AWB Requests Partial Veto of Paid Family Leave Legislation

Today, Don sent Gov. Gregoire a letter a letter asking her to veto major sections of E2SSB 5659, the paid family leave legislation passed earlier this month.

It's a competitiveness issue.

Thomas L. Friedman, author of The World is Flat, commented in a 2005 New York Times essay, “A Race to the Top,” on the disparity between the countries of Europe, with stagnant economies and crumbling welfare benefit structures, and our new competitors in eastern and southern Asia –  India and China, and the dynamism of their economies. Wrote Thomas, “French voters are trying to preserve a 35-hour work week in a world where Indian engineers are ready to work a 35-hour day. Good luck.”

Acknowledging the governor's commitment to global competitiveness, the letter continues:

As you have noted many times, our state’s businesses compete on this global scale. We must be mindful of the regulatory costs that our state imposes upon them that hamper their economic competitiveness. Paid family leave, as envisioned by the Legislature, will be one such cost.

At the same time, the business community believes strongly in family values. We encourage our members to work flexibly with their workers whenever the crisis of illness or the joy of a new baby comes to a family. We believe there ought to be a way especially for low-income women and families to have time to bond with new life.

That is why the business community requests the opportunity to come back with something better. That is why we ask you to veto all portions of E2SSB 5659 except Section 2, which establishes a joint legislative task force to “study the implementation of a paid family leave insurance program” including the financing and administration of such a program.

Concluding with this:

We in the business community believe that through the task force process we can work collaboratively with other stakeholders to develop a program that is targeted to those in society who need it the most; one that is voluntary when at all possible; one that does not impose new and unfamiliar costs and regulations on employers; and one that does not hamper our state’s economic competitiveness on a national and global scale.

It's the right thing to do.

UPDATE The Bellingham Herald makes a good case for the veto in today's editorial.

The crux:

We don’t like the idea of paying people to stay home from work just because they have children, but if the Legislature wants to do so, they need to at least have the common sense and leadership to figure out how to pay for it first. Don’t sweep the costs under a rug and hope people forget that this great new benefit you are providing is actually costing them something.

We urge Gov. Gregoire to veto the bill until she knows how it will be paid for.

Agreed.

Second Letter, Second Update Don followed up with a second letter to the governor, urging her to consider the effect of taking $18 million from the supplemental pension fund to start the program.

Also, in his Postman on Politics blog for the Seattle Times, David Postman reports the governor is likely to sign the bill.