News & Stories

My neighbor down the street is a firefighter. Another is a school librarian. A third is a professor at Shoreline Community College. The husband and wife team across from us are public school teachers. These friends and neighbors are all public servants — that is, public employees. It is easy to join the chorus in […]

This post excerpted from Restoring America’s Middle Class Starts with Keeping Social Security’s Promise || Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Working Americans and their employers each pay a payroll tax of 6.2% on the first $106,800 of earnings into Social Security. That dedicated revenue, along with interest from the Social Security Trust […]

With thanks from Social Security Works – Washington: A great article from Remapping Debate tells the story of people imagining their lives (or those of their children) with a significantly delayed retirement age: Barrett paused a moment. She is 30 years old, and had never thought about the possibility of having to work another 40 […]

Lawmakers should take a closer look at tax exemptions and preferences before cutting billions out of critical public programs and services, urges Remy Trupin, Executive Director of the Washington Budget and Policy Center, in a recent column in last week’s Seattle Times. Trupin writes: There’s a lot of talk of reform as we enter a […]

From Restoring America’s Middle Class Starts with Keeping Social Security’s Promise || Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 Social Security is one of the great achievements of American democracy. It provides stable income to fully one quarter of American households – in good economic times and bad. For most seniors, Social Security is […]

60% of Washington’s budget (read: K-12 education and Medicare) is both constitutionally and legally protected from cuts. That means the projected $5 billion revenue shortfall in  Washington’s 2011-13 budget will be carved out of $14 billion — a 35% cut. But legislators have another choice. By putting tax exemptions and preferences — now worth $6.5 […]

Thrive By Five Washington blogger and dad Paul Nyhan also reports that federal stimulus funds for state child care programs are running out. That means deep cuts this coming budget cycle – and spells bad news for many working families: The federal stimulus package’s economic cycle is running out, and the end may well usher […]

A $23 million cut in King County health programs approved by the Legislature last month means layoffs in Maternity Support Services, a program that improves infant survival and health by providing a range of services to 30,000 women and babies. Meanwhile a sales tax exemption for out-of-state coal worth…you guessed it, $23.7 million…is still on […]

The Wall Street Journal reports the bottom has fallen out for American families: wages have taken the worst plunge ever since the Great Depression. Chances are good it will take years, if not decades, for wages to rebound to pre-financial crisis levels — grim news for the middle class, as Huffington Post reports: Among people […]

Via Social Security Works – Washington: During his campaign, then-candidate Obama made his support for Social Security crystal clear: “I do not want to cut benefits or raise the retirement age. I believe there are a number of ways we can make Social Security solvent that do not involve placing these added burdens on seniors.” […]

How secure is your retirement looking these days? That probably depends on your retirement plan — that is, if you’re lucky enough to have a one. Fewer employers are offering workplace retirement plans – these days, only 59% of full-time workers even have access to one at their place of work. Decades ago, defined benefit […]

It’s popular to talk about all the “hard choices” facing our elected officials in Olympia as they stare down a $4.5 billion revenue shortfall  – but in truth, many of the choices aren’t hard at all. They’re actually “no-brainers”. A recent column by Diane Sosne in the Tacoma News Tribune does an excellent job of […]

From the Everett Herald: Minimum wage workers will see a small boost in their paychecks this week. That’s because the people overwhelmingly approved an initiative back in 1998 to increase the minimum wage and then index it to inflation. The idea is simple: The lowest paid workers should at least be able to realize the […]

In a challenge to Washington’s best-in-the-nation minimum wage law, a handful of corporate interests (including the Washington Farm Bureau, Washington Restaurant Association, and Washington Retail Association) recently appeared in Kittitas County court, seeking to block a 12-cent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) scheduled for 2011. Opponents of the COLA based much of their case on an opinion […]

Via the National Employment Law Project Raise will Help Thousands of Workers and Strengthen the Economy Washington, DC – On January 1st, the minimum wage increased in seven states, modestly boosting the incomes of approximately 647,000 minimum wage workers in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.  The National Employment Law Project hailed the […]

Via the Iowa Policy Project: The steady ascent of health care costs, the erosion of job-based health insurance, and the growing ranks of the uninsured and underinsured have conjured up a wide array of products promising health savings or security. These include various “consumer” (nongroup) coverage options, including health savings plans and limited, high-deductible or catastrophic insurance. And […]

If you are a regular reader of Washington Policy Watch, you know that the next few years – much like the last few – will be rough going for Washington’s workers, families and children. But you also know that we can’t give up the effort to forge a path forward that restores middle class hope […]

From the Everett Herald: This week is the start of a five-year period of commemoration, celebration, consideration and contrition. It was on Dec. 20, 1860 that South Carolina seceded from the Union. On Monday, in Charleston, the people nostalgic for the confederacy held a “secession ball.” Let’s be clear: The reason for secession was to […]

Governor Gregoire “hates” her 2011-2013 budget proposal, and it’s no wonder: it cuts $4.6 billion by, among other things, eliminating funding for class size reductions, ending the state’s Basic Health Plan (BHP), ending assistance to the disabled and closing state parks. But not to worry: tax breaks for nose jobs and airline fuel are still […]

Unlike “Survivor”, our 2010 Survaluation doesn’t require you to start a fire with your bare hands, fish in crocodile-infested waters, or build a shelter. All you need is an opinion — and I know you’ve got at least one of those! To be clear: This is not (just) a survey. And it is not (just) […]

Lately there’s been a lot of talk about ‘austerity measures’ to manage the deficit in Washington D.C., but not much in the way of specifics. Perhaps attracting the most attention was President Obama’s Fiscal Commission, which proposed benefit cuts and increases in the retirement age. Many elected officials have been reluctant to comment on these plans — […]

File this one under “the more things change, the more they don’t.” In January 2007,  New York Times reporter Tim Egan traveled to Liberty Lake, Washington, which is located about 8 miles away from another small town, Post Falls, Idaho. Egan wanted to find out whether Washington businesses faced any difficulty dealing with a minimum […]

By Chris Thomas, Public News Service SEATTLE – Although the economic crisis has taken its toll on many state-funded services nationwide, most pre-kindergarten (pre-k) programs have been spared, according to a new report from the Pew Center on the States. In Washington State, the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) has sustained only minor […]