Today’s suggested exemptions to ax and sins to tax: $84.5 million | Repeal Business and Occupation (B&O) tax deduction for interest on residential property first mortgage loans. Since 1970, credit agencies have been allowed to deduct interest earned from loans…
If this is what is happening in Bellevue, imagine what’s happening in the rest of the state: “This year’s [2009] budget cuts resulted in 60 Bellevue teachers losing their jobs, elimination of all librarians in secondary schools, and larger class…
Today’s News and Views examines the changing faces of early education and community college. A national study evaluating the Head Start school readiness program have shown lackluster results, leading the Department of Health and Human Services to announce changes intended…
The $2.6 billion revenue shortfall created by the recession has generated no shortage of ideas about how to change Washington’s budget and tax structure to ensure important public systems and structures — like schools, public safety, and transportation, to name…
Crosscut -> How budget cuts short-changed the UW: Some straight talk about complicated budget maneuvers, making clear that the University was one of the biggest losers in the nation, and the state. Confused about how the University of Washington fared…
ABC News -> Cities, Counties Take Back Corporate Tax Breaks: Cash-strapped communities have a message for corporations that promised jobs in return for tax breaks: A deal’s a deal. As the economy sputters along, municipalities struggling to fix roads, fund…
Two major cities — San Francisco and Washington D.C. — have implemented mandatory paid sick leave policies, while a third — Milwaukee — has passed the requirement, only to see it tied up in court. In addition, 15 states have…
Cross-posted from National Partnership for Women and Families: As schools reopen and cooler, drier temperatures return here to Washington, D.C., the nation waits for the second wave of the H1N1 flu to hit us. Meanwhile, we are bombarded by information…
Reprinted from the Everett Herald: Last week the deputy mayor of Helsinki, Finland, was a guest at our home. As soon as he and his wife arrived, we hopped in the car and went to the opening high school cross…
Focusing scarce public resources on students from the lowest-income families is a reasonable policy choice, but the long term disinvestment in higher education by both the state and federal governments has clearly limited college access for low income and middle…
