MOUNT VERNON---Speaking to the Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce today, Association of Washington Business President Don Brunell said Washington’s future depends upon business being globally cost competitive and our state making necessary investments.

 Brunell, a member of Gov. Gregoire’s Global Competitiveness Council, said costs matter and countries with lower production costs have a competitive advantage. 

“With today’s manufacturing technologies that have spread across the world, the differences between quality products made in the U.S. relative to other countries has narrowed significantly.  Therefore, the countries with the lower production costs have a distinct market advantage and they are attracting manufacturing facilities.”

 Washington is a high cost state, Brunell said.  “We must find ways to mitigate some of those costs because our region no longer has the advantage of low cost, reliable power.” 

 AWB, the state’s chamber of commerce whose 6,600 members employ more than 600,000 in Washington’s private workforce, is working to control health care inflation, to eliminate costly and time-consuming regulations at all levels of government, and to lower taxes and government fees, and workers’ comp and unemployment insurance rates. 

 Brunell said AWB members are worried that lawmakers saved too little ($830 million) in surplus revenues this past legislative session and legislators committed next year’s Legislature to some new and very expensive in-state mandates in the name of health care reform and climate change. 

 “Our big concern for our future is legislators are not looking at the costs of the changes they are enacting,” he said.  “These changes may spawn new lawsuits, increase taxes, fees and the costs of products, and impose marginal changes which may cripple our economy, hurt working families and put our state at a competitive disadvantage with other states and nations around the world.”

 Brunell said the new six year revenue projections when matched against what the state is committed to spending are problematic and alone could drive new taxes or fees.

 At the same time, AWB feels Washington needs to allocate more money for transportation, water projects and community colleges and universities and find new revenue sources.  “We need to be aware that some place along the line, taxpayers will reach a tipping point where they simply can’t afford to stay in Washington.”

 “Right now, many of our key roads and highways are in gridlock, and we are rapidly running out of water for agriculture, fish and people.  Without added water storage capacity, our state’s economy will be stymied.”

 As for education, AWB believes our state needs to stay with high academic standards for the K-12 system.  “A high school diploma needs to mean something other than recognition that a student has attended school for 13 years.  Our academic standards need to improve so the state spends less money on remedial education in our community and technical colleges and four-year universities. We are simply re-teaching things students should have learned before graduating from high school.”

 Brunell concluded that Washington’s economy is fragile.  “We simply don’t know the full impacts of the national slow down. And we become very concerned when investors like Warren Buffett start using the dreaded ‘R’ word----Recession.”

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Don C. Brunell is president of Washington’s oldest and largest statewide business association.  He assumed that position in 1988.  AWB is the state’s chamber of commerce and manufacturing association.  Its 6,600 members employ more than 650,000 workers in Washington’s private sector.