Legislature no friend to business - seattlepi.com
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/opinion/article/Legislature-no-friend-to-business-1173024.php
Legislature no friend to business
"Washington State is a great place to start a business. We have the nation's highest rate for new business start-ups ... " (Washington House Democrats Web site)
Washington may be a great place to start a business, but about 22 percent of businesses disappear from our state each year. This figure includes not just small business failures but big businesses that find it more profitable to do business elsewhere. Between the regulations and tax increases that were dumped on businesses, this legislative session did little to stem the tide.
This session, we saw our Legislature:
Increase the number of apprentices required to be used as labor on public works projects. This sounds like a good idea, except that the legislation blatantly favors union shops at the cost of market-place competition. There are only a handful of open-shop state-approved apprenticeship programs that could serve open-shop contractors on public projects. Labor unions, until recently, controlled the state-approval process and were not inclined to approve non-union programs.
Adopt California emission standards for new cars. The effect of these standards, of course, is a higher cost to buy and run vehicles. Washington air quality is good -- our population, climate and geography mean that we do not need the same level of regulation as California and that the Federal Tier II standards that President Clinton put into place have been a good balance between air quality and cost effectiveness. Environmental prudence is important, but so are the economy and jobs. For the long-term good of the environment, we must not trash the economy. People who are hungry or homeless do not worry too much about how their actions are affecting the environment.
Reinstate the death/grateful heir's tax. This tax is a signal to those with assets and/or building successful companies that they should think about moving to and growing in another state.
Repeal the 2003 reforms to Washington state unemployment insurance. We have returned from four-quarter to two-quarter averaging. (This means that a worker who works six months and makes $20,000 will get the same benefits as one who works the entire year and gets $40,000 -- functionally a second source of income for those who work only part of the year.) Prior to the reforms, our unemployment insurance was 317 percent higher than the national average, and the reforms brought it down to 270 percent in an attempt to appease The Boeing Co. According to the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy's 2005 Competitiveness Redbook, Washington's $695 per-employee cost is the highest in the nation. It's notable that South Carolina, a state actively wooing Boeing with $166 million in tax incentives, is 35th at $140 per year. If you were Boeing, where would you site your new projects?
Pass a bill to phase in a hefty new gas tax. This one was passed under the guise of a "user fee." User fees are a fine way to support projects and amenities, but to call this a user fee is wrong. By definition, the person paying a user fee is paying for maintenance on the thing he is using. This gas tax doesn't come close. King County will pay only about 10 percent of the taxes collected, yet 30 percent of the total will be spent on King County transportation projects. In addition, a large portion of the weight fees will be spent on mass transit -- which, of course will primarily be in King County. Not much use for mass transit in Okanogan County. There is, however, a very real need for gas-powered vehicles there. This transportation budget is funded on the backs of farmers and business that rely on vehicles to deliver goods and produce, making it more difficult for them to stay in business.
And, of course, there were other things, such as state worker-pay increases and mandating that mental health disorders be covered by health insurance. While these measures may well be justified, the effect is still to ratchet up costs through wages and insurance premiums across the economy.
Across the political spectrum, it's understood that Boeing's departure was caused by weaknesses in the business climate, that the economy is just now emerging from a recession and is still very fragile. This was no secret in the last election, and the person in the governor's office ran on no-new-taxes and middle-of-the-road fiscal policies. Still, she (and the Democrat-controlled Legislature) promptly gutted the Initiative 601 spending limits through sleight-of-hand budgeting and outright disregard of people's wishes.
A group has already raised $80,000 from 2,000 donors and has gotten volunteer information from more than 6,000 Washingtonians to put an initiative on the ballot to overturn the gas tax. It took them only five days.
It looks like the people will get to revisit the issue.
Legislature no friend to business - seattlepi.com
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/opinion/article/Legislature-no-friend-to-business-1173024.php
Legislature no friend to business
"Washington State is a great place to start a business. We have the nation's highest rate for new business start-ups ... " (Washington House Democrats Web site)
Washington may be a great place to start a business, but about 22 percent of businesses disappear from our state each year. This figure includes not just small business failures but big businesses that find it more profitable to do business elsewhere. Between the regulations and tax increases that were dumped on businesses, this legislative session did little to stem the tide.
This session, we saw our Legislature:
Increase the number of apprentices required to be used as labor on public works projects. This sounds like a good idea, except that the legislation blatantly favors union shops at the cost of market-place competition. There are only a handful of open-shop state-approved apprenticeship programs that could serve open-shop contractors on public projects. Labor unions, until recently, controlled the state-approval process and were not inclined to approve non-union programs.
Adopt California emission standards for new cars. The effect of these standards, of course, is a higher cost to buy and run vehicles. Washington air quality is good -- our population, climate and geography mean that we do not need the same level of regulation as California and that the Federal Tier II standards that President Clinton put into place have been a good balance between air quality and cost effectiveness. Environmental prudence is important, but so are the economy and jobs. For the long-term good of the environment, we must not trash the economy. People who are hungry or homeless do not worry too much about how their actions are affecting the environment.
Reinstate the death/grateful heir's tax. This tax is a signal to those with assets and/or building successful companies that they should think about moving to and growing in another state.
Repeal the 2003 reforms to Washington state unemployment insurance. We have returned from four-quarter to two-quarter averaging. (This means that a worker who works six months and makes $20,000 will get the same benefits as one who works the entire year and gets $40,000 -- functionally a second source of income for those who work only part of the year.) Prior to the reforms, our unemployment
 insurance was 317 percent higher than the national average, and the reforms brought it down to 270 percent in an attempt to appease The Boeing Co. According to the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy's 2005 Competitiveness Redbook, Washington's $695 per-employee cost is the highest in the nation. It's notable that South Carolina, a state actively wooing Boeing with $166 million in tax incentives, is 35th at $140 per year. If you were Boeing, where would you site your new projects?
Pass a bill to phase in a hefty new gas tax. This one was passed under the guise of a "user fee." User fees are a fine way to support projects and amenities, but to call this a user fee is wrong. By definition, the person paying a user fee is paying for maintenance on the thing he is using. This gas tax doesn't come close. King County will pay only about 10 percent of the taxes collected, yet 30 percent of the total will be spent on King County transportation projects. In addition, a large portion of the weight fees will be spent on mass transit -- which, of course will primarily be in King County. Not much use for mass transit in Okanogan County. There is, however, a very real need for gas-powered vehicles there. This transportation budget is funded on the backs of farmers and business that rely on vehicles to deliver goods and produce, making it more difficult for them to stay in business.
And, of course, there were other things, such as state worker-pay increases and mandating that mental health disorders be covered by health insurance. While these measures may well be justified, the effect is still to ratchet up costs through wages and insurance premiums across the economy.
Across the political spectrum, it's understood that Boeing's departure was caused by weaknesses in the business climate, that the economy is just now emerging from a recession and is still very fragile. This was no secret in the last election, and the person in the governor's office ran on no-new-taxes and middle-of-the-road fiscal policies. Still, she (and the Democrat-controlled Legislature) promptly gutted the Initiative 601 spending limits through sleight-of-hand budgeting and outright disregard of people's wishes.
A group has already raised $80,000 from 2,000 donors and has gotten volunteer information from more than 6,000 Washingtonians to put an initiative on the ballot to overturn the gas tax. It took them only five days.
It looks like the people will get to revisit the issue.