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Rep. Steve Conway, serving the 29th District Serving South Tacoma, Parkland, and portions of Lakewood and University Place. |
Dispatches from Olympia
Rep. Steve Conway on the session so far...
February 3, 2009
Our legislative work is picking up speed, as individual legislators, state executives, state departments, and yes, lobbyists introduce bills to the Legislature. The process will peak in the next few weeks as we approach the deadline for consideration of bills in our policy committees.
A key piece of legislation that I, as Chair of the House Commerce and Labor Committee, will introduce is the governor’s proposal to incent our state’s ailing economy with a $45 increase in unemployment benefits for all claimants as well as a reduction in taxes for all state businesses. This is a $400 million incentive package. Its purpose is simply incentive: More money in the economy, less tax burden, for employers so they can keep their employees working.
Our state is now in serious recession along with the rest of the country, and in fact, much of the world. Nearly one quarter million Washingtonians are out of work; a figure that undoubtedly underestimates the number since discouraged and underemployed go unaccounted. Nearly 150,000 of these are receiving benefits. Last week we heard of more cuts in employment for Boeing and Microsoft. We continued to hear that our banking community is still wrestling with stability.
Our economy is the great issue of our day, and representatives in Congress and Olympia are asking what we can do to help. It cannot be “business as usual” in this Washington or the other.
There are critical questions to answer: Do we rescue businesses with cash infusions, or will it take a federal make-work approach to keep people employed? And how do we keep our state’s safety net in place given the dramatic fall in state revenues?
Please feel free to contact me with your ideas on these crucial challenges. I will also be joining Senator Rosa Franklin for our upcoming town hall meetings to discuss directly with you about these important issues. Please join us. We rely on your input when it comes time to make decisions that affect our state.