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pretty-much-weekly report on the 2005 session
FRIDAY, APRIL 1 (PDF version)
U.I. compromise reached!
House passes EHB 2255 to "stop the bleeding"After intense negotiations overseen by House Speaker Frank Chopp (D-Seattle) and other legislative leaders, the Washington State Labor Council, the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council, Machinists District Lodge 751, the rest of organized labor -- and the Boeing Co. -- now stand united in support of a bill to mitigate the benefit cuts made in the state's unemployment insurance (UI) system in 2003. The cuts were part of an overhaul of the UI system included in the state's incentive package to win Boeing 787 assembly work and rushed through at the end of the 2003 session.
WSLC Legislative Tracker™
Today at 5 p.m. is the cutoff for non-budget bills to be passed out of policy committee. The award-winning website of the Washington State Labor Council includes the WSLC Legislative Tracker™. Check it out at www.wslc.org/legis/tracker.htm. That's where you'll find up-to-the-moment-we-get-to-it status reports on many key working families bills before the 2005 legislature. The House of Representatives wasted no time today in advancing the issue to the Senate. EHB 2255, sponsored by Rep. Steve Conway (D-Tacoma), was passed on a 56-41 vote. The bill leaves the employer-sought tax structure in place but returns the benefit formula from four-quarter averaging to two-quarter averaging and restores the "liberal construction" language. However, those changes will sunset in two years. In the interim, a task force will consider permanent changes that ensure fair benefits while retaining cost savings and tax equity for employers.
The fact that the EHB 2255 compromise is supported by the Boeing Company and the Machinists District 751 should assuage the concerns of lawmakers who may be reluctant to alter the UI changes. After all, it was on their behalf that the 2003 changes were enacted in the first place.
EHB 2255 is truly a compromise. If enacted, business interests will retain the tax structure they sought to deal with issues of tax equity between various industries. They also will retain many of the benefit cuts they sought to lower employers' UI costs, including the reduction in the maximum duration of benefits from 30 to 26 weeks, the elimination of $65 million in benefits for people previously considered to have quit their jobs with "good cause," and other changes that have been opposed by organized labor.
EHB 2255 simply acknowledges that the benefit cuts may have gone too far and been too burdensome for the communities hit hard by unemployment.
"This bill stops the bleeding so we can take a closer look at whether the changes enacted in 2003 were fair to both employers and unemployed workers," said Rick Bender, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.
So far, the UI changes enacted in 2003 have been all pain and no gain for Washington's economy.
Data from the Employment Security Department shows unemployed workers will lose $109 million in benefits in 2005 if the legislature fails to act. That translates to a $234 million hit to our economy, using the U.S. Department of Labor's assessment of lost purchasing power from UI benefit cuts. That's money that would be spent in local grocery and other retail stores, on car and house payments, and immediately injected into local economies.
Meanwhile, the business-supported changes in 2003 actually required UI taxes to INCREASE in order to finance the transition to the new rate system, so they have yet to have any positive effect on the economy.
EHB 2255 will not raise employer premiums because the savings already realized from benefits cuts to date, and the benefit cuts that will remain in place under EHB 2255, will soon lead to significant UI tax decreases for employers.
"EHB 2255 will offer important relief for construction trades workers disproportionately harmed by the 2003 benefit cuts," said Dave Johnson, Executive Secretary of the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council. "We urge all state legislators to support it."
The Washington State Labor Council would like to thank the Boeing Co. and all of organized labor for working together to find middle ground on this critically important issue. And we also thank Speaker Chopp, Rep. Conway and all of the State Representatives who voted today for EHB 2255.
The bill is scheduled for a public hearing at 8 a.m. Tuesday in the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee.
Many election, campaign bills are still alive
It's now been almost five months since Election 2004 and the outcome is still being contested by a candidate who once insisted he could "take or leave" political life. So it's no surprise that there are dozens of election-related proposals still being debated by the state lawmakers who actually won their elections. Following are a few of them being followed by the Washington State Labor Council, and their status as of this writing:
ESSB 5034 (WSLC supports) -- This bill makes a technical correction restoring the "affiliation" rule in place from 1994 to 2004 regarding political campaign contributions. That decade-old rule was invalidated by a court decision last year, which cited ambiguous language in a 1992 initiative. ESSB 5034 restores the rule that allows local affiliates of statewide and international unions to contribute to candidates as separate entities with separate contribution limits.
Please call the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and leave a message for your legislators to support ESSB 5034.CALL TO ACTION:
ESSB 5395 (WSLC supports) -- It would require that all counties who use electronic voting equipment provide a "paper trail." Without a paper record, conducting audits and recounts of these voting systems would be useless. -- It passed the Senate 48-0, passed House State Government Operations and Accountability, and is now in Rules.
ESSB 5499 (WSLC supports) -- This "omnibus" election reform bill was amended in House committee to remove some objectionable sections and in its form as approved by committee has organized labor's support. -- It passed the Senate 26-21, passed House State Government Operations and Accountability, and is now in Rules.
ESSB 5743 (WSLC supports) -- This bill enhancing voter registration recordkeeping had been amended on a Senate floor amendment to authorize "random" investigations of current voters and bring federal immigration officials in to work with counties to detect non-citizen voters. That objectionable language was removed in House committee, and labor now supports the bill in its current form. -- It passed the Senate 49-0, passed the House State Government Operations and Accountability Committee, and is now in Rules.
SB 5744 (WSLC supports) -- Authorizes counties to conduct all-mail ballot elections and requires statewide all-mail balloting, starting in 2012. -- It passed the Senate 32-16, passed the House State Government Operations and Accountability Committee, and is now in House Rules Committee.
EHB 1222 (WSLC supports) -- Would require that all signature gatherers (paid and volunteer) sign a declaration on each petition they circulate. This will help us track fraud and forgery in our initiative system. -- It passed the House 79-19, passed the Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee, and is now in Senate Rules Committee.
SHB 1226 (WSLC supports) -- Would establish contribution limits for State Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and Superior Court races. This would eliminate the problem of special-interest groups "buying" a seat in the courts. -- It passed the House 59-39, passed Senate Government Operations and Elections, and is now in Rules.
SHB 1754 (WSLC supports) -- Authorizes counties, with county legislative approval, to conduct all mail ballot elections (without having to reduce their precinct size). -- It passed the House 58-38, passed Senate Government Operations and Elections, and is now in Rules.
SHB 1876 (WSLC supports) -- Sponsored by Rep. Tami Green (D-Tacoma), a registered nurse and SEIU 1199NW member, this bill would prohibit the elimination of voting rights for people who are under guardianship without due process. -- It passed the House 96-0, passed Senate Government Operations and Elections, and is now in Rules.
ESHB 2027 (WSLC supports) -- Also sponsored by Rep. Green, it would move the primary to the third week of August, which will allow our county auditors to mail absentee ballots to overseas and service voters, thereby avoiding a problem with the Justice Department and the Department of Defense. -- It passed the House 95-1 (it was Rep. Roach), passed Senate Government Operations and Elections Committee, and is now in Rules.
PREVIOUS EDITIONS of the 2005 WSLC Legislative Update:
March 25 -- Will family values take a back seat? (Gregoire's budget, UI, Social Security)
March 18 -- The price of legislative inaction (HCRA, UI, Retro, elections, family leave)
March 11 -- Big issues in play as deadline looms (UI, retro, Family Leave Insurance)
Feb. 23 -- Clock's ticking on the HCRA (apprenticeship, simple-majority school levies)
Feb. 11 -- What are they so afraid of? (offshoring, tax breaks, health care & tip credit... oh, my)
Feb. 4 -- Health care: A shared responsibility (plus mental health parity, apprenticeship)
Jan. 28 -- Tax system "unconscionable" (plus tax accountability and disclosure; and more)
Jan. 21 -- Apprenticeship: It's a win-win (plus health care; "Dead Peasant" bill; and more)
Jan. 14 -- Wasteful Retro needs reform (plus state employee contract; more tax breaks)
Copyright © 2005 Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO