News & Stories

Gregoire offers up no-new-taxes budget that freezes pay; workers say they’ll seek better deal from Legislature: Gov. Chris Gregoire unveiled a two-year state budget to close a $5.7 billion budget gap by freezing pay for some 250,000 state and school workers, assumes an infusion of nearly $1 billion from the federal government and slashes state […]

The Washington State Family Leave Coalition has joined the Multi-State Working Families Consortium and dozens of organizations from around the country in calling on Congress and the Obama administration to insure that economic stimulus and recovery packages help build up America’s working families. Here are some of the recommendations: Requiring that jobs created with stimulus […]

Tomorrow, Governor Gregoire will unveil what she predicts will be a very “ugly” budget. It will likely be balanced solely through cuts that will slow our state’s recovery from recession and undermine the future of our children, families, and businesses. We will not be able to get Washington’s economy – or the nation’s – on […]

U.S. automakers are struggling – but not because worker wages are too high. A comparison of basic wages and cost-of-living adjustments for U.S. autoworkers shows they’re only about 10% more per hour than their Japanese counterparts ($29 vs. $26 per hour). But the total average hourly cost to U.S. and Japanese employers is $71 and […]

Paul Guppy, vice president for research at the Washington Policy Center, has buffed and glossed his criticisms of the state budget to such a high finish, it’s no wonder the facts don’t stick very well. Scrape some of the wax off one of his opening lines: “Olympia leaders have racked up a $5.1 billion deficit.” […]

Reprinted from the Everett Herald Just a couple of months ago campaign rhetoric was flowing like champagne at a wedding reception.  That rhetoric, from both Democrats and Republicans, was all about making sure we had a “world-class” education for the children of our state, and that health care would be both affordable and accessible.  But […]

Governor vows push of big stimulus plan: Gov. Chris Gregoire met for two hours with business and education leaders Monday to discuss the best way to jump-start the state’s economy and said the group of 18 had two findings: Large-scale state and federal stimulus packages must be quickly implemented, and Washingtonians will have to make […]

Recently, the Governor’s office has been flooded with phone calls from concerned citizens. Surely the looming budget shortfall of $5 billion, a collapsing housing market, draconian cuts to state funded higher education programs and other ‘truly ugly’ cuts to come sparked this outpouring of civic action. Alas, that is not the case. This yearly deluge […]

Economic reality is sinking in for many Americans. Newspapers report people are ‘tightening their belts’ and retailers bemoan shoppers who are ‘sitting on their wallets’. But in retrospect, today’s problems are a train that’s been on the track since at least the 1970’s.

Reprinted from the Everett Herald: Can we be thankful? We have friends and family and food, all in large doses on Thursday. We also have a houseful of worries, which perhaps we can put off for a couple of days: mortgage payments, WaMu layoffs, shrinking public support for public education, health care costs, an economy […]

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%.

The Washington state Office of Financial Management, the governor and legislature all agree—things are bad for Washington State’s budget. So how did this happen? How did the deficit soar from $3.2 billion less than a month ago to more than $5 billion just this week? The answer is revenue. Or more precisely, the lack of […]

Reprinted from the Everett Herald: Erin, a mortgage counselor at a nonprofit organization, experiences the economic crisis up-close and personal every day. For the past six years, she’s helped people behind on their mortgages fight to stay in their homes — or at least held their hand through the foreclosure process. Now, as the need […]

On Election Day, voters in the City of Milwaukee overwhelmingly approved a referendum updating workplace standards. It requires employers to offer paid sick leave to all full-time employees; making Milwaukee the third city in the U.S. to do so. The overwhelming support for city-wide paid sick leave comes from research and case studies, showing paid […]

Ten years ago, John Burbank and a group of committed local leaders set out tackle issues threatening the economic security of Washington families by founding the Economic Opportunity Institute. Thank you to all of our supporters, board members, event sponsors and staff for a great event launching EOI into the next decade. Your continued support […]

David Kirp is a professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. His body of work includes some fifteen books, as well as many articles that have appeared in leading policy focused social science journals and law reviews. His latest book is “The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and […]

This long election season is finally over — even if vote counting isn’t. Now we can stop listening to candidates’ promises and start prioritizing what we really need from Olympia and the other Washington. I’m writing this before Election Day so don’t know for sure the outcomes. But that’s okay. What we should be asking […]

Looking only at year-over-year increases in state spending is an oversimplified perspective that doesn’t address important economic factors such as population growth or inflation. Measuring state revenue and spending as a percentage of personal income provides a more accurate picture. As the Washington State Budget and Policy Center notes: “…this measure…accounts for growth in the […]

The governor’s race in Washington State has been especially heated this year, with both candidates promising to balance the budget and help working class people. But as economic conditions have changed, so have the candidate’s plans. Recently, the Everett Herald reported gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi would suspend his plan to eliminate Washington’s estate tax; promising […]

Reprinted from the Everett Herald: Halloween rules in my neighborhood. From a pumpkin on the porch to front lawns transformed into graveyards, almost every house is decorated this year. Some have always gone all out with seasonal displays, but this near unanimity seems new. Maybe it’s the recent influx of younger couples into the neighborhood. […]

It takes chutzpah to say – with a straight face – that paying workers less for their labor will actually make them better off. But that doesn’t some people from trying. Gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi recently brought up the idea of lowering Washington’s minimum wage in a debate with Gov. Chris Gregoire. And now the […]

Reprinted from the Everett Herald: I confess I speed when traffic allows. But I never go more than 10 mph over the speed limit. That’s not due to my general law-abiding nature, concern for public safety or desire to conserve gas. It’s knowing that a State Patrol trooper with a radar gun might be lurking […]