Washington lawmakers learned on Tuesday morning the state can expect roughly $120 million more in revenue than earlier projections had anticipated while entitlement spending will drop by around $90 million over the 2013-15 biennium. Combined with another $160 million in new revenue because of last week’s vote to restore Washington’s estate tax and a...
Read More »

Up to now, the debate over whether to build large-scale coal export facilities at a pair of Washington state ports has focused on the economic benefits associated with the construction and operation of the facilities versus the environmental cost of the projects in particular and the use of coal in general. But an academic...
Read More »

The state of Washington narrowly averted the need to mail out up to $160 million in refund checks on Thursday when the state Senate just minutes before midnight passed an estate tax “fix” that could ultimately be declared unconstitutional. The first round of checks, totaling $40 million, were due to be mailed at 8...
Read More »

A day before the state was supposed to mail out $160 million in refund checks most lawmakers would prefer to spend elsewhere, the Washington State House of Representatives on Thursday approved an estate tax “fix” that keeps the money in Olympia until it can be diverted to the education trust fund. The bill, Engrossed...
Read More »

Vancouver Republican Sen. Don Benton wasted little time responding to comments made on Tuesday by Gov. Jay Inslee blaming Senate Republicans for the current budget deadlock in the Washington State Legislature. “It’s extremely unfortunate that we’ve been forced into a second special special session by the Democrats,” Benton said. “People say there’s enough blame...
Read More »

With the special session down to its final hours and both houses of the Washington State Legislature still deadlocked over a two-year operating budget, Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday announced a third session would convene at 9 a.m. tomorrow and laid the blame for that action squarely at the feet of the Republican-led Majority...
Read More »

The Washington State Senate’s Republican-led Majority Caucus on Saturday passed a $33.4 billion operating budget for the 2013-14 biennium and promised to approve a handful of revenue measures to help pay for them — but not unless it can also pass a slate of reforms designed to make state operations more efficient, too. “I’m...
Read More »

House Democrats on Thursday night moved quickly to pass a “compromise” operating budget they had unveiled in a press conference only a day earlier. This was followed just hours later by passage of a companion education bill that would replace several of the same revenue features dropped from the earlier budget measure. Leaders of...
Read More »

Washington’s revenue picture improved modestly in the past quarter, with the state now expected to generate $86 million — or 4.1 percent — more than projected in the March forecast. Most of the difference — $48 million — came through a one-time audit payment, meaning has little bearing on the state’s long-term economic prognosis. Still,...
Read More »