AWB honored Arun Raha, the outgoing chief state economist, on Thursday in Olympia. Raha is leaving to become the corporate economic director for Eaton and will be based in Cleveland, Ohio.
Since his last day is January 31, AWB decided to honor him before he left the state.
Gov. John Spellman led the effort to create the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council in 1984. This law established a new process for producing official economic and revenue forecasts for the State of Washington. The director's job has been to project state revenues based on the performance of the economy.
Raha took over as the head economist in October 2008, just before the Great Recession hit. His initial gloomy quarterly forecasts were like a buckets of ice water compared to the regular surpluses predicted in previous years, Seattle Times reporter Andrew Garber wrote when publishing Raha's announcement.
"Since September we've pretty much been on target so I thought I'd quit while I'm still ahead," Raha deadpanned in a phone interview with the Times, with his usual dry humor. "I don't want to be one of those guys that quits when he's way past his peak."
Raha is a popular and entertaining speaker. He is known for his one-liners. For example, he told the legislature that return to normalcy is like a desert mirage. The closer you get to it the farther away it moves.
"We will miss you," AWB President Don Brunell said in presenting him with an AWB 100-year anniversary wool blanket woven specially for the Association of Washington Business by Pendleton Woolen Mills, Washougal. "You did your job well and didn't catch a break on the economy but your quick wit and sense of humor helped to soften the blow of the bad news you had to deliver."
In response, Raha told those attending AWB's lobby lunch on Thursday that he felt the working relationships between government and business were constructive and aimed at problem-solving. That is good when you are tackling the tough issues.
