More Woes for State Paid Family Leave

A couple weeks ago, we noted the first public call for repeal of our state's so-far unfunded, unadministered, unimplemented paid family leave benefit mandate coming from the editorial pages of the Walla Walla Union Bulletin. 

The UB's message was "[i]t's time for the Legislature to face up to reality and scuttle this unfunded, unnecessary paid family leave plan" because, among other things, "[t]he state's economy looks different than it did in early 2007."

This morning, the Vancouver Columbian picked up on this theme, with last week's downward revenue forecast its point of departure:

When state revenue forecasters announced on Thursday that the treasury will take a $167 million revenue hit over the next three years because of the economic slump, one of our first thoughts was the unresolved paid family leave bill. The only good thing that can be said about this turkey is that it’s unresolved. It should be dropped.

The paid leave program clearly fizzled in 2008 as needed implementation legislation was left on the vine when it became clear there was no political will to fund the program. 

And that was before a $2.5 billion budget gap started yawning. 

Some action must take place in 2009 -- there's a so-far unfunded mandate that benefits issue October 1st of next year.  But will the framework of the debate still be "how" -- or will it be, as these editorials suggest, "whether"?