LATEST BLOGS
Why is SEIU pushing another $1 billion payroll tax on workers?
In the midst of the hoopla surrounding bills waging war on self-employed workers, circumventing the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Janus ruling, creating an income tax and a carbon tax, banning plastic grocery bags, and more, one bill is sailing through with surprisingly little attention or opposition.
HB 1087/SB 5331 would impose a $1 billion annual payroll tax on most workers in the state to fund the creation of a Long-Term Services and Support (LTSS) program that would provide benefits for workers to help pay the cost of long-term care they may need in the future.
Read the entire blogState lawmakers picking up the pace as first deadline looms. Senate passes anti-fracking bill, plastic bag ban measures advance out of committee.
With 33 days of this year’s scheduled 105-day regular session behind them, state lawmakers are picking up the pace of legislative action on some of the more than 2,100 bills they have introduced so far.
The first deadline of the session is Friday, February 22nd. Bills that don’t make it out of committee by then are likely dead for this session.
Following cancellations caused by snow storms earlier this week, legislative committees resumed a full schedule of public hearings on dozens of bills, including a controversial proposal to exempt legislators from state public transparency laws (SB 5784). Open-government advocates, including Eastern Washington citizens who weighed in via remote testimony, strongly criticized the measure in a hearing before the Senate Committee on Government, Tribal Relations, and Elections on Wednesday. The committee took no action on the bill.
Read the entire blog
California's multi-billion dollar lesson for Washington
Although Governor Inslee insists that “any mistakes [California has] made, we’re going to put it in the bank and learn from it,” choosing to move forward with overrated high speed rail and dragging the state into years of future debt seems evidence to the contrary.
Read the entire blogWPC IN THE NEWS
WPC CALENDAR
Legislative Lunchbox - Moses Lake
Westside Breakfast - February
Farm to Free Market Dinner in Tri-Cities
