-
Visiting Prisons
I’ve been trying to visit everywhere we spend a billion dollars or more per biennium, and the prison system definitely makes the list. This month I got a chance to visit McNeil Island, a very creepy place. We have a treatment facility on the island for dangerous sex predators, and a former prison. We closed…
-
Get ready for westbound SR 520 closures on Thursday nights
Useful info from WSDOT. Construction closures are aggravating, but getting the bridge done more quickly saves money and gets the whole project done faster. Construction of the new West Connection Bridge is in full swing so please plan ahead for weekly closures of westbound SR 520. Crews will close all westbound lanes from 92nd Avenue…
-
Cool data about net income migration
This is an interesting view of how income has migrated in the last decade – lots of high wage people moving to Washington state. The rankings are aggregate, so it might be interesting to see what the per-capita impact of this would be. The impact of $7.88 billion on 7 million people in Washington is…
-
Seattle Times Op-Ed on Internet Sales Taxes Misses the Mark
In a Seattle Times Op-Ed today, Peter Ollodart throws up his hands at the prospect of filing sales tax returns in 45 states, and consequently is lobbying against the Marketplace Fairness Act if Congress. If he really had to do that, I’d agree with him. Of course, under the structure of the bill in Congress…
-
Champion For Early Learning!
I’m pleased to report that the Children’s Alliance named me a “Champion for Early Learning” this year and presented me with this nice box of stale Wheaties. We made significant moves in early learning for low-income this year and I’m glad to be recognized for it. We expanded the state’s program for low-income 3 and…
-
Get ready: SR 520 bridge single-direction closures planned for August and September
New data from DOT on 520 closures – best to plan ahead. If you use the bridge frequently it’s worth checking in on their webpage every now and then. Plan ahead for SR 520 construction closures as crews prepare for five closures of the floating bridge and highway, one direction at a time, during August…
-
“This Washington” saves money on Medicaid costs
In an interesting article on the “Center for Public Integrity” website Washington State is called out as having a cost-effective way to make decisions about what medical treatments don’t actually work, and to stop paying for them. This is not without controversy, as you might expect. In order to cut costs and put Medicare on…
-
Brown Center: “Obama’s Preschool Proposal is Not Based on Sound Research”
While I’m not sure I agree with the scary headline of this post from the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, I totally agree that we should be thinking carefully about how we implement a major upgrade of our early education program for at-risk kids. (Good headlines drive more readership, hence I…
