Olympia Business Watch

Brunell Column: Eschew the Phony Excuse

Don's column today in the Columbian highlights workplace ills stemming from fake ills.

Internet vendors, such as “phonyexcuses.com,” charge between $5 and $25 for realistic looking notes from a doctor or funeral home so workers can take the day off...

While some might think this is funny — sort of like, “the dog ate my homework” — there are three problems with this scam. It’s dishonest. It steals from employers and co-workers. And it can get you fired.

The costs are astonishing. And employers have difficulty verifying the excuses.

Under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) enacted by Congress in 1996, employers cannot contact a doctor to determine if the doctor’s note is legitimate. The patient privacy provisions of the law ensure confidentiality so, in many cases, employers have no idea if the note is fake or real.

Congress should step in and clarify or amend HIPPA so employers can confirm the authenticity of medical excuses.

More important:

What we need is a culture that values principles rather than expedience, hard work rather than selfishness, and commitment rather than self-indulgent scams.

AWB Pops Up in Charleston Daily Mail

Some times you never know where you might find yourself quoted.  I never dreamed of making the Charleston Daily Mail.  Reporter Jake Stump picked up my blog entry earlier this week describing how impressed state chamber presidents from around the country were with Gov. Joe Manchin's talk about West Virginia's customer centered government. 

On Oct. 4, Stump writes: Since his election to office in 2004, Manchin has stressed that government needs to operate more like a business that caters to the needs of customers.  "Why doesn't the chamber set up a list of the most courteous government branches in the state, county or city?  I'm sure officials would pay attention to that."

Manchin pitched the idea of establishing a list of the best and worst customer service among government agencies at the Council of State Chambers  meeting earlier this week.  The governor says his strategy is simple and it's a shame government hasn't made itself readily available to Americans.  Manchin graduated from the University of West Virginia with a business degree in 1970 and was a former retailer in his hometown of Farmington. 

Washington Research Council on TVW's Insde Olympia

Yesterday David Ammons, AP's state political writer and host of "Inside Olympia" interviewed Al Ralston and me. Al is currently the president of the Washington Research Council, a position I held for some twenty years before joining AWB. Under Dave's gentle questioning we covered a lot of territory: the changing economy, how the WRC fits in the world of public policy, AWB's role in Olympia and the state, and Washington's business climate. The hour went quickly.

The interview is here.

TVW Posts Policy Summit Coverage

TVW covered our recent Policy Summit. Here are some confirmed dates for you to check out the action.

• Pegging the Election Year Issues: Sept. 26 7 PM

• John Zogby: Sept. 27 9:30 PM

• Awards w/Gov. Gregoire: Oct. 3 8 AM and 4 PM

• WA’s Economy + Competitiveness Oct. 3 10:30 PM and Oct. 4 2:30 PM

You can also catch the first two on the web. More will be added soon.

First Review for AWBTV

Chris Mulick reviews our SST YouTube debut. One thumb up. Not bad for a first effort.

Thanks, Chris.

Brunell Column: Business & Government Should Play by the Same Rules

Don's column in today's Columbian considers how lighter regulation of government finance places taxpayers and investors at risk. Citing a recent speech by Christopher Cox, Don writes:

Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, says shaky financial management in the public sector puts investors and taxpayers at risk. He's calling for tougher scrutiny of state and local governments.

To make his case, Cox points to the financial collapse of New York City in the 1970s. A decade later, our state added buckets of red ink to the ledger with the billion-dollar default by the Washington Public Power Supply System.

What's happening here?

Washington performs better than many state and local governments, both in disclosure and performance. Still, we could do better.

Washington owes its public employee pension fund $5.7 billion. ... for the past four years, Washington lawmakers skipped the recommended payments to whittle down that debt.

This year, despite sitting on a $2 billion surplus, state lawmakers decided not to pay those missed payments. And because pension funds are invested, just one missed payment costs taxpayers $564 million in lost investment income.

 

it's a good column.

Brunell on Beatles, and Bugs

Don's column in the Columbian last week took a look at forest management practices.

The Kenai Peninsula may be best known for its world-famous salmon runs, but it is the area's white spruce forests that have captured the spotlight now, underscoring serious problems with our forest management practices.

Bark beetle infestations have turned the Kenai's once rich, green forests into a barren landscape of dead and dying trees. Because these trees are fire hazards, wildfires in Alaska have jumped threefold since 2004 - and Alaskans are bracing for another record fire year.

A related beetle preys on western inland forests. The problem could be managed better.

To deal with these threats, President Bush proposed his Healthy Forests Initiative a couple of years ago. It would create firebreaks, salvage commercially valuable burned timber, and replant the forests outside wilderness areas and national parks. The idea was quickly shot down by folks in Congress who believe that any timber harvesting in national forests is taboo.

 

Given the number of acres scarred by wildfires, Congress should reconsider that policy. ...

Wouldn't it be wiser to log the beetle-killed trees while they have commercial value and put people to work on logging sites and in sawmills?

Wouldn't it be better to thin forests to prevent the devastation caused by beetle infestations and forest fires?

Yes.

Getting "It" Right from the Start

Don's column in today's Columbian tackles an issue that has plagued employers, teachers, and a lot of other folks for sometime - the declining sense of personal responsibility.

Across our nation, employers need people who come to work on time, pitch in to get the job done, want to learn new skills, and approach customers with a smile on their face and "How can I help you?" on their lips. It doesn't matter whether those customers are people grabbing a quick burger at a fast-food restaurant or drivers going to a state agency for their license.

But that isn't the way it is today.

He backs it up with some examples that would be shocking if they weren't common. The problems start at home.

Taxpayers in our nation dump tons of money into our public schools and colleges each year. In Washington, the Legislature appropriated just under $1,000 extra per student in our K-12 system. While money is important, is it going to prepare our students to compete with workers from China, India, Ireland and South Korea?

It may help, but until parents instill responsibility and good manners in their children, we can dump billions more into our schools and the problem will remain unresolved.

We have some work to do.

Walla Walla, More than Just Fine Wines

On the second stop on my eastern Washington, swing. I met with AWB members in Walla Walla. Here's my report:

While Walla Walla is grabbing international attention for its fine wines, Washington's oldest community also is prospering because of a vibrant group of small manufacturers, its strong agricultural base, and a couple of homegrown banks.

For example, Nelson Irrigation employs nearly 200 people.  It is a diverse workforce with little turnover.  Nelson is a world leader in developing and manufacturing irrigation systems for agriculture and lawns. It is also unique because rather than outsourcing parts for its sprinkler systems or product production, it is developing its own parts stream inside the plant.  Some would call it insourcing, yet it sells its products around the world going head to head against some of the toughest competition on the planet. Technology, quality product and good workers make Nelson among the world's best.

Then there is BlazeKing, a Canadian-owned company, which manufactures wood stoves and fireplace inserts.  Many of its competitors struggle to meet federal, state and local air quality standards. BlazeKing developed a catalytic converter for its stoves that are well within EPA and DOE limits. Now, the company can't make its products fast enough.  And like Nelson products, BlazeKing has customers worldwide.

In banking, Baker-Boyer Bank is one of the state's oldest and most prized.  Banner Bank also is headquartered in Walla Walla and is rapidly become one of the region's strongest.

When one steps back and looks at different rural communities, the question is why are some vibrant while others struggle.  If Walla Walla is the model, the reasons are a strong sense of community, good schools, top-notch colleges, people wanting family wage jobs so their children will remain in the community to raise their families, and generally, a place where people just want to live.  Walla Walla is proof that a town can have jobs and a quality of life.

Interesting, one almost forgets that the prison housing some of the state's most hardened criminals is located right here in Walla Walla. 

Brunell: Keep the Secret Ballot Secret

In today's Columbian, Don Brunell's column takes a look at a particularly pernicious piece of legislation.

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) are sponsoring union-backed legislation that would effectively do away with the secret ballot when workers vote on whether to form a union. That legislation cleared the House on March 1 by a party-line vote. Washington Democrats joined their colleagues in support, while Republicans voted in opposition.

Read the whole thing. Then let Senators Murray and Cantwell know that you support a worker's right to privacy.

AWB Joins Associated Industries in Lawsuit

Last week, the board of directors of AWB voted to join Associated Industries in a lawsuit to overturn a Technical Assistance Advisory issued by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler. Our press release briefly summarizes the issue.

The TAA threatens affordable health care coverage for hundreds of thousands of Washington citizens by improperly establishing new legal requirements governing premium rates of health plans offered to small employers by associations. The TAA alters existing law in place since 1995, which only the state Legislature has the power to do, said AI president and CEO Jim DeWalt and AWB President Don Brunell in a joint statement. ...

"Litigation is a last resort for us," said AWB president Don Brunell. "We have explained our concerns to Commissioner Kreidler but have reached an impasse. We disagree on the issue of his authority to change the law by TAA. To protect the interests of those small businesses that rely on us for affordable health insurance coverage for their employees, we reluctantly concluded we need to participate in this lawsuit."

In 1995, Gov. Mike Lowry requested legislation that enabled associations to offer more affordable health care plans to their smallest members – those with 2 to 50 employees. The Legislature agreed, swiftly endorsing greater rating flexibility for health plans purchased by small employers through association plans, opening up a more competitive market for small employers seeking to provide affordable comprehensive coverage for their employees.

Sunday, Bert Caldwell examined the matter in his column in the  Spokesman-Review.  Caldwell does a great job of presenting a balanced summary of a complicated story.

The litigation is the regrettable end to months of negotiations over proper interpretation of a 1995 state law intended to extend health and dental insurance to more employees of small companies. The law helped them hire and retain employees who might otherwise have moved on to bigger companies that offered attractive benefit packages.

The legislation worked ...

At its core, the dispute rises from disagreement over community rating versus experience rating when pricing insurance. Community rating sets prices according to claims filed by all members of an association, or any defined group, without making any distinction between companies with lots of claims and those who have few. All members pay the same rates.

... the controversy reflects the increasing national debate over expanding health insurance, the role of business in providing that coverage, and whether community or experience rating — or both — will figure in the allocation of costs.

In this case, it would be highly unfortunate if the result was less coverage, not more.

AWB, AI, and other associations offering affordable health insurance as intended by the 1995 legislation will work to assure that doesn't happen.

Brunell Column Urges Spending Restraint

In his weekly column, AWB president Don Brunell calls on state lawmakers to trim the budget proposed earlier this month by Gov. Chris Gregoire. He recalls the consequences of an earlier decision to spend down the state surplus.

... legislators would be wise to heed the warnings of their own budget office and trim the governor’s request.

Governor Dixy Lee Ray dealt with a similar revenue windfall in 1978 when the state had nearly a half billion in surplus revenues. Ignoring advice to hold onto most of it for a rainy day, she used half of the surplus to jumpstart an expensive education finance reform in 1979.

When the state economy hit the skids in the early 1980s, Gov. John Spellman and his fellow Republicans who took control of the legislature in 1980 were forced into several special legislative sessions to raise taxes and chop state spending. Remember, unlike the federal government, Washington is required to have a balanced budget.

Projections of a foreseeable budget deficit don't have to become reality.                        

Lawmakers can avoid the coming train wreck if they do two things: Control spending and maintain an adequate budget reserve.

Read the whole column here.