Since we last looked at reports of an effort to expand the entitlements in our state's so far unfunded, unimplemented paid family leave mandate and impose a payroll tax on workers to fund it, a duo of bills have now appeared in the House and Senate.
The Spokesman-Review's Rich Roessler has the story of the Senate proposal here, featuring thoughts on the matter by sponsor Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines and AWB.
As Roessler points out, expanding on earlier reporting by the Olympian's Adam Wilson, the interesting thing about this debate is the confidence with which the sponsors of the measure would increase the reach of a program that never had enough political lift to get airborne when it first passed, and impose a new tax on employees in the midst of a recession -- not to mention impose new red tape on employers struggling to keep their workers employed.
The House version, true to a parameter Governor Gregoire put on the debate back in 2007, would refer the new payroll tax (but not the program itself) to the voters for approval. The funny thing about that is if the voters turned down the new tax, the Legislature would be in the same boat it is now -- a dangling deadline on which benefits become payable but no funds to pay them. Better, for the sake of argument, to let voters have an up or down on the validity of the whole enterprise.
The Senate version does not contain a referendum provision, apparently out of the sponsor's belief that the new payroll tax it would impose to pay for the new program is not a "tax" but rather a "fee". Other than that, it appears to be the same bill.
Meanwhile, bills in the House and Senate, sponsored by Rep. Cary Condotta, R-Wenatchee, and Sen. Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, have been introduced to repeal the program. AWB has taken the position this is the responsible approach given the program's troubled history and current economic circumstances.
Expansion, on the other hand, seems particularly counter-intuitive. The focus of the Legislature can't be on keeping Washington working if it is focused on bills like this. A dollar spent on a new tax or new red tape is a dollar not spent on keeping people in their jobs.
