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How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America
Last month’s Atlantic Magazine has a great article on the transformative effect the current recession will have on people in America over the next few decades. It’s a little depressing a read, but very thought-provoking. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/03/how-a-new-jobless-era-will-transform-america/7919 Here’s the blurb the magazine uses to intro the article: The Great Recession may be over, but this era…
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Important Education Bills Signed
I sent out the following press release today on the signing of several key education bills. We mostly stayed focused on the budget, but stayed the course on ed reform, both financial and structural. THese bills don’t do all that I want, but are a step in the right direction. ———————– AUBURN – Rep. Ross…
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Rob McKenna and Healthcare
Earlier this week Attorney General Rob McKenna joined a lawsuit filed by a number of other AGs nationally to attack the new healthcare bill adopted in the other Washington. Here’s his press release on the suit: http://www.atg.wa.gov/pressrelease.aspx?&id=25402 He’s using 10th amendment grounds to do so, and my personal read is that the suit is unlikely…
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Interesting Pension Fund Data
The following was included in the most recent issue of Capitol Ideas, the magazine published by the Council of State Governments: “A new report from the Pew Center on the States finds a $1 trillion gap between the $2.35 trillion states have set aside to pay for employees’ retirement benefits and the $3.35 trillion price…
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What’s a Tax Loophole?
When you and I sell our homes, we pay real estate excise tax. So how come some businesses don’t pay it on multi-million-dollar transactions? If we hire contractors to remodel our homes, those contractors must charge sales tax on their labor. But some developers have figured out a way to avoid paying that tax on…
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Microsoft goes strong on 520
Microsoft has started a huge new campaign to get the legislature to (finally) approve moving forward on the 520 bridge. The Seattle PI covered it here http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/195479.asp Microsoft even has their own website for the campaign, and a full page newspaper ad. I’m starting to get mail from people about it, and I agree. I…
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Using the Gavel
I’ve had a couple of questions about the hearing we held this weekend on the Senate bill to temporarily suspend Initiative 960. I’ll write about the bill elsewhere but I wanted to talk briefly about how difficult it is to manage a large hearing on a contentious issue. This particular hearing was held at 9:00…
