business backgrounder | legislative
Policy and Politics Amid a Pandemic
A look ahead at the 2021 legislative session , in which lawmakers will grapple with the challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic .
Jason Hagey
Washington legislators adjourned the 2020 session just as the coronavirus began to spread in the state . When they gather again in January , they will be convening amid a pandemic that is unabated , forcing them to meet in new and different ways while simultaneously addressing the many challenges it has created .
At A Glance
When lawmakers adjourned the short 60-day legislative session in March , barely ahead of a lock-down order that closed thousands of businesses and prompted a historic spike in unemployment almost overnight , no one knew what would happen next .
Since the initial downturn , parts of the economy have begun to recover . Approximately half of the jobs lost in March and April , when unemployment peaked at
15 %, have since returned .
Still , the pandemic remains with us , and there ’ s a long road ahead toward recovery . AWB will be urging lawmakers to look for every possible way to help employers recover from the recession , particularly small businesses and manufacturers .
When lawmakers return to Olympia in January , they will be confronted by a stark reality : the pandemic is still here .
When they adjourned the short 60-day legislative session in March , barely ahead of a lockdown order that closed thousands of businesses and prompted a historic spike in unemployment almost overnight , no one knew what would happen next . Would it all be over in a few months ? Was the economy collapsing into a steep recession — or worse ?
Since the initial downturn , parts of the economy have begun to recover . Approximately half of the jobs lost in March and April , when unemployment peaked at 15 %, have since returned .
And the state budget deficit — forecast in June to be approximately $ 9 billion over the next four years — continues to improve . Since that sobering June forecast , revenue collections have consistently come in higher than projected , reducing the deficit for the current budget to about $ 1 billion as of October and approximately $ 3.7 billion for the 2021-23 budget .
The federal government may end up providing assistance , too . Nationwide , state budgets are reeling from the pandemic with one estimate calculating the total deficit from all 50 states amounts
28 association of washington business