Washington Policy Blog

King County faces serious budget pressures, and county residents already pay the highest taxes in the state. So people are wondering why King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn chose this moment to introduce a proposal (K.C.C. 3.16.050) that could increase county costs by expanding mandatory binding arbitration to more public-sector unions.

Washington State Insurance Commissioner Kreidler has recently again proposed limiting the amount of financial surplus the non-profit health insurance carriers can have on hand. Premera and Regence now each have over $1 billion set aside to cover medical claims. Kreidler wants legislation to limit the amount of money the carriers can retain and wants fewer premium increases.

On Friday morning, Steve Scher of KUOW Radio (NPR-Seattle) interviewed Mary Lindquist, president of the state teachers union (WEA), about the union’s lawsuit to block children’s access to voter-approved charter schools. Here is a part of their conversation (at 12:15):

After 20 years in office it is no surprise to see retiring State Auditor Brian Sonntag continue to fight for good government reforms up to his last day.

Yesterday Sonntag released his final annual report highlighting the need for ongoing open government reforms as well as a performance audit recommending improvements to the way Washington State Ferries contracts for ferry construction.

As the governor and legislature debate various environmental proposals for 2013, here is one fact they should keep in mind: many of the State of Washington's climate policies waste about 99 percent of the money spent to cut carbon emissions. Even those policies that perform better than that standard are only slightly better, missing huge opportunities to reduce carbon emissions.

Over the holidays, Washington Education Association executives decided to sue voters over Initiative 1240, the people’s charter school initiative, according to a posting on Facebook. I-1240 gives priority to new charter schools that serve at-risk students from low-performing traditional public schools. Here is the union’s statement:

The Seattle Times recently featured a story on climate change with a sub-headline that declared "Scientists analyzing the effects of climate change say they are surprised to see how much winter has already changed and the cascade of effects that unleashes, from outbreaks of pests and diseases to fewer days of skiing."