washington business
“ There is no doubt calls will get louder to repeal tax preferences and enact new taxes before negotiations begin in earnest later in the session.”
— Eric Lohnes, AWB government affairs director for tax and fiscal policies
The skills gap, or the number of job openings compared to the number of workers with the skills to fill them, is a growing concern among employers.
An October 2016 Boston Consulting Group and Washington Roundtable study found there will be 740,000 job openings in Washington state in the next five years, many of them requiring workers with a postsecondary education or training.
“ Equally important to the discussions is that any additional investments in the K-12 public school system go toward improving student outcomes and preparing them for postsecondary education, including career and technical and trade pathways, and ensuring students have the right skills to fill jobs here at home,” Anderson said.
Regarding higher education, Anderson said the goal will be to keep other budget items from encroaching on college affordability and ensure more graduates in high-demand fields.
beyond the budget: other key issues to watch
And, those issues are just the start.
Like the past few sessions, this session is predicted to have a raft of bills that follow along with some of the City of Seattle’ s recently adopted labor policies, such as predictive scheduling. Additionally, lawmakers may also need to sift through Initiative 1433, the voter-approved $ 13.50 statewide minimum wage increase and mandatory paid sick and safe leave, to fix inconsistencies and make clarifying changes. Other possible labor and workforce issues are:
• Workers’ compensation reform, including boosting availability of structured settlements for injured workers on a state pension;
• Employer pregnancy accommodation, a redundant employment law issue already covered in other laws; and,
• Equal pay provisions that have not gained traction in the legislative power sharing. Then, there’ s the uncertainty of the state’ s health insurance exchange program, adopted as part of the ACA.
The new federal administration has vowed to“ repeal and replace” the controversial policy, but in a state like Washington that is heavily invested in the system, there’ s no telling what the cost or consequences may be.
“ Washington state is all in with the state health insurance exchange option for those seeking health insurance as part of the ACA, so there is really no way of telling how action in Congress will impact our health insurance system,” said Sheri Nelson, AWB government affairs director for health care policy.“ It’ s really a wait-and-see game for now.”
Finally, AWB Government Affairs Director Mike Ennis will be closely watching infrastructure spending, both the implementation of the 2015 transportation funding and reform package, ensuring what was promised in the package is not changed in the 2017-19 transportation budget, and the growing issue of water storage and access.
Drought preparedness and addressing last fall’ s state Supreme Court ruling on water rights that will significantly impact rural property owners are key issues to watch.
“ Water is the lifeblood of Washington state,” Ennis said.“ We use it for everything from energy generation and the critical agricultural industries to everyday drinking and household
44 association of washington business