House unanimously passes UI bill
Unanimous votes on important legislation are rare. Following the recent unemployment insurance contention, this outcome looks pretty good. Brad Shannon has the story in the Olympian. The state House of Representatives swiftly and unanimously voted today to approve an unemployment insurance deal that came after days of negotiating on a sharply contentious issue. If ratified […]
February 09 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
President's UI tax plan far from a done deal…kind of like the governor's better idea
Yesterday Emily wrote about President Obama’s plan to allow states to raise their unemployment insurance taxes and provide some temporary debt relief to states that have borrowed from the feds. Today that plan appears to be in a little trouble. The Wall Street Journal reports that Capitol Hill Republicans oppose the proposal, though states that […]
February 08 , 2011 - Emily Makings
President's Budget and UI Taxable Wages
The Wall Street Journal reports that the President’s budget (to be released next week) will include a provision that would increase the level of wages subject to the federal unemployment tax, as a way to “restock strained state unemployment-insurance trust funds.” Currently, the taxable wage base is set at $7,000; the President would increase that […]
February 04 , 2011 - Kriss Sjoblom
Union Membership in Washington State, 2010
In January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual report on union membership, which shows that Washington remains the 4th most highly unionized state in the nation. In 2010, 19.4 percent of Washington workers were members of a union. This is down from the 20.2 percent reported for 2009. Nationally, 11.9 percent of workers […]
February 01 , 2011 - Richard S. Davis
Thrive Washington suggests positive ideas to put state on sustainable budget path
Thrive Washington, a research and communications partnership between the Research Council and Washington Roundtable, has looked at budget reforms, contracting out, and health care policy. This series of white papers provides a good platform for responsible state budgeting in hard times. And, these proposals will accelerate the transition to better times. Sunday, the Herald of […]
January 12 , 2011 - Emily Makings
Health Care and Employee Benefits Spending Charts
In her State of the State address yesterday (reported on by the Seattle Times here), Gov. Gregoire pointed to two areas of state spending that must be tackled, for the long-term health of the budget: health care and pension spending. The governor noted that health care costs have doubled over the past decade, while pension […]
January 18 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
Unemployment Insurance Burden
This table compares the unemployment tax burden in Washington with that in other states.