Washington Business Fall 2016 | Legislative Review

2016 legislative review Editorial Scorecard “Washington’s charter-school advocates have walked on eggshells for more than a year. First, they had to wait almost a year for the state Supreme Court to rule on opponents’ lawsuit; then they had to stand by for the Legislature to remedy the court’s decision to close them; and finally they had another nail-biting wait to see whether Gov. Jay Inslee would veto the bipartisan, common-sense legislation to keep them open permanently. A sense of closure finally came Friday when Inslee said he would let the bill become law — without his signature — two days later. The good news is Washington’s charter school experiment finally can continue for about 1,100 students statewide and for others to come. But Inslee’s indifference to charter schools is disappointing. He should be championing them.” — The Seattle Times (1) “The news that our state ranks in the middle of the pack compared with other states on a recently released scoreboard is a bit disheartening, if not entirely surprising. When it comes to recruiting new businesses and residents — as well as retaining them — we have some work to do and we know where many of the shortcomings lie. It was still a tough thing to hear, however, when Opportunity Washington recently turned a spotlight on those weaknesses. Nobody likes to have their flaws flaunted for all to see. But in this case it just may be the kind of wake-up call our state’s leaders need. The analysis compared data from 50 states across three categories Washingtonians say are most important: Achieve (education quality and outcomes), Connect (transportation efficiency and reliability) and Employ (economic vitality). Washington dropped to 28th overall with a score of 68 out of 100. Utah took the top spot with a score of 127. Twenty-eighth out of 50 is not competitive, no matter the test or contest.” — The News Tribune (4) “The state Legislature deserves to be the butt of a familiar joke: They’d procrastinate, if only they could get around to it. For the seventh time in three years, lawmakers treated the scheduled end of the legislative session like a yield sign, not a stop sign, and skidded straight into a special session. This time, it was 20 days of overtime, even though the stakes were low. Tuesday’s agreement on a one-year supplement to the state’s $38.2 billion two-year budget added less than one half of 1 percent.” “While the old saw about politics being a contact sport carries a grain of truth, a couple items out of Olympia this week lend additional insight to the physical nature of legislative give-and-take. In one, Lieutenant Gov. Brad Owen used the occasion of his retirement announcement to implore lawmakers to put aside the “insanity of partisan politics.” While that might be akin to asking sharks to stop swimming, Owen added, “All it does is create an environment of ‘us against them’ instead of ‘all of us for the people.’” — The Seattle Times (3) — The Columbian (5) — The Tri-City Herald (2) 6 “Nobody expected Washington state lawmakers to do much during a 60-day session leading up to a big November election. But in some ways, the Legislature undershot those already low expectations by failing to take action on two major fronts: They didn’t pass a supplemental budget, causing the governor to call a 30-day special session Thursday for them to finish their work. And they didn’t come up with a way to solve school-funding issues that have landed the state in contempt of court, promising instead to fix things next year. The Legislature’s modest record of accomplishments was further compromised Thursday when Gov. Jay Inslee vetoed 27 of the bills lawmakers managed to agree on this year.” association of washington business

Washington Business Fall 2016 | Legislative Review | Page 8