Olympia Business Watch

How to decorate a 48-foot Christmas tree (with video)

So you think it's tough getting the star positioned just right at the top of your Christmas tree?

Try decorating a 48-foot noble fir. (UPDATED: Earlier version reported the tree was 40 feet tall.)

Crews in Olympia spent part of the day doing just that, using scaffolding and ladders to hang lights, ornaments and even a bear on the tree cut down last week from Toutle Ridge, an area within the blast zone during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

The tree will be lit Friday at 6 p.m. during a ceremony that concludes AWB's annual Holiday Kids' Tree Project.

More than $22,000 has been raised so far this year, setting a new record for the fundraiser than benefits needy families in rural counties throughout the state.

The money will be distributed to fire officials at Friday's ceremony and used to buy toys and food for families in Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Thurston, Spokane, Walla Walla and Grant counties.

It's not too late to make a contribution to the AWB Holiday Kids' Tree Project.

Donate online, or mail your contribution to:

Holiday Kids' Tree Project

c/o Association of Washington Business

P.O. Box 657

Olympia, WA 98507-0658

And be sure to come by the Capitol to watch the tree lighting -- and look for Santa!

Tree goes up in Olympia, donations continue to AWB holiday fund

The tree is here!

A 48-foot noble fir went up today at the Capitol, signaling the true start of the holiday season in Olympia.

(UPDATE: Earlier version reported the tree as 40-feet-tall.)

The tree is the visual centerpiece of AWB's long-running Holiday Kids' Tree Project, which raises money for rural fire department officials to buy toys and food for needy families in their communities.

Contributions to this year's project -- more than $22,000 and counting -- have already set a record with more than a week to go before the Dec. 4 tree-lighting ceremony where the money is distributed to fire officials (and Santa makes a visit).

Because of the generous response, fire departments from three Eastern Washington communities will be included for the first time this year. Rural departments from Spokane County, Walla Walla County and Mattawa will join departments from Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason and Thurston counties in receiving funds.

This year's tree was harvested from state trust land on Toutle Ridge, an area devastated by the Mount St. Helens eruption in May 1980. It was planted a few years after the eruption as part of a reforestation effort.

It weighs in at approximately 3,500 pounds.

Crews planned to hang lights on the tree this afternoon, and officials expect to decorate it Monday.

The lighting ceremony will be Friday, Dec. 4 at 6 p.m.

Donate online to the AWB Holiday Kids' Tree Project, or mail your contribution to:

Holiday Kids' Tree Project

c/o Association of Washington Business

P.O. Box 657

Olympia, WA 98507-0658

Tilting at windmills: New energy sources will take innovation, investments

Would San Francisco's iconic Golden Gate Bridge even exist today if we had to build it again?

That's the challenge put forward by Morry Markowitz, group director for external affairs for the U.S. Chamber, as a part of Thursday's opening session on energy issues. The discussion was a continuation of the U.S. Chamber's Regional Government Affairs Conference in San Francisco.  

Major infrastructure projects like the Golden Gate Bridge or state highway systems would be "very difficult to replicate today" according to Markowitz, given permitting and legal challenges at local, state and federal levels -- a troublesome thought given that the U.S. needs to invest heavily in both new sources of energy and new means of transmitting it. 

Demand for electricity is expected to increase 27 percent by 2030, Markowitz said, but "you don't get to build generation plants and other infrastructure in two or even 10 years" these days. And inefficient, older U.S. plants need to be replaced, an effort that will likely cost more than $400 billion.

So what about renewables -- like windmills and solar panels? 

"Even though the wind is free, the windmills are not -- these are very expensive renewables," said Markowitz. "If you look at the best places for wind or sun -- like the Mojave Desert -- we need to build transmission lines to bring that electricity over. Unfortunately, nature doesn't work 24/7, so we need alternatives."

It's The Economy, Fix It!

Speaking to the Northgate Chamber of Commerce and Lynnwood Rotary Club, AWB President Don C. Brunell said that while the recession shows signs of bottoming out, there are storm clouds on the horizon that could disrupt the recovery.

Brunell pointed to the latest state revenue forecast which is $760 million under projections. For over a year, state tax collections have been below forecasts and now the gap between revenues coming into the state and the money need to pay the bills is $2.6 billion. "We need to find more state revenues through stimulating the private, taxpaying sector, not by raising taxes, fees and the costs of doing business!"

Second, Brunell said a recent report from Reuters that a record one in seven U.S. mortgages were in foreclosure or at least one payment past due in the third quarter is very troubling. Reuters reports this fresh data signaling the recovery in the housing market will be tepid at best.U.S. mortgage delinquency rates and the percentage of loans that entered the foreclosure process also jumped to records from July to September, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Thursday.

Rising job losses were behind the increasingly bleak portrait of the housing market in a trend that will continue into next year, the group said in data that adds to recent evidence of a still-struggling housing market.

Third, Brunell said while unemployment numbers seem to be stabilizing, a disturbing fact behind the numbers is many Americans are giving up their job searches in frustration from the lack of jobs available.

Fourth, many states, which balanced last year's budget on federal stimulus money, are seeing that one-time money disappear with no replacement money coming in. This blows a huge hole in the ships of state.  Washington is among the states which took one-time federal dollars which disappear in the next year.

Fifth, many state and local governments have a rapidly growing pension crisis as baby-boomers start retiring, investment returns have fallen farther and farther behind necessary reserving requirements, and elected officials and lawmakers have had to chose between balancing operating budget and raising taxes (or cutting pension costs) to adequately reserve for public worker retirement payments.

Finally, Brunell said the most important thing people can do right now is contact President Obama, Congress, Gov. Gregoire and state lawmakers and tell them to focus on fixing the economy and increasing private sector jobs. Passing hugely expensive new federal and state programs only sets us farther behind, Brunell concluded. "It is a healthy private sector which will lead us back to lasting recovery and add the jobs we need today and for our children and grandchildren."

State lowers revenue forecast $760 million, raising budget woes

The latest revenue forecast for Washington's 2009-11 biennium has fallen by $760 million since September, Arun Raha, Washington's chief economist announced today.

Officials now expect to collect $28.8 billion, an estimate driven down largely by a "crisis of confidence" that has consumers continuing to pay down debt and save money rather than spend it, Raha said.

The news, which was expected but nevertheless sobering, means that lawmakers must now find a way to fill a $2.6 billion shortfall when the 2010 Legislature convenes -- up from a previously estimated $2 billion shortfall.

"It's getting to be kind of numbing to us, the size of the mountain we need to climb," said Victor Moore, director of the state Office of Financial Management.

In his September forecast, Raha said Great Recession was over, but the recovery would be slow and weak.

On Thursday, Raha reiterated that the recession has ended -- that's the good news -- but the bad news is that the state economy is experiencing a "revenue-less recovery."

The issue is jobs, jobs, jobs.

About 20 million of them, in fact.

And they need to come from the private sector.

That's the overarching theme of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Regional Government Affairs  Conference, held this week in San Francisco. The U.S. needs about 20 million new jobs over the next decade, including 7 million just to recover what's been lost in the current recession. It's the heart of the U.S. Chamber's new American Free Enterprise. Dream Big campaign, along with its 20 Million Jobs Challenge. (In Washington state, that means about 415,000 jobs are needed to make up for jobs recently lost. Click here to see the interactive map.)

In the last 50 years, the size of government has remained fairly consistent, according to U.S. Chamber Managing VP Brian Gunderson. However, current budget proposals would add $9 trillion in new debt in the coming decade and vastly expand the role of the federal government.

"Free enterprise is the system that creates new jobs and new opportunities," said

Tsunami of Global Warming Litigation Hitting with Hurricane Force

Two recent United States Court of Appeals decisions may herald a new wave of litigation for damages arising from greenhouse gas emissions. Companies across a growing number of industries are being threatened by lawsuits alleging that their emissions of greenhouse gases ("GHG") are contributing to global warming.

 

In the course of resolving those lawsuits, courts are likely to make judgments that Congress and regulators might normally be expect to make. The dangerous trend is more toward private plaintiffs seeking monetary relief for damages allegedly caused by global warming (e.g., stronger hurricane storms, rising tides, melting snow cap, etc.), rather than states and municipalities seeking to reduce a company's future GHG emissions.  The rise of private, often class-action, lawsuits has the potential to greatly increase the exposure of all affected companies.

 

In Mississippi (Comers v Murphy Oil), for example, residents and property owners along the Mississippi Gulf coast filed a class action against a number of oil and energy companies, alleging that the operations of the defendants emitted greenhouse gases that contributed to global warming, causing a rise in sea levels and adding to the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina. A federal district court dismissed the case, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court and found that tort-based global warming litigation against insurance, oil, coal and chemical companies presents justiciable claims.

The Second Circuit Court Appeals also recently reversed a lower court decision (Connecticut v American Electric Power) which was originally dismissed.  It is a public nuisance lawsuit filed by eight state attorneys general, the City of New York, and three land trusts against six electric power companies based on greenhouse gas emissions.

This type of litigation has been in the pipeline for awhile. Back in 2006, The Wall Street Journal and Business Week warned that it was coming.  This new round of class action lawsuits could be extremely costly....perhaps trillions?

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

2009 AWB Holiday Kids' Tree Project on record-setting pace

The economy may still be down, but contributions to our annual holiday food and toy collection campaign are on pace to set a record.

With about two weeks remaining, contributions to the 2009 AWB Holiday Kids' Tree Project have already surpassed $20,000, exceeding the 2008 total of approximately $18,000, said Bonnie Millikan, AWB office manager.

Because of the generous response, the program will be expanded into Eastern Washington for the first time this year, Millikan said.

"It's a cool thing," Millikan said. "People who know about it, they want to give money to these rural fire departments when they know people are struggling."

For 20 years, the Association of Washington Business has raised money that's distributed to rural fire departments in Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason and Thurston counties. The funds are given to fire officials during a tree lighting ceremony at the Capitol that includes the governor, fire officials and families.

Fire officials then use the money to purchase toys and food for needy families in their communities.

This year's ceremony will be Friday, Dec. 4 at 6 p.m.

To donate to the AWB Holiday Kids' Tree Project, donate online here or mail your contribution to:

Holiday Kids' Tree Project

c/o Association of Washington Business

P.O. Box 657

Olympia, WA 98507-0658

Brunell: It's time to raise revenue, not taxes

With the failure of Initiative 1033, the talk in Olympia has turned to raising taxes.

But raising taxes now, just as the economy is in the early stages of a fragile recovery, would be the wrong thing to do, AWB President Don Brunell writes in his weekly column.

As evidence, Brunell looks back at two previous economic recessions -- and the hard lessons Washington leaders learned when they raised taxes then.

"Simply put, the tax and fee increases drained fuel from our economic engine, delaying our recovery," Brunell writes.

Former Congressional Budget Office Director Says Health Reforms Will Add Trillions to our National Debt

Dr. June O'Neill is the former Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and charged with costing out legislation such as the congressional health reform proposals. She figures about half of the 47 million uninsured Americans are young, single people with no children and earn over $65,000 a year and that 30 percent of them have been offered health insurance by their employers but declined coverage.

Covering the uninsured is a central focal point of the $1.2 trillion health care reforms which barely passed the U.S. House of Representatives last Saturday. The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate where Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) is attempting to pull together 60 votes to avoid a filibuster on the Senate version of health care reform. The Senate plan is expected to be in the ballpark of $1 trillion or more as well. Both are expected to contain a government run health insurance alternative to private health insurance plans.

One group concerned about the massive costs of the reforms is the Employment Policies Institute which is launching a $10 million campaign to educate the public about the unintended consequences of the current health care reform proposals. The campaign features Dr. June O'Neill and can be seen on Fox News, CNBC and CNN.

Stay tuned.

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