Olympia Business Watch

Rep. Alexander's Platinum Budget Comment

Rep. Gary Alexander got off one of the better budget lines this year with this characterization of the House and Senate budgets.

The operating budget proposed by the Senate and the operating budget adopted Monday by the House are very similar, like twin sons of different mothers.

I guess you have to be a certain age to get the reference.

Senate Budget Coverage

Well, the Senate does provide for a Constitutionally-protected rainy day fund and that is a big deal.

Other than that, however, it's not much better than the House version.

Eventually, as the AP reports, there will probably be agreement on the rainy day fund.

Senate Democrats on Wednesday offered a new two-year state budget plan, and House Speaker Frank Chopp said the House likely would agree to a "rainy day" reserve account badly wanted by the governor and Senate.

The spending stays high.

The Senate budget plan generally tracks with plans from the governor and the House, but proposes the highest level of savings suggested so far this session.

Minority Republicans in both chambers saw some improvement over the House plan but said Democratic legislators and the governor still want to spend too heavily and save too little.

Business groups, including AWB, sent a letter to senators yesterday, urging more budget restraint.

Other budget stories in The News Tribune, Spokesman-Review (witha nice quip in Richard Roesler's S-R blog), and the Olympian.

Forestry Making Come Back on Olympic Peninsula

Yesterday, I spoke to the Forks Chamber of Commerce about Washington's business climate.  Forks is 158 miles northwest of Olympia, and the road to Forks takes one through some of the most scenic and productive forestlands in the world.

Forestry is making a comeback on the Olympic Peninsula after being devastated by federal rulings on the spotted owl.  Logging is occurring on private lands and the replanted Douglas fir, hemlock and western red cedar is growing at a record pace.  Often, you can tell how productive forestland is by the tops of trees and young tops (referred to as "leader") are some of the lengthiest I seen.

Very little logging and reforestation occurs on public lands, state or federal.  What is evident along Highway 101 is forests on public lands -- whether they be on state trust lands managed by the Dept. of Natural Resources, the Olympic National Forest or Olympic National Park -- have significantly more blown down than those on private lands.  Many of those older or weakened trees that would be thinned in a managed forest actually fell across Highway 101---the main transportation artery between Hoquiam and Port Angeles.

I'm not saying we should clear cut it all or fail to manage forests for other values, but we should not lock it away and believe it will be there forever to admire.  Forests and trees live and go through life cycles.   There are areas on public lands to log, replant and manage.  There are areas where nature should be left alone and we ought to recognize the risks of doing that -- like trees falling across trails, roads and highways.  When I worked for the Forest Service clearing trail in Montana, these weakened trees were called "widowmakers" for good reason.

Here is one final thought.  If we are interested in biofuels and generating electricity from wood wastes like is happening with a wood-fired generating plant near Kettle Falls in northeast Washington, then there may be enough wood wastes if federal and state lands once designated for forest management --  including harvesting, thinning and replanting -- were put back into the inventory. It would help meet the goal of 15% of our state's electricity from renewables and add many new jobs in a job starved area of our state.

New Budget Tidbit

Sen. Joe Zarelli has released a new budget advisory. It's timely, as the public hearing on the Senate budget is being held now. Similar parade of characters and characterizations. It is hard to believe spending is going up as much as it is with so few satisfied folks.

The senator makes some good points. You'll want to go to the piece to see the charts.

While a constitutional rainy day fund is a step in the right direction to getting the state off the boom-bust budget roller coaster, that alone is not sufficient. What is needed is discipline, restraint and a commitment to budget within forecasted revenues, both in the short and long term. Each of the budgets presented fail woefully in these regards.

Again, too much spending, not enough savings, and not sustainable.

Tax Freedom Day Arrives April 30

The Tax Foundation today announced Tax Freedom Day (full report here).

I wrote about it in this column.

Two View of Fire Retardent Ban

When you're lobbying a complicated issue, it's hard to beat a supportive front-page story in one of the state's larger daily newspapers. The PI obliged supporters of HB 1024 today.

Here's how they frame the issue.

If approved, the new law would ban the sale and manufacture of deca-containing mattresses in Washington beginning next year. A 2005 survey by the Ecology Department found that mattress makers in the state already stopped its use. Deca can be replaced by a safer chemical called melamine or the mattress can be built with a fire-resistant barrier, such as one made of naturally fire-resistant fabrics.

The bigger fight is over a deca ban in upholstered, residential furniture and in computers and TVs. That last item is important because between 45 percent to 80 percent of the deca use is in TVs. ...

They mention us.

Opponents of the legislation -- primarily the PBDE industry and the Association of Washington Business -- object to passing a ban before the deca alternative is identified.

The Seattle Times editorial today agrees.

The bill, House Bill 1024, is full of holes, and for a good reason: The case for doing something decisive has not been made.

Of course, it's not a front page story. But it makes good sense.

Two Editorials Worth Reading

The Yakima Herald-Republic has good advice for the State Senate .

Now that the House has done half a job while still calling for record spending in its version of the state budget released last week, it behooves the Senate to inject common sense and fiscal prudence into budget deliberations. ...

As the Senate now prepares to trot out its version of the 2007-09 budget that goes into effect July 1, two things must head their list of priorities: 1) Cut the spending levels that are too high and put more in reserve, and 2) apply any and all necessary pressure to ensure the budget is not adopted unless it includes a rainy day account.

Then the session has a good leg up on being a success.

And this Longview Daily News editorial gets at the crux of why proposed family leave legislation is bad for Washington families.

Its mandate is as unnecessary as it would be onerous for small businesses. Moreover, the leave benefits this state-administered insurance program would provide -- $250 per week for up to five weeks -- may not be so generous as those offered by many small businesses. ...

Three out of four small businesses in the state already provide workers benefits to replace lost income. No doubt, many of those workers would prefer not to be forced into this one-size-fits-all program administered by the Department of Labor and Industries. The program would be a net loss for those who work for more generous employers, as well as those who never use medical or family leave.

Many small, struggling businesses also would lose under this law. The legislation allows no exemption for smaller employers, who would find the premiums and additional paperwork particularly burdensome.

Well said.

Young Adults and Health Insurance

Senators Linda Parlette and Janea Holmquist offer a refreshingly practical perspective on health insurance in this morning's PI. They begin by assessing the problem.

... 51 percent of Washington's 593,000 uninsured are young adults, ages 19-34. They're also the fastest-growing segment of the uninsured.

What's preventing those young adults from buying health insurance? Simply put -- it's too expensive.

And it need not be.

Insurance carriers have told us time and time again that they could design and market more affordable health insurance plans for people in this age bracket if they were given flexibility with our state laws -- the same flexibility they already have in Connecticut, Colorado, California, Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire.

They offered a solution that was rejected. Read the op-ed. Then contact your legislators.

Work Continues on the WASL

Today's editorial in the Everett Herald lays out a sensible legislative approach on the WASL.

The governor and state schools superintendent have proposed putting off the math and science requirements for three years to allow more time for struggling students to get the extra help they need and for thoughtful, systemic changes. That sensible strategy hasn't stopped a stampede toward the latest idea to catch fire: instituting end-of-course exams in place of the WASL. That's in 2SHB 2327, which the House passed overwhelmingly. ...

But the House bill is so prescriptive that it would essentially throw out the math and science standards educators have built for 12 years. It would replace them with off-the-shelf tests that would become the target for new (almost certainly lower) standards. It would also require that the replacement tests include only multiple-choice questions, and limit the science test to biology. (Someone apparently decided other science topics don't matter.) ...

The idea deserves immediate and serious study. ...

Lawmakers should coalesce behind a plan to have the state Board of Education and Superintendent of Public Instruction study end-of-course exams and make recommendations by the end of the year. Aligning standards with curriculum and assessment in a way that makes a high school diploma meaningful in a competitive world should be the goal. Sufficient time and thought must be devoted to doing it well.

No need to rush to retreat. And, for more on the WASL, this morning's TNT reports that science teachers are concerned.

The Washington Science Teachers Association is urging its 800 members to tell legislators to reject a biology-only exam and to study alternatives to the WASL before switching to “end-of-course” assessments that are generally taken after a class in the tested subject.

Of course, a partial retreat doesn't satisfy everyone, as the AP reports.

The state teachers union will continue to advocate for a delay of all parts of the WASL, including the reading and writing tests, said Charles Hasse, president of the Washington Education Association.

The budget wasn't big enough for them, either.

SEIU Agrees with Business: Don't Adopt The House Budget

Well, naturally it's for entirely different reasons, more along the lines of the folks Chris Mulick blogged about. David Postman has the story.