November 26, 2008 • 10:05 am 1
November is turning out to be a great month for paid sick days! Last week, Milwaukee became the third city with a paid sick days law, and the second one to include paid safe days, when its ballot initiative passed by a vote of 68% to 32%.
Filed under: work and family, economy, paid sick days, public policy, wisconsin
November 25, 2008 • 9:07 am 0
Sick-leave issue connects with every worker: For Amy Stear, the motivation for the victorious binding referendum here for paid sick days was a woman who had to choose between her job and a mid-afternoon flu shot for her child. “The doctors lectured her for not bringing her child for shots,” said Stear, the Wisconsin director of 9-to-5, the National Association of Working Women. “So he worked out with her job that she had to get off one day at 2 for an appointment at 3.”
Talk of the ‘L’ word (layoffs) headed into tough budget season: As Olympia struggles to bridge a record budget shortfall of $5.1 billion – or more – over the next 2 1/2 years, lawmakers and budget officials say that cutting jobs looks more likely.
Should Preschool Be Part of the Stimulus Package?: With Congress considering a massive stimulus package intended to jumpstart the struggling economy, it’s not surprising that everyone in Washington wants to make sure their pet issues get a piece of the action. There are even rumors that pre-k investments could be part of the stimulus package
Filed under: early learning, state economy, tax and budget, work and family, budget, deficit, economy, paid sick days, pre-kindergarten, public policy, revenue, washington state
November 24, 2008 • 8:43 am 1
Washington bankruptcy filings rise 40%: For the first 10 months of 2008, more than 18,000 bankruptcy cases were filed as families were squeezed by a credit crisis, layoffs and a declining housing market — a 40 percent increase from the previous year.
20% cuts may be ahead for state colleges, universities as bottom falls out of budget: The University of Washington and other institutions are trying to figure out ways to plug a yawning budget gap. Officials at several universities are already talking about raising tuition by 10 to 15 percent next year — perhaps $1,000 per student. That would require lawmakers to lift the current limit on schools of 7 percent in tuition increases annually.
Gregoire says larger deficit will require ‘truly ugly’ cuts: Gov. Chris Gregoire says the ballooning state deficit could reach $6 billion, and will lead to spending cuts that are “truly ugly.”
Higher Education: Disproportionate cuts beyond foolish: In ordering higher education institutions to plan for disproportionate 20 percent budget cuts, Gov. Chris Gregoire’s office is exploring one of the worst possible options. Rollbacks could prove disastrous to the economy’s future.
Senior citizen lobby to Gov. Gregoire: We were on your side; Don’t cut our programs; We still want an income tax: The above headline summarizes the points made in a recent letter from Walt Bowen, president of the Washington State Senior Citizens Lobby, to recently re-elected Gov. Chris Gregoire.
California unemployment jumps to 8.2%, third-highest in the U.S.: The state’s unemployment rate is the highest in 14 years; it rose half a percentage point in October from the month earlier. In the past 12 months, more than 100,000 jobs have been lost.
Budget crisis has state workers on edge: The specter of layoffs is looming over a sector of the economy that rarely sees it: state workers. As Olympia struggles to bridge a record budget shortfall of $5.1 billion – or more – over the next 2 1/2 years, lawmakers and budget officials say that cutting jobs looks more likely.
Obama may delay tax-cut rollback for wealthy: President-elect Barack Obama may consider delaying a campaign promise – to roll back tax cuts on high-income Americans – as part of his economic recovery strategy, two aides said on Sunday.
Filed under: state economy, tax and budget, work and family, budget, business, california, deficit, economy, inequality, jobs, k-12, middle class, public policy, revenue, taxes, unemployment, united states, washington state
November 21, 2008 • 8:43 am 1
As I noted in Tuesday’s post about prekindergarten, Washington State is behind the curve; doing a great disservice to the economic health of the state by leaving most of our children without access to quality early learning programs. While we do have a state prekindergarten program, enrollment is limited to very low-income children, and the state only provides enough funding to enroll just 20% of the low-income children who are eligible. However, this dismal statistic may soon change given what occurred yesterday at the most recent meeting of the Joint Task Force on Basic Education Finance (more commonly known as BEFT).
BEFT was created in 2007 and is charged with reviewing the definition of basic education and proposing a new definition of basic education.
On Tuesday, the Task Force took an advisory vote to include early learning (specifically prekindergarten for all low-income children) in the draft of the definition of basic education that the Task Force will take under consideration at their next set of meetings (November 24, 25, & 26). Even though the Task Force’s recommendations are not complete and we still have some work to do in the next week, just getting this far is a huge win for the early learning community.
Filed under: early learning, work and family, pre-kindergarten, washington state
Budget and Taxes Social Security Family-wage Jobs Government
State Economy Paid Sick Days Paid Family Leave
