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About this Issue: Keeping Jobs Depends Upon Making State More Competitive |
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Written On: January/February 2004 |
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Written By: By Don C. Brunell, Publisher |
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Now that Washington has landed the 7E7 assembly, keeping it on track is our next big task—and it is equally daunting.
Boeing chose Washington because we have improved our business climate and we are now more competitive. That effort started more than four years ago when AWB, the Washington Roundtable and Washington Research Council saw our ability to keep jobs and employers eroding. We formed the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy (WashACE).
WashACE produced a series of recommendations which included improving our transportation system, making our state and local regulatory system more cost effective, timely and user friendly, reforming our state’s unemployment and workers comp systems, prioritizing government spending, investing in infrastructure such as water projects, making energy more plentiful and less costly, and, improving education.
In 2003, Gov. Locke and the Legislature responded making our state more attractive for employers. Part of the inertia came from Boeing’s announcement that it was reviewing a list of cities and states to build the 7E7. Part of the impetus also came from the fact that Washington, at times, led the nation in unemployment and lost the highest percent of manufacturing jobs in the country—one in five, which translates to about 60,000 in two years.
The next logical question is “what’s next?”
First, don’t undo what the elected officials accomplished last year. The 2004 Legislature should not reverse what the 2003 Legislature did; rather it needs to look at what it can do to add to our ability to compete.
Second, as daunting and contentious as it may be, workers’ comp needs reforming in Washington. Our courts rendered decisions which have greatly added to comp costs and the Legislature needs to take back its authority to legislate and make the system less costly.
Third, elected officials need to look at the cumulative costs employers face in our state. They need to get their calculators out and add up business permits and licenses, health and liability insurance, energy costs, and workers comp and unemployment premiums. It is the final number which determines whether an employer hires or lays off workers, closes up shop or relocates. If employers can’t make ends meet, then banks, shareholders and creditors won’t provide financial backing.
Fourth, tough as it is, we must continue to prioritize our spending just as our families and shop owners do every day. Legislators need to carefully choose where to invest our hard-earned tax dollars and make a compelling case for new resources if they are needed.
Finally, our state must build upon the positive attitude which brought the latest Boeing plane to Washington. No employer should be taken for granted and each should be accorded the respect it deserves. The “gotcha” and “micromanagement” cultures engrained in many state and local governments needs to change. Let people know what is expected; find ways to help them and measure them on the outcome, not the process someone in Olympia, city hall or the courthouse mandates.
Washington has come along way, but the journey has just started. Hopefully, the 2004 Legislature will build upon the 7E7 momentum and not step backward. Shoring up the private sector’s cost competitiveness will provide jobs and new opportunities. Slipping back to the way it was before 2003 is not an option.
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