Chamber Position Statements
State Budget
At a glance, we are looking at a $2.6 billion budget shortfall. Government growth is at an all time high and spending exceeds revenues. Fiscal restraint is needed to ensure long-term sustainability for our state budget and a viable economy for employers and our citizens to prosper in the future.
Recommendations:
Maintain the searchable budget website. We recommend the development of a tax transparency website to show where our taxes go and how much we pay. This will better determine if we are getting our money’s worth – or whether government spending should be reduced.
Prioritize private sector jobs, economic development and a solid education system within state spending.
Close and resist the creation of loopholes used to circumvent the spirit of the state’s expenditure limits.
Restrict the transfer of money from dedicated funds for reasons other than originally intended.
Maintain and vigorously exercise recommendations proposed by the State Auditors Office. Suggestions made to date should be seriously considered and implemented by state agencies – rather than the current trend – which is to simply ignore the recommendations.
Economic Development
Economic development for our city, region and state is vital to each and every Chamber member. The Chamber remains a strong advocate for enhancing our local economy through incentives for new business and retention of current businesses. The Chamber enthusiastically supports our nearby military neighbors and urge our Legislature to ensure they are protected.
Recommendations:
Base Expansion and Military Growth - Support continuation of state funding related to preempting base closure or adverse realignments. Support acquisition of property and development rights in Lakewood’s portion of McChord Air Force Base’s clear zone.
Card Rooms - Enact a change in state law to permit cities to either zone or limit the number of enhanced card rooms and other gambling activities.
Health Care
Out of control health care costs are leading to drastic proposals such as government-run health care. Lawmakers say they want to lower health care costs and increase access for citizens of all ages and income levels. To do this, it is imperative that you consider market-oriented reforms, rather than greater government control.
Recommendations:
Oppose any new mandated benefits - and support the reduction of existing requirements that add costs to the system.
Support measures that allow employers access to health plans that are relevant to the needs of their workforce within price ranges they can afford.
Do no harm to market-based health coverage plans that have a history of success in Washington State, including the protection of association plans and individual market successes.
Oppose any mandate that employers purchase health care – or the establishment of a single-payer health care system.
Labor Relations
At the national level, labor is attempting to enact the “Employee Free Choice Act” – which is anything but what it claims to be – that will end secret ballot union elections and require recognition of a union based on the presentation of signed union cards. At the state level, labor is attempting to pass a “Worker Privacy Act” that would significantly limit the ability of employers to communicate with employees about union matters. Labor is also seeking legislation that would subject the state’s smallest businesses – currently too small to be covered by federal law – to collective bargaining obligations enforced by the state Public Employment Relations Commission.
Recommendations:
Resist efforts to eliminate or restrict employee choice and privacy with respect to secret ballot union elections.
Support legislation that provides for transparency for public union contract negotiations.
Do not impose state-level collective bargaining obligations on the state’s smallest employers.
Transportation
The Lakewood Chamber believes that our transportation infrastructure is crucial to improving our state’s business climate and urge the Legislature to continue to work on solutions to our transportation needs and protecting economic development.
Recommendations:
Uphold the commitments of the 2003 and 2005 gas tax increases to allow projects to stay funded.
Support completion of Cross Base Highway. Support adequate funding for improvements to Highway 512 and Interstate 5 in Lakewood.
Support completion of Sound Transit’s commuter rail service to Lakewood that is long overdue.
Repeal the requirement to limit vehicle miles traveled by 2010.
Unemployment Insurance Competitiveness
Unemployment Insurance costs for our family wage employers remain well above the national average, jeopardizing overall business competitiveness. High unemployment costs contribute to higher unemployment rates because rising system costs consume scarce resources for jobs and equipment as well as create uncertainties that discourage the hiring of new employees. It is critical that the Legislature work toward decreasing high unemployment insurance costs while maintaining the stability of Washington’s unemployment system.
Recommendations:
Strengthen the integrity and solvency of the UI system by ensuring that benefits are only available to workers who:
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are unemployed through no fault of their own,
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are unemployed for reasons that are directly related to the employer-employee relationship,
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remain able and available for work, and
- engage in stringent active work search requirements.
Oppose direct or indirect fund transfers of unemployment insurance monies, and income derived to fund state programs unrelated to unemployment insurance benefit payments and administration.
Workers' Comp Reform
A legislatively mandated audit by State Auditor Brian Sonntag has revealed that the workers' compensation system run by the Department of Labor & Industries is likely headed for collapse.
The audit's findings reinforce the business community's urgent call to reform the state's broken workers' compensation system.
According to the audit, the state's workers' comp system has a 90 percent chance of becoming insolvent within the next five years. The system has been so mismanaged and is so far in the hole that a 33 percent increase in workers' comp taxes is necessary next year to keep it solvent.
Washington's workers' comp taxes have increased 53.8 percent during the past 10 years.
The bloated and inefficient workers' comp system cannot be sustained given L&I's failure to curb the spiraling costs of injured worker claims and their desperate attempts to mask the problem by artificially suppressing workers' comp taxes in recent years. The chickens are coming home to roost, and employers will, at some point in the near future, face staggering rate increases to pay for L&I's mismanagement. Now is the time to reform the system."
BIAW will lobby to pass legislation in the upcoming legislative session to end L&I's monopoly by allowing private competition in the workers' comp system.
Washington is one of only four states with a government monopoly on workers' comp that forbids private competitors from offering industrial insurance coverage to employers – Washington's employers are forced to pay L&I for industrial insurance coverage and to manage injured worker claims.
Employers pay taxes that are among the highest in the nation, despite drastically improving workplace safety-injured worker claims have dropped 55 percent since 1990.
While the number of claims has decreased, the length of those claims has increased. In Washington, the average injured worker misses 270 days of work, three times the national average. And if an injured worker's claim hasn't been closed after two years they have a 50-50 chance of never returning to work, rather awarded a life-long pension.
Other states that have switched from a state monopoly to privatization have all reaped significant rewards in the form of lower workers' comp costs for employers and more efficient claims management for workers. Washington employers and workers deserve those same rewards.
Education
An educated workforce plays a vital role in determining the state’s future economic growth. In setting budget priorities, policy makers must protect and expand the state’s existing investment in education.
Recommendations:
Services for Returning Veterans - Our colleges will soon face a huge influx of veterans returning to college. Veterans waiver programs do not go far enough in providing the necessary support services returning veterans need to be successful in higher education. We propose legislation that will address the financial gap that remains after all other financial aid, such as Pell Grants, the GI Bill and the newly passed Post 9/11 GI Bill have been exhausted. With the state's commitment to providing support to returning veterans, colleges can fulfill their commitment to actively recruit and retrain veterans in higher education.
Customized Workforce Training - The 2007 Legislature set up a revolving fund from which companies could borrow money to train their employees and then repay the fund over a short period of time. They could deduct 50% of the training cost from their Business and Occupation taxes. Although there is a documented need for incumbent worker training, the rules surrounding the customized training funds are so complicated that few companies have used the Customized Training program for their employees. Therefore, the money is not being fully utilized. We support simplifying eligibility requirements for access to the training assistance.
Paid Family Leave
Washington’s paid family leave law is on the books, with benefits set to begin in October 2009. However, the Legislature has failed to specify an administering agency for the program and hasn’t identified a source of funding for the promised benefits. In the face of a $2.6 billion shortfall, it may be tempting to look at job providers for the tax revenue to fund this new social program.
Recommendations:
Repeal the program as a matter of prudent budgeting facing the budget deficit.
2010 Clover Park School Bond
Recognizing that an educated workforce plays a vital role in determining a community’s future economic growth and health, the Board of Directors of the Lakewood Chamber of Commerce supports the 2010 bond measure to fund improvements for Clover Park School District.
The money from the bond measure will go towards rebuilding Hudtloff Middle School, consolidating Oakwood and Southgate Elementary Schools, and building the successful Harrison Preparatory facility. Oakwood cannot be rebuilt/remodeled at its present site because it is in the flight path of McChord AFB.
The Board supports the bond measure based on the following:
Level Tax Rate: The tax rate will not be increased - it will simply be a continuation of the tax rate for the next 25 years. Much needed projects will be built without raising the tax rate, which is one of the lowest in Pierce County.
Buildings Exceed Life Expectancy: The majority of facilities in the district have not been modernized or renovated for nearly 50 years, well beyond their projected life expectancy of 30 years. As a result, they are costly to maintain, energy inefficient and not up to current safety, electrical or building codes.
Saves Money: The school consolidation will save at least $300,000 in annual operational costs. That means that the district will save more than $7.5 million over the life of the project - money that could go directly back into the classroom. The district will also be eligible to receive an additional $24 million from the State to help with these projects, but only if the Bond measure passes.
Now is the time to support our educational system -- and our future entrepreneurs. We urge your support.