This piece originally appeared in the spanish-language newspaper El Mundo. Click here to read the original.

7 Fronts for the State of Washington

28 May, 2017

By Gustavo A. Montoya

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the annual summit of the Washington State Policy Center (WPC), which is celebrating its twentieth anniversary as a state organization. This body of experts organized to provide specific inquiries and ideas to economic and political problems is a non-profit organization. Declaring itself as an independent institution, its purpose is to improve the lives of Washington State residents by providing accurate information and research of the highest quality to lawmakers, law consultants, the media, and the general public.

My visit last Tuesday was quite illustrative, and the speakers' presentation quality was excellent. The WPC faces several challenges as an organization and its agenda is quite broad. With a budget of $ 3 million per year, a specialized group of 20 full-time, expert people, the WPC conducts research in 7 areas: education, environment, government budget reforms, health, small business, transportation, and agriculture. It was really amazing the productivity of this group. Undoubtedly they express clear and political positions by nature. The general basis for my view is clear since its position is based on the system of free markets, which is usually a conservative position from the partisan point of view. In its brief introductory message, the WPC is clear about advocating for freedom of expression, and advocates for the media, legislators, and the common citizen, because its fundamental basis is freedom for all. Its founders based their political philosophy on the vision of reduced government, freedom, innovation and free markets. In a brief interview with the president of the organization, Dann Mead Smith, explains that although the organization's various fronts would give priority to 4: education, labor reform, jobs, and taxes. For example in education the WPC wants to give more options to the parents. Mead Smith says the idea is not to force a parent to take their children to a single district school where they live: "they should have more options." For example a fully bilingual school is something innovative and is an option for parents who want that curriculum format. "For example, technical study schools are also good options and provide a good career in which a student can earn very well in the long run."

As for labor reform, the WPC thinks its focus is on the issue of unions. Mead Smith explains that there should be options for government employees where the employee can choose whether or not he wants to be a part of the union. There are cases where you have no choice, and the employee is forced to be part of a union, where political interests may not be the same. The same thing happens in private companies where they can not have any choice either.

The third is to create jobs; Brings together the other WPC fronts: Transportation, agriculture, environment, small business and health are also important in the creation of jobs. A fourth is the tax view. The WPC also has an opinion about a state tax for Washington residents. Smith explains "one of the reasons why Amazon, Microsoft and Boeing attracts talent from other states is because Washington has no personal income tax," which puts another 10 to 15% of the family budget income relative to other states as California. For more information visit www.washingtonpolicy.org on their website.