Washington Business Winter 2020 | Washington Business | Page 23

what’s working
“If these programs affect you, then help us. Get involved.
It’s way better for us to testify if we have four or five
members next to us, talking about the impact state policy
has on their business.”
— AWB Vice President, Government Affairs, Gary Chandler
And they depend on you, the members of AWB, to help shape our policy voice through
our robust network of committees.
AWB’s full-time government affairs directors bring the perspective of the business
community to the Legislature and to the whole range of rule-making and legal arenas
that also impact the employer community.
The team is led by Gary Chandler, who has served as AWB’s vice president of
government affairs for nearly 20 years.
Chandler served in the Legislature for a decade in the 1990s and has had a long career
as a business owner, farmer, elected county commissioner and advocate for keeping
Washington a competitive place to do business.
He sits on the state’s Workforce Training & Education Coordinating Board as well as
and Southern Resident Orca Task Force, and last fall was named to the Grant County
Agriculture Hall of Fame.
Chandler notes that employers are front and center for any new tax increases
whenever legislative leaders call for new revenue.
“They have close to a billion new dollars to be working with, but they are still looking
for new revenue from the business community,” Chandler said. He noted that policy ideas
that start in Seattle soon move statewide, from a capital gains tax to restrictive scheduling.
He said that one important message from AWB is to remind lawmakers of the
compounding effect that small businesses feel with each new cost, regulation and mandate.
Tommy Gantz is AWB’s newest member of the GA team, joining AWB in 2019 from
a career in the aerospace sector, most recently as a supply chain strategy analyst for
Boeing Global Services in Renton, where she evaluated markets and trends while
communicating strategy and evaluating performance metrics.
She said that she’s already heard overwhelming support from AWB members for a
simple proposition: “The citizens and the small and large businesses of Washington
state have made it clear — no more taxes. They’ve been taxed enough,” Gantz said. “We
have more than enough revenue to sustain the programs that we currently have.”
She noted that the current biennium is giving state government tax revenue of $51.7
billion, which is nearly double what the state collected just 10 years ago, in the 2009-
2011 biennium.
Bob Battles is AWB’s government affairs director for employment and labor law. Battles
has more than two decades of legal experience in both the public and private sectors.
Many big issues this year, he said, are being teed up for 2021. AWB is reminding
lawmakers that every new mandate being considered for employers comes on top of a
$13.50 minimum wage that took effect at the beginning of the year, along with the state’s
new Paid Family and Medical Leave law.
The state is also finalizing a new overtime rule that, when fully implemented, will require
overtime for anyone not making $83,000 a year.
Independent contractors, freelancers and the gig economy continue to be prominent
groups in the Legislature. Some lawmakers are looking to California to copy its contentious
gary chandler
Vice President, Government Affairs
tommy gantz
Government Affairs Director
Tax and Fiscal Policy
robert “bob” battles, j.d.
General Counsel /
Government Affairs Director
Employment Law
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