Olympia Business Watch

Brunell: Bag the bag tax

Seattle residents don't need a tax on grocery bags to get them to recycle, AWB President Don Brunell writes in his weekly column.

Voters in Seattle will decide Aug. 18 whether to impose a 20-cent free on disposable paper and plastic bags dispensed at drug stores, grocery stores and convenience stores.

One survey shows that 91 percent of them already reuse and recycle plastic bags, Brunell writes.

And government shouldn't be discouraging the use of paper bags, either.

"We are a forest products state," said state Rep. Dean Takko, a Democrat whose district includes Longview Fibre, a manufacturer of paper bags. "We should not be discouraging the use of forest products made in our state."

Debunking Washington's supposed workers' comp advantage

The Washington State Labor Council has published a report declaring that Washington state has an advantage over other state's with regard to workers' compensation, prompting WashACE's Richard Davis to explain in detail why that report is misleading.

In short, Davis writes on the WashACE blog that the Labor Council's conclusion is based solely on an Oregon report that is irrelevant when it comes to making any comparisons about Washington.

"Given the abundance of uncontested information debunking the relevance of the Oregon study as a tool for evaluating the Washington system, there's no excuse for this latest misrepresentation," Davis writes.

There is a bit of irony here: Davis is debunking an article that's part of a Labor Council series aimed at debunking the idea that Washington is not a good place to do business.

Also worth considering: Regardless of where one believes Washington currently rates in terms of workers' compensation costs, a big increase is apparently looming.

WPC videos: Your health is on the line

Today, the Washington Policy Center released a trio of videos exploring what's really at stake in the nation's health care debate. The first installment, The Problem, sets up the primary issues facing leaders as the seek to reform a system that accounts for 17 percent of our gross domestic product. Here's a look at the first video:

Go here to view all three.

Coincidentally, more than 1,500 businesses and chambers signed onto a letter to Congress sent today by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The letter urges Congress to reconsider the current proposals and focus on three core issues: health care costs, insurance premiums and a marketplace of insurance options. More than 200 Washington state chambers and businesses, including AWB, lent their names to the letter. Only Minnesota and Texas had more signators.If you're still interested in adding your company's name to the letter, you can still do so by clicking here.

Also, it's worth checking out Fortune.com's list of the five freedoms you'd lose under the proposed health care reform. And yes, keeping your existing plan is one of them...

Broetjes featured in August issue of Costco Connection

Opened up the mailbox today and saw a very familiar face on the cover of
Costco's magazine: Ralph  Broetje, an AWB member and owner of Broetje Orchards in Prescott. 

Together, Ralph and his wife, Cheryl, operate one of the largest privately-owned orchards in the country, with more than 5,000 acres. As the write-up notes, the Broetjes have literally grown their business into an $80 million venture. What's perhaps even more telling about them is that they donate 75 percent of their annual earnings to charitable groups worldwide. And, they have developed an entire community, Vista Hermosa, to meet the needs of orchard employees and their families.

This past spring, AWB honored the Broetjes with the Bruce Briggs Award for their lifelong work in developing FirstFruits and the Vista Hermosa community. Now Costco shoppers -- and hopefully others -- will have the opportunity to learn more about this incredible family.

(A nice fusion of AWB members  -- Broetje and Costco -- too!)

Restroom bill form now available

Another update to the new restroom law that went into effect Sunday (see previous OBW posts here and here). House Bill 1138, approved by lawmakers this past session, allows people with medical conditions, such as Crohn's Disease, to use employee restrooms in retail stores that do not have public restrooms.

The medical condition must be verified with the customer's health care provider, according to an FAQ developed by the Department of Health on the topic. Businesses can find answers to questions about the bill, including what to do if someone presents themselves but does not have the official form or a note describing their particular medical condition.

BTW, the official restroom access form is available here. (HT to Niki Sullivan over at TVW's Capitol Record blog on where to locate said form.)

New law expected to help wineries, breweries and consumers

Collectively, they’re known as Tied House Laws, and they date to the end of Prohibition.

Washington, like other states, adopted laws in the early 1930s aimed at preventing a “house,” or drinking establishment, from becoming “tied” to an alcohol manufacturer or distributor.

By erecting a wall between manufacturers and retailers, lawmakers hoped to avoid the kinds of problems that historically came from close connections -– like breweries bribing barkeepers, and Al Capone-style gangsters building empires by controlling which brands of booze were sold at bars.

That was fine, then.

But plenty has changed in the ensuing decades, including the birth and rise of a Washington wine industry that was not contemplated by the 1933 legislation known as the Steele Act.

Lawmakers have made a number of changes in the laws over the years to accommodate the changing times, but probably none as significant as this year’s adoption of House Bill 2040.

The new law, which went into effect July 26, ends the state’s prohibition against alcohol manufacturers and distributors holding a financial interest in retail establishments, making Washington the first state in the country to open up investing among the so-called “three tiers” (manufacturers, distributors and retailers).

PSBJ Looks at Rising Workers' Comp Costs in Washington

This week's Puget Sound Business Journal features a piece by Dierdre Gregg exploring the severe hike in workers' compensation taxes forecast for Washington employers once the Department of Labor & Industries sets 2010 rates later this fall.

Using preliminary financial and actuarial data, L&I currently projects a need for 15-20% in higher premiums, which as Gregg notes, would be the largest increase in workers' comp rates since 2003.  It's early in the process. The rate indication could drift higher or lower because there are still two more quarters of financial activity yet to occur before the rate is adopted. 

The big picture need for a big rate increase is based on two primary factors: a recession-driven drop in investment and premium income on the one hand, and increased costs for claims administration, disability benefits, medical costs, and pensions on the other hand. 

Apollo 17 Astronaut to Launch Policy Summit

Dr. Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt, who was one of two astronauts to last walk on the Moon, will launch AWB's 20th Annual Policy Summit on Sept. 22.  Best known as the first ‘scientist astronaut’, Schmitt was chosen to walk on the moon with Apollo 17 in 1972.

Prior to being an astronaut, Schmitt received a B.S. degree in science from the California Institute of Technology, then spent a year studying geology at the University of Oslo in Norway and received a Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University in 1964.  Now a resident of Silver City, NM, he has been a United States Senator and served as chair of the NASA Advisory Council providing technical advice to the NASA Administrator as well as being an adjunct professor of engineering physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Schmitt was the keynote speaker at AWB's 1998 Environmental Excellence Awards luncheon.  He is expected to talk about the future of America's space program now that the Shuttle program is nearing the end of its life span.

Schmitt is an outspoken critic of global warming and recently resigned from the Planetary Society over his firm belief that global warming is not man made.  In his email resignation Schmitt said, “"Consensus", as many have said, merely represents the absence of definitive science. You know as well as I, the "global warming scare" is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making. It has no place in the Society's activities.

Schmitt will be the dinner speaker on Sept. 22 at the Suncadia Resort.  For information about the Summit, contact Jennifer Davis (360) 943-1600.

Don C. Brunell, President (DonB@awb.org)

Brunell: Are we setting up America's future business leaders for failure?

The nation's future business leaders are a smart, enthusiastic and inventive bunch, AWB President Don Brunell writes in his column this week.

He spent part of the week advising a group of high school juniors and seniors at Business Week, a program started by AWB in 1976 to expose young people to the business world.

But Brunell worries whether they will be too burdened by the debt America is running up to make the most of their potential.

"It was clear by the end of the week that the current crop of high school business leaders is focuses, extremely bright and innovative," Brunell writes. "They will be successful in business and in the communities in which they live and work.

"Will they have that opportunity? Or will they be saddled with debt, because of the current spending binge by the president and Congress, that they will be overwhelmed by taxes and inflation?"

Fact checking Obama on health care

On Wednesday night, President Obama held a prime-time press conference focusing on health care reform. The nonpartisan "consumer advocate" group FactCheck.org listened in on the exchange and did their homework on some of the information offered during the event. Among their findings:

• Obama promised once again that a health care overhaul "will be paid for". But congressional budget experts say the bills they've seen so far would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit over the next decade.
  
  
• He said the plan "that I put forward" would cover  at least 97 percent of all Americans. Actually, the plan he campaigned on would cover far less than that, and only one of the bills now being considered in Congress would do that.
  
  
• He said the average family is paying thousands  as part of their premiums to cover uncompensated care for the uninsured, implying that expanded coverage will slash insurance costs. But the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation puts the cost per family figure at $200.
  
  
• Obama claimed his budget "reduced federal spending  over the next 10 years by $2.2 trillion" compared with where it was headed before. Not true. Even figures from his own budget experts don't support that. The Congressional Budget Office projects a $2.7 trillion increase, not a $2.2 trillion cut.
  
  
• The president said that the United States spends $6,000 more on average than other countries on health care. Actually, the U.S. per capita spending  is about $2,500 more than the next highest-spending country. Obama's figure was a White House-calculated per-family estimate.

FactCheck has additional sourced comments and details about each of the above points on its Web site.

Bonus trivia/reading recommendation: The Annenberg Political FactCheck is overseen by Brooks Jackson, a former AP and Wall Street Journal political reporter and author of "Honest Graft: Big Money and the American Political Process."