Voters send clear signal: Leave vital services intact
From the Everett Herald:
Voters east of the Cascades turned conventional wisdom on its head last week.
These voters are often portrayed by the Seattle media market as conservative, anti-tax, anti-government citizens. Turns out they can recognize snake oil as soon as they see it. Twelve out of 20 counties in Eastern Washington rejected Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033.
Totaling up the complete Eastern Washington vote, 1033 was defeated by a margin of 54-46 percent. That’s not including any votes from west of the mountains, from the Puget Sound area, or even liberal Seattle. More voters in Spokane and the rural wheat-belt counties of Lincoln, Whitman, Adams, and Garfield turned thumbs down on 1033 than voters in Snohomish County, and by a higher proportion.
1033 promised to limit the growth of revenue for public services, and to reduce property taxes. Problem is, those public revenues have fallen sharply this year and continue to fall, while the need for public services, such as K-12 education, community college slots and basic health coverage, continues to rise.
The math doesn’t add up. Read the rest of this entry »
Will you “Come on Down!” to What Price is Right?
Tables are filling up fast for What Price is Right? – our very own “showcase showdown” of public policies to improve women’s economic security. If you haven’t RSVP’d, now is your chance to join us for an evening of game show contests, drinks, dinner and program.
After all, no one knows more about the dollars (and sense!) needed for public policies that improve women’s economic security than our keynote speaker Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, co-founder of MomsRising.org.
We’ll also be honoring the work of Cheryl Sesnon, executive director of Washington C.A.S.H. She’s had extraordinary success providing the training and capital that low-income entrepreneurs, especially women, need to start their own businesses.
And while Bob Barker and Drew Carey are good — very good — they’re no match for our host Yoram Bauman, The World’s First and Only Stand-up Economist.
The What: Cocktails, game show contests, dinner, and program
The When: 5:00 – 8:30pm, Thursday, November 19, 2009
The Where: SODO Park, 3200 1st Avenue South, Seattle
The Tix: $100 per person, or included with sponsorship opportunities
Download your RSVP here — for more information please contact Lisa Schubert, Development Officer, at (206) 529-6353 or by email.
A free-market mythbuster. Plus: Parents frozen out of childcare; Washington taxes just average; A scary path to women’s equality.
News and views, October 26, 2009:
Jeff Madrick, free-market myth-buster: There is no example of a major rich nation in the world whose government is not a leading agent of change, growing economies, creating jobs and producing prosperity. | AFL-CIO blog
Working parents frozen out of childcare: As budget problems worsen, states are tightening rules for childcare subsidies, eliminating enrichment programs, raising fees for parents and providers, and halting new subsidies. | USA Today [Editor's Note: Since the bulk of Washington's early learning funding is federal, when the budget axe falls next year it will very likely either reduce quality, limit access or cost parents more. Stay tuned.]
Just average: Washington’s taxes in middle of the pack: New federal data ranks Washington 26th nationally in state and local taxes as a percentage of personal income, and 32nd highest in property taxes. | Seattle Times
The incredible shrinking estate tax: The estate tax is only a faint shadow of its former self. In 2009, less than one-quarter of one percent of deaths—just 5,500 decedents—will leave taxable estates, the smallest percentage since at least the Great Depression. | Tax Policy Center
A scary path to women’s equality: “Die childless at thirty”: “[F]or women the easiest path to equality is to die childless at thirty, when their wages are nearly as high as men’s. …After that, two different patterns emerge: the glass ceiling and the maternal wall.” | MomsRising blog
Join us for “Losing By Degrees: Rising Costs and Public Disinvestment in Higher Education”
With public funding for state higher education at a 30-year low, how will tuition hikes affect family economic security, workforce development, and Washington’s long-term business climate? What new sources of public revenue could increase public investment in higher education, to build a more competitive workforce and improve our business climate?
Sponsored by the University of Washington’s Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies and the Evans School of Public Affairs, “Losing By Degrees” is an informative, timely presentation and discussion about rising tuition and cuts in public funding at Washington’s public colleges and universities.
Presented by: Marilyn P. Watkins, Ph. D, Economic Opportunity Institute, Gabriel Nishimura, Masters Candidate, UW School of Social Work
Details: Thursday, October 29th, 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., University of Washington, Seattle Campus, Parrington Hall Forum (Rm. 309). Download a flyer with all the info here. For more information, contact the Bridges Center at 206-543-7946.
News and views: I-1033 vs. higher ed; Publicly-funded pre-k; Taxes vs. incomes; The Shriver report; Health care finance
News and Views, October 21, 2009:
I-1033 could hit higher ed especially hard: While the full impact of I-1033 isn’t known, it almost certainly would make it more difficult for the state to crawl out of its existing budget hole. And short of lawmakers seeking, and receiving, voter-approved tax increases, the measure likely would increase the size of cuts throughout the state budget — including higher education. | More: Seattle Times
In tough economic times, a rationale for publicly funded pre-k: Tiny Rhode Island is a struggling state economically. The unemployment rate of some 13 percent in September is among the highest in the U.S. The state’s economic woes are outsized. That is one reason EarlyStories found it so refreshing to see the excellent story the Providence Journal ran this week describing life inside the state’s first publicly funded pre-kindergarten program. | More: Early Ed Coverage
Higher taxes don’t necessarily translate into lower incomes: “Higher state taxes in any form will kill jobs and weaken Oregon’s economy.” We have read that again and again in these pages. Fortunately, we can test that notion by looking at the evidence. If the anti-tax folks are right, high tax states should, on average, suffer lower per capita incomes. So let’s sample a few states (based on 2007 income figures). | More: Oregonian
The Shriver Report – A Woman’s Nation: We have long heard about the war for talent and the tremendous emphasis leading HR departments put on talent management. These discussions are ironic in light of the fact that there are so many talented individuals right under our noses (i.e., women) who are either lost to an organization (i.e., they leave their present employer or opt out altogether) or underutilized due to outmoded management thinking. | More: Work and Family Network
Four Basic Kinds of Health Care Financing Around the World: All other developed countries around the world focus on making one of the first three models provide the majority of health care. One of the reasons that our current non-system is such a mess is that we have all four systems in operation at the same time instead of focusing on just one. | More: WashBlog
With H1N1 Spreading this Fall: We Need Paid Sick Days, Not Another “iPhone App”
Cross-posted from National Partnership for Women and Families:
As schools reopen and cooler, drier temperatures return here to Washington, D.C., the nation waits for the second wave of the H1N1 flu to hit us. Meanwhile, we are bombarded by information on the Internet, in the news and through our email inboxes. Google, too, is in on the action, helping to track and map the H1N1 flu. And now, there’s even an “iPhone app” for the H1N1 virus! We know people are engaged when there’s an “app.” This one will enable users to track, report and be notified of H1N1 outbreaks on the ground, in real time. It will also allow researchers to collect data on new areas of flu activity.
Yet, when we look beyond the hype, the actual prevention of the spread of the H1N1 virus is relatively uncomplicated. Government officials are simply asking workers to stay home when they are sick, and to keep sick children home from school. Of course, there’s other advice, including coughing into your inner elbows, washing your hands frequently and getting vaccinated. But perhaps the most effective is to stay home when you’re sick.
Washington’s unemployment insurance system in good shape…other states, not so much.
As others have already noted, Washington State has one of the healthiest unemployment insurance systems in the nation. But such is not the case in many other states. This summer, ProPublica explored what’s at stake for millions of unemployed workers across the U.S.:
Unemployment Insurance Buckles After Years of Underfunding: Skyrocketing unemployment has left our unemployment system in crisis, but many of the current problems have been brewing under the surface for years. ProPublica’s series on the problems of — and potential fixes for — our ailing system begins here. | ProPublica
States’ Unemployment Insurance Funds Founder After Years of Poor Planning: It used to be, unemployment insurance meant a sturdy back and a jalopy big enough to fit the whole family. That changed in 1935, when the government started offering unemployment insurance, and states began to save when times were good so there was money to spend to help workers and stimulate the economy when times were bad. In all but a handful of states, it no longer works that way. | ProPublica
Is Your State’s Unemployment System in Danger?: As part of our investigation into unemployment insurance, here’s a look at how individual state systems compare. Thanks to a historical compromise, each state has its own unemployment insurance system, and they come in 51 different flavors — one for each state and Washington, D.C. (Puerto Rice and the Virgin Islands technically make it 53.) | ProPublica
Health insurance reform: Safer streets and stronger families, lower costs and a better business environment
News and Views on health insurance reform:
Health reform will help young people avoid brushes with the law: Youth crime and access to health care and mental-health treatment are intertwined, argue the police chiefs of Renton, Auburn and Burien. They make a case for reform that will help young people stay out of trouble. | Seattle Times
The big picture on health reform and cost containment: Imagine a past where, in 1970, private sector health costs had been taken fully onto the federal government’s budget with a dedicated revenue source that made them budget-neutral. If these costs had been managed as effectively as Medicare, family health insurance policies today would cost Americans roughly $7,000, most likely in higher taxes, instead of the $12,400 they actually pay today in insurance premiums. | Economic Policy Institute
Health reform = big benefits for small businesses: The current market for health insurance sticks small businesses with more expensive and more variable risk-rated premiums; offers only limited competition among insurance providers; and higher administrative costs. Workers also lose due to lower overall wages. Small wonder, then, that 59% of small-firm proprietors were in favor of including a government-run insurance option in a new national health insurance exchange (Mainstreet Alliance 2009). | Economic Policy Institute
