Olympia Business Watch

Brunell: Death tax threatens to kill more jobs unless Obama and Congress act

President Obama and Democrats in Congress are tripping over themselves to tout their support for small business tax breaks, but they're not mentioning the automatic tax increase that will hit family-owned businesses hard beginning Jan. 1, AWB President Don Brunell writes in his weekly column.

Unless Congress and the president act, the inheritance or "death tax" will automatically revert to its pre-2001 level of 55 percent of the value of one's estate after a $1 million deduction. "That tax alone often breaks a small business," Brunell writes.

Some may think the tax only targets a small number of wealthy people, but the reality is that the wealth being taxed is in things like equipment, machinery, inventory and factories -- not jewelry and jets.

Even now, the Heritage Foundation estimates that 300,000 jobs are lost each year to the death tax because families have to sell the farm, manufacturing plant or store just to pay state and federal estate taxes.

"During his presidential campaign, Mr. Obama proposed a 45 percent estate tax with a $7 million deduction," Brunell writes. "Now, farmers and small-business owners fear the president will forget his promise in order to collect more tax money for the federal government."

Longview Daily News: Income Tax is the Wrong Answer for Washington

The Longview Daily News was the latest newspaper to come out opposed to I-1098.  In its Sunday's editorial, the lower Columbia River daily called it the wrong answer for Washington.

Using information gathered by our polling of AWB's small business members, The Daily News editorialized:

Initiative 1098 may appeal to some voters for the very reason that it targets earnings typical of business owners. The tax would apply to individuals making at least $200,000 annually and couples making $400,000 per year.

Finally, advocates of the income tax assert that it would make Washington's tax code less regressive. This is only marginally true. The measure in no way reduces the state's most regressive tax, the sales tax. That flat tax would continue to be paid by rich and poor alike.

The editorial concludes:

In any event, I-1098 is the wrong fix for Washington's tax code at the wrong time. As AWB President Don Brunell says, "Washington state should be doing everything in its power right now to attract and create new private sector jobs. An enormous deterrent to growth like a new state income tax would have the effect of telling companies to go elsewhere."

Brunell's right. Washington is one of just seven states nationwide without a state income tax. That's a large part of the reason the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation ranks this state ninth in its 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index. Certainly, this is no time to give up that advantage.

Considering the Longview metropolitan area had the highest unemployment rate in June for the state of Washington at 11.5 percent and the neighboring Portland-Vancouver area checked in at 10.2 percent, the issue is JOBS! The Longview Daily news realizes that it takes a healthy and vibrant private sector to put people back to work and restore economic vitality.  That happens when the private sector has money to invest and generate tax growth through renewed prosperity.

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

Income Tax Less Stable

One of the burning questions in the debate over I-1098, the income tax initiative, is the volatility of the tax source.  Proponents claim passing I-1098 makes our state's tax revenues more stable. 

Is that so?

Today reporter Erik Smith, Washington State Wire, wires: 

"The experience of the last dozen years has shown that income taxes are the least stable form of taxes around – less so than sales taxes or property taxes. High earner taxes are particularly volatile. Generally speaking, the more a state relied on an income tax, the more trouble it had when Wall Street tanked a year and a half ago and personal income plunged. Recession hit especially hard in states that had enacted high income rates for the wealthy – among them California, New York and New Jersey."

Whatever side of the issue people are on,” said Don Boyd of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York at Albany, “on the factual question, volatility will be greater with an income tax. How much more volatile depends on the way the tax is configured.”

In its analysis of I-1098, the Washington Research Council added: "The I-1098 income tax will be extremely volatile.  A variant of the so-called "millionaire's tax," the graduated tax imposed by I-1098 established tax policy principles and would seriously destabilize our revenue system, threatening state services and assuring future fiscal crises.  Put another way, I-1098 puts the state budget on a wild roller coaster and increases the velocity."

 

 

Washington's Application Falls Short

Finishing 32nd out of 36 states in the President's Race to the Top funding program signals Washington has lots of work ahead.  Our application simple fell short. 

The winners in this second and final round announced by the U.S. Department of Education were the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Rhode Island. They join first-round winners Delaware and Tennessee.

Washington’s application request was for $250 million in federal funding—the maximum amount the state is able to receive, but it was rejected.  One of the reasons, our state does not allow for charter schools.  Another, the legislature failed to stiffen our academic testing requirements. 

According to the Partnership for Learning:  "Though Washington leaders will not know how the state scored on Race to the Top until September, the message is clear: Our state has a long way to go to ensure the success of every student and our state’s “business as usual” approach simply doesn’t meet the high bar for reform set by the federal government."

A top-to-bottom look at our state's education system is on the agenda for the Association of Washington Business' Annual Policy Summit on Sept. 21-23 at the Resort at Semiahmoo near Blaine.  Caroline King, executive director of the Partnership, will moderate the panel discussion. The panel includes Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn, Dr. Mary Alice Heuschel, superintendent of Renton schools, and Dr. Marguerite Roza, UW Center for Reinventing Public Education.

The Summit is open to all Association of Washington Business members in good standing.

State Makes Case for No Income Tax

The News Tribune's Peter Callaghan posted a blog about the upcoming Fortune magazine insert promoting Washington as a good place to locate a business.  HIs comments hit the nail on the head:

 "But among the evidence that Washington state offers both beauty and brains is this:  No Income Tax.  The ad copy will be true when it runs but perhaps not by November if Initiative 1098 passes.  That's the high-income income tax that will appear ont he general election ballot."

Callaghan was commenting on a Puget Sound Business Journal article by John Cook from Monday's edition.

The Choose Washington campaign launched by the state's Dept. of Commerce is well done.The tag line is on the mark "Innovation is in our nature." It sure beats "Say Wa!" Here is a preview of the insert which will appear in the September 6 edition of Fortune. 

Rogers Weed, director of commerce, is to be commended on developing a great campaign.  Hopefully, I-1098, establishing a punitive state income tax will fail and the legislature and state agencies will work together to reduce overlapping and competing regulations, streamline permitting, keep the incentives which create jobs and attract investments, reform workers compensation, lower unemployment insurance rates, find ways to provide health care and health insurance at reasonable rates, and transform our state budget as Gov. Gregoire's "transforming the state budget" group is charged to do.

Total costs of doing business and perception make a difference.....and the perception of the Choose Washington campaign is it is a good start. Let's make sure the costs part of the equation give it staying power.

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

 

Time to Call Off Gulf Drilling Moratorium

The six-month moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico imposed by President Obama is causing economic havoc, particularly in the gulf states of Louisiana and Texas, but with 30 percent of our energy supply coming from the Gulf, it impacts every citizen of the United States.

According to Dr. Joseph R.Mason, Louisiana State University economist, the moratorium, which has been overturned by the 5th Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, but subsequently reinstated by the Obama Administration, will cost $2.7 billion nationwide, including 8,169 jobs, $487 million in lost wages and $98 million in lost state tax revenues---mostly to Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi.

While those job numbers may not mean alot to us, for states crippled by hurricanes, loss of tourism, and shortened fishing seasons, these are huge job and economic losses.  It would be like Boeing closing down in Washington.

Setting the deep water drilling aside (5,000 ft), this is an industry that has been operating quietly and safely since the Truman administration — 1949 to be precise. Over those 60-plus years, more than 46,000 wells have been drilled without incident in depths of less than 1,000 feet across the Gulf, says the Houston Chronicle.

According to the Shallow Water Energy Coalition, a grand total of 15 barrels of oil (yes, fifteen) has been spilled in the past 15 years. The worst spill, they say, was 10 barrels offshore Louisiana in March 2003.

The newly formed group fighting to remove the ban is Gulf Citizens United. 

The Columbia Daily Tribune, Columbia, MS, editorial said it best:  "Unless the feds can explain more fully why their moratorium is justified, it looks like a CYA tactic based more on politics than science. Whatever the rationale, the government should explain better with a goal of ending the moratorium sooner rather than later."  

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

State Employees Have to Pay More for Health Care

As a follow-up to my blog posting last week on public employee compensation, The Seattle Times editorial today argues that state employees will have to pay a higher percentage of their health care costs and insurance premium.  The Times editorial staff wrote:

"ON Tuesday state negotiators will face public-employee unions over the issue of medical benefits. Last time they did this, they gave away the store.....The central issue is how much each side pays for health-insurance premiums. Currently, employees pay 12 percent, and the state pays 88 percent. It is a sweet deal, but the state cannot afford it unless it raises other charges — the coinsurance, the deductibles and the out-of-pocket maximum — in a big way."

"Most private-sector workers who have coverage pay more than 25 percent. It's not because their employers are mean, but because they have only so much money and they have to balance their accounts."

No one wants to pay more for health care or health insurance.  It is difficult for any business, worker or family, but when it comes to deciding between layoffs or higher premiums, unfortunately, the answer is higher worker costs.....and don't look to Congress or the President for relief.  The federal government is spending too fast and borrowing too much.  State and local government leaders have to bite the bullet now before the budget crisis worsen.

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

Thank You, Mr. President

Thank you, Mr. President. 

Former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura were among the greeters at the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport on August 11.  It was not a photo op, as they say in political circles, it was a surprise visit to focus the attention on the troops and their families where it should be.

You didn't see it on the national nightly news or on the front pages of the daily newspapers.  Here is how CNN reported it:

But waiting with the crowd at the international arrivals section were the smiling former president and first lady. "We didn't tell them at all what was going on," said the leader of the welcoming group, Lt. Col. Patrick McAfee. "It was shock and awe when they walked in the double doors."

Most of the returning service members are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A spokesman for Bush, David Sherzer, said they were "honored" to take part in the welcome. "President Bush often says that he doesn't miss much about being the President, but he does miss being the Commander in Chief of an incredible group of men and women", he said.

"It was a remarkable, incredible feeling for them, seeing the former commander in chief taking time to greet them," McAfee said.

As the combat mission ends in Iraq and troops are coming home, it is important to welcome them and thank them for their sacrifices.  That has been the American tradition and the American way.

During the Gulf War, as a Washington Army National Guard officer, I spent some time on active duty in late 1991 and early 1992.  Part of my responsibility was to help the Guardsmen (and women) prepare for combat deployment.  The most difficult was going to the private going away meeting with the families and then watching them board aircraft at McChord AFB and fly away to a war zone.

I'll always remember former Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro and Gov. Mike Lowry being there on the flight line at McChord to wish them well. Then they were there when they returned happily home.  One of the most memorable days of my life was seeing those same Guardsmen (and women) coming down the airplane ramp and being hugged by their wives, husbands, children, parents and friends.  Having Lowry and Munro there was very important for them just as it was last week having President Bush at the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport without media fanfare.

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

Stop The Biggest Tax Hike In History: Reid Plans a September Showdown

Unless President Obama and Democrat leaders in Congress act to extend today's tax rates, next January Americans will face the biggest tax hike in history at a time when families and employers on Main Street are still reeling from the prolonged recession. The economy is shaky at best and joblessness is persistent. It is not the time to raise taxes!

However, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) may still push for a vote to repeal the tax cuts right after lawmakers return from their August recess. He is rallying fellow Democrats including Washington's Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, who opposed the tax cuts extension legislation when it came to the Senate floor on May 11, 2005, to support his plan. (That 2005 legislation passed 54-44).

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports: “If Congress fails to act, marginal tax rates will increase for every taxpayer, the capital gains rate will climb 33%, and dividend rates will jump as much as 164%.”

The Chamber reports that American small businesses will face marginal tax rates as high as 39.6%. Compounded with the loss of certain itemized deductions and personal exemptions, these small businesses face rates as high as 41.6%. “Extending existing tax rates would, in one bold stroke, boost investor, business and consumer confidence by taking the uncertainty of tax policy off the table."

The tax cuts of 2003 resulted in the creation of $4 trillion in stock market wealth and $10 trillion in total wealth, allowing us to afford the rebuilding efforts. According to the Tax Relief Coalition, tax revenues have increased by over 15 percent this year, the largest annual increase in history; and prior to the hurricane relief measures, the deficit was being steadily reduced by the solidly growing economy and increased tax revenues.

The Tax Relief Coalitions continues saying the preponderance of this historical increase in revenues is attributable to the capital gains and dividend tax rate reductions. Not extending this important tax relief this year would send the wrong signals to both companies and investors, who make investment decisions in multi-year planning cycles, and would almost certainly have a negative near-term impact on revenues. This is becoming a hot election year issue and Reid's initiative may be loosing some stream.

In Missouri, for example, where incumbent Democrat Robin Carnahan faces a stiff challenger from Republican Congressman Roy Blount for the U.S. Senate, Carnahan broke ranks with Reid. She now supports extension of the Bush tax cuts.

President Obama hasn't been a fan of extending the current tax rates. He drew a line in the sand when campaigning for Murray in Seattle earlier this week saying he only wants tax relief for small business. Sen. Murray then told the Democrat fundraiser audience assembled to hear from President Obama: “Never go back to the failed policies of George W. Bush, where my opponent wants to go."

Meanwhile, Murray's opponent former State Senator Dino Rossi challenged her to continue the tax cuts. Rossi said:

"Bush tax cuts that passed in 2001 and 2003 gave middle- income earners a 10 percent rate on couples' first $14,000 in income; subsidies for college expenses, a higher child-care credit and relief from the marriage penalty. Keeping those and other reductions for the 130 million households earning less than $250,000 would cost about $300 billion a year, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.

Bush tax cuts lowered taxes for more than 2.5 million Washingtonians, provided marriage penalty relief for 808,000 Washington taxpayers and increased the child tax credit for more than 606,000 Washington families."

AWB and the Chamber have contacted Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and the House of Representative members of the Washington delegation to urge them to stop what could be the biggest tax increase in our nation’s history by urging Congress to act now to extend, not toss out as Sen. Reid intends. Contact them by clicking here.

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

Welcome Home----Never Forget!

From the Associated Press yesterday: 

A line of heavily armored American military vehicles, their headlights twinkling in the pre-dawn desert, lumbered past the barbed wire and metal gates marking the border between Iraq and Kuwait early Thursday and rolled into history.

For the troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism but lightened by the whoops and cheers of soldiers one step closer to going home. Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq.  

Today, they continue arriving back home at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.  In your thoughts and prayers, please remember them, their families, the ones who did not make it home or are in a military or VA hospital going through rehabilitation, or are still deployed.  Remember over 60,000 troops remaining in Iraq and thousands who are in the line of fire in Afghanistan. 

To illustrate my point, as I write, the 2nd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Calvary Regiment, remains on duty in Zabul, Afghanistan, fighting along side Marines, Airmen (and women), sailors and our allies to root out the terrorists who seek to kill us at home and overseas.  That is the face of the war on terrorism which continues around the world putting our nation's best in harms way every day.

For our family, an Army Chaplain named Father Tim Vokac will always be in our thoughts and prayers. We knew him from the short time he was stationed at Ft. Lewis before being deployed to Iraq.

In October 2004, Father Vakoc's Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb while he was returning to his barracks after saying Mass for soldiers on the 12th anniversary of his ordination. He suffered severe head injuries, including the loss of his left eye and brain damage. He died in June 2009 after months in Minneapolis VA hospital.

Like Fr. Vokac, these men and women are far to young to die, yet like the troops who fought in the many previous wars, they gave their lives for our freedoms and national security.

Then there is the permanent physical damage to our soldiers and their families.  Soldiers like U.S. Army Lt. Dan Berschinski of the 5th Stryker who will live the rest of their lives with limbs missing. We need to continue to honor and support them as long as they live because their nearly gave their life for us. That is why it is so important to support organizations such as Operation Second Chance.

There are many more sad stories like this from the war on terrorism.  Never forget those who served and especially help them and their families reintegrate into civilian life.  They've more than earned our thanks and support.

Please Give and Show It Every Day!  Thank you.

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

 

Does President Obama really care about employers?

A representative of President Obama's recently attended a meeting of state manufacturers association presidents and tried to enlist the group's help in persuading companies to invest some of the $1.8 trillion they're holding in reserves, AWB President Don Brunell writes in his weekly column.

The group shares the president's goal, but it wasn't jumping on board, Brunell writes.

The sentiment was that uncertainty about higher taxes, increasing regulations, health-care reform costs, cap-and-trade regulation and lopsided pro-union policies have many employers and investors sitting on the sidelines.

"The Obama representative sincerely promised to take our concerns back to the White House," he writes. "Did any of us believe it would make a dent in the president's thinking?

"Heck no! That's the problem."

Employers fully expect Congress to come back in a lame duck session after the November elections and jam through anti-business legislation, Brunell says.

"It seems today that in the president's haste to set historic political landmarks, such as Obamacare, the impacts of those policies on employers are disregarded, even in the midst of a severe recession."

Check out the full column.

And watch the video below for a portion of an interivew with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in which he confidently predicts the return of card check legislation before the end of the year.

Tax Revenues Going Down, Government Salaries Going Up?

UPDATE: The growing discrepancy between federal and private sector salaries was also a topic of a recent segment on CBS Evening News. It is worth a watch.

With federal, state and local government budgets drowning in red ink and our economy sputtering along, government worker salaries and benefits are going up, up, up!  Understandably, taxpayers are angry over pay and benefits for government workers especially when those who work in the private sector see their wages and benefits either stagnant or declining.  Many have lost their jobs and their unemployment is running out.

For example in Bell, California, a LA suburb with 40,000 people of whom 17 percent live in poverty, the city manager was taking in $800,000 a year. Bell's city manager, police chief and assistant city manager all resigned last week after it was revealed they were making salaries totaling $1.6 million a year.

What gives?  Is the City of Bell this just an anomaly or is it a trend?  Yes, it seems to be! But is the trend an anomaly?  Heck No! 

According to USA Today: 

The compensation gap between federal and private workers has doubled in the past decade. Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The data are the latest available. 

The federal compensation advantage has grown from $30,415 in 2000 to $61,998 last year.

Public employee unions told USA Today the compensation gap reflects the increasingly high level of skill and education required for most federal jobs and the government contracting out lower-paid jobs to the private sector in recent years. 

Give me a break!  That argument holds water like a kitchen strainer.

What about Washington state workers? State employees do receive benefits that are richer than those earned by many other workers. But an analysis of statewide wage data by The Seattle Times shows that claims about state workers earning higher pay than others are in many cases incorrect or oversimplified.

Out of nearly 200 standard occupational categories analyzed by The Times, representing most of the 149,000 or so state employees, median pay last year was higher for state workers than for all other workers in only 74 categories. (Median means half earn more, half less.)

The Times did not compare state health-care plans and pensions to the private sector. Such benefits are a major part of total state employee compensation — about 30 percent, on average — but are difficult to put present-day dollar values on and even harder to compare across different employers and job categories. But look at the USA Today graph which was just published.

So the bottom line with President Obama and Congress wanting to turn more and more services currently performed by the private sector over to government, we all have to ask:  How much government can we really afford?   Gov. Gregoire is on the track when talking about privatizing services such as the state's ferry system; however, she is not supporting privatizing state liquor stores?  She has the chance with her "Transforming the State Budget" initiative but it will be in the face of hurricane velocity winds.

Hum?

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

Brunell: New state office building could become symbol of frustration

 
The economy was flying high back in 2007 when the contractor was chosen for the state's new Department of Information Services building, AWB President Don Brunell writes in his weekly column.

Unemployment was ticking up, but still comfortably low at 4.7 percent. The plan called for a state-of the-art $260 million, 456,000-square-foot office complex and data center.

The project was later downsized because it was over-budget, but the cost only dropped 2 percent. By the time workers broke ground last year, the state's unemployment skyrocketed to 9.1 percent.

"At this point, a private employer would have reconsidered," Brunell writes.

But that's now what happened.

Now the building, scheduled to open next September, is coming under fresh scrutiny for the rental rates taxpayers will pay, and critics are lining up.

"In times of financial crisis and economic uncertainty, the private sector reassesses, changes course and cuts back," Brunell writes. "In this case, the state did not."

Read the full column here.

How About Some Good News?

This news comes to us from the Tri-City Herald:

"Broetje Orchards continues to amaze us with its efforts to build a better world.

Lots of businesses talk the talk, but Broetje actually walks the walk.

Further proof of the Broetje commitment to our community and beyond is evident at the Tierra Vida subdivision in east Pasco. CASA LLC, the development company there, is helping to create a new kind of community by empowering residents and providing them with resources.

The development is modeled after Vista Hermosa, a new version of a company town for Broetje employees.The community of rental homes near Prescott has strict rules and requirements for residency. The community offers English classes for immigrants and GED courses, computer learning, summer camps, youth programs, parenting training, athletics, counseling services, women's support groups and WIC programs. It also has a preschool and elementary school, providing a Christian education."

The Broetjes are shy people who do the right thing for the right reasons. For their community service efforts and accomplishments, the Association of Washington Business awarded them its highest award for community service in 2009. They received the Bruce Briggs Award.The Broetjes donate approximately 75 percent of its profits to local, domestic and international projects.

NOTE:  Pictured with Ralph and Cheryl Broetje (center), right, Dean and Sandi Strawn, past Briggs Award Winner and Don Brunell. To the left are Suzanne Broetje and Roger Bairstoh.

Gov. Pawlenty Says Stability and Cost Competitiveness Will Bring America Back to Prosperity Not Government Mandates, Higher Taxes and Bailouts

NISSWA, MN--Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, viewed by many as a Republican presidential contender in 2012, told state manufacturing association executives today the private sector is the key to bringing our country back to prosperity and putting people back to work. More government bailouts and mandates and higher taxes and costs will only thwart the comeback. 

It is not about more bailouts, higher taxes, additional regulations or government take overs or mandates.  It is allowing families to make choices and to free up people's ingenuity.  It is about small businesses taking risks again to invent the next product or service.  It is about creating a climate where people want to take a risk and be responsible for their decisions.

There are three keys to getting America going again.  His formula includes restoring confidence, stability and access to capital for small business; reducing the costs of doing business; and, making sure people are educated and trained.  That is particularly important for manufacturers, he said.

Pawlenty believes the uncertain political climate in Washington, D.C.,  is keeping investors on the sidelines.  They are holding on to their money rather than investing it in innovations and projects which will create jobs and increase revenues to government.  They fear higher taxes and costs and the government will change the rules jeopardizing their projects. 

Without new investments by the private sector and certainty over government regulations and costs, the economy will struggle.

He worries about the new costs and taxes at the federal level from health and financial reforms, cap and trade legislation, and repeal of tax cuts set to expire this year.  It is the Main Street businesses who will suffer the most because costs will go up and access to capital will tighten.

One of Pawlenty's goals was to remove Minnesota from the Top 10 list of the heaviest tax states when he took office in 2003.  He has achieved that.  During his tenure he also curbed state spending growth from more than 20 percent a year before he took office to between one and two percent today.  It was no easy task and he had to take on the unions to accomplish that.

Pawlenty, who leaves office at the end of this year, has championed education reform and today, Minnesota has the highest average ACT scores in the nation and is among the "Healthiest States in America.'

The Minnesota governor's approach fits hand in glove with the competitiveness agenda advanced by AWB and the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy (WashACE).  AWB President Don C. Brunell is a member of the Conference of State Manufacturers Associations (COSMA) and will chair the group in 2011 and 2012.

Workers' comp video: Why do people come to L&I grocer?

There's no need for a marketing study to figure out why Washington state employers get their workers' compensation insurance from the state: It's the only game in town -- a point made abundantly clear in this video featuring mayonnaise-flavored ice cream and a grocer who looks vaguely like Mike Myers.

It's a lighthearted video that takes less than 2 minutes to clarify a complex and serious subject. Check it out.

Related blog entries:

AWB makes the case for I-1082 workers' comp reform on KUOW

Brunell: Lack of competition one reason workers' comp rates going up

KING 5 investigation reveals heart of problem with workers' comp

Voters will get to decide this fall whether to fix workers' comp

Deadly Wildfire Epilogue

This week, my column dealt with the impacts of forest fires.  No one feels that pain more than the families of firefighters who've been permanently injured or who have been killed.

On August 5, 1949 (61 years ago), 13 smokejumpers suited up and loaded onto a U.S. Forest Service leased aircraft in Missoula. Their destination was a remote canyon along the Missouri River just north of Helena, Montana's state capitol.  It was a place named by Lewis and Clark as the Gates of the Mountain, a wilderness today.

They safely landed but by 6 o'clock that night, 12 of them had been killed by the inferno called the Mann Gulch Fire which took 450 men to extinguish. 

In 1994, 14 firefighters were killed on Storm Mountain in Colorado in what has been called the South Canyon Fire when, like the Mann Gulch Fire, the flames outraced them. 

Bringing the tragedy closer to home, 4 Forest Service firefighters were killed on July 10, 2001 after becoming entrapped in their fire shelters. The fires started from an escaped picnic cooking fire in the Chewuch River Canyon north of Winthrop, Washington. The four deaths were "caused by asphyxia due to inhalation of superheated products of combustion." That tragedy was the result of the Thirty Mile Fire, but the reports about what led to those deaths cannot be found on the U.S. Forest Service website.

The point of my column and the subsequent blogs is those who make forest management policy are indeed toying with killer fires today because we are allowing our forests to be ravaged by insects, diseases, and, they have curtailed brush clearing, thinning and harvesting. 

Fire is nature's way of cleansing the forest and starting anew, but those fires can be deadly.  And, when massive infernos such as the 1910 Big Burn, which killed 85 people in northern Idaho and western Montana, and the 1988 Yellowstone Fire start, they have a life of their own. Those walls of fire spew tons of greenhouse gases, hot embers and choking smoke into the air we breathe.  The ensuing erosion pollutes the water we drink and endangers the trout, salmon and steelhead we are trying to save from extinction. They need crystal clear streams not silt-laden torrents.

Really, isn't there a better way? 

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

Brunell: 'Burn, baby burn' forest policy wreaking havoc on evironment and people

For decades,the federal government's policy with regard to forest management has been, in effect, not to manage forests, AWB President Don Brunell writes in his weekly column.

Because of pressure from environmental groups, many federal and state forests are off-limits to harvest -- even for "housekeeping" activities such as thinning and clearing of undergrowth. This hands-off approach can lead to huge forests fires that not only threaten safety but also release huge quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

A study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado at Boulder estimated that U.S. fires release about 290 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to 4 to 6 percent of the nation's CO2 emissions from all fossil fuel burning.

"One only has to watch the nightly news to see the devastation caused by wildfires," Brunell writes. "Add to that the human and economic cost to battle the fires and environmental degradation that results.

"Congress and the President must restore sanity and common sense to our federal forest management policy."

Read the full column here.

Tree Planting--Will it Make a Difference?

Kudos to the Arbor Day Foundation, an organization that I’ve supported over the years.  It has planted over 18 million trees in our National Forests in that last 20 years.  These are public lands that have been damaged by fire, disease or insects and Arbor Day and its members are working to replant a million acres more. 

However, their good work is just the tip of the iceberg and may not be enough unless management of our public forests at the federal and state levels change.

The idea is to restock lands with young, carbon-dioxide emitting trees, to help reduce greenhouse gases, control erosion, provide habitat for fish and wildlife, and make sure our National Forests are green and growing. In short, a pleasant environment to take your kids fishing, camping or just on a picnic in the woods.

But there is a huge storm cloud on the horizon, or should I say a huge fire storm brewing and lurking. 

Millions of acres of our public forests are at risk of burning just like the wildfires sweeping through California today.  The culprit is the mountain pine beetle, for the most part, and the lack of harvesting, thinning and clearing of brush.  Essentially, our National Forests are left to manage themselves. 

Mountain pine beetles (about the size of a grain of rice) attack the mature pine trees, suffocate them and create a wildfire hazard.  Fire is nature’s way of cleansing the forest and the situation in much of the higher elevation, drier public forests from Alaska to Mexico and the Pacific Ocean to South Dakota, is now ripe for massive forest fires such as occurred in Yellowstone National Park in 1988 and between Spokane and Missoula in 1910.

 

My point is if forest management, including harvesting, thinning and brush clearing, occurs, wood can be salvages for useful purposes and the fire hazard reduced.  That started to happen in the late 1950s thru the 1970s when the U.S. Forest Service actually sold timber sales in insect and disease prone areas and promoted salvaging.  That has changed gradually over time and today, basically by not harvesting, thinning or brush clearing---proven forest management tools---the forests are being left to nature and fire.  That may have been fine in 1910 when the population of the Northwest was one-fifth of the 13 million people who are here today and when people basically lived in towns like Wallace and worked in the woods, but it is not acceptable today when sub-divisions and recreational homes dig deeper into the woods. 

 

I hope people elected to public office from President Obama down will look at this fire potential and ask---Isn’t there a better way?  That way protects people, wildlife, fish, our homes and enhances the air we breathe and the water we drink?  Then organizations like Arbor Day can make a real difference in mitigating greenhouses gases and keeping our forests green and growing.

 

It is about children and the woods they will inherit?

 

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