated its forecast of general fund-state revenues today. The forecast for the 2011-13 biennium was reduced by $122 million, while the talley of revenue for 2009-11 was increased by $25 million. The net bad news was thus a reduction of $97 million. From the press release: Our current […]