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Flag Etiquette		  Chamber Day in Olympia

On February 7, the Association of Washington Business (AWB) hosted this year's Chamber Day in Olympia conference, which I attended for the Shelton-Mason County Chamber of Commerce.  I will write a four-part series on the issues covered during the conference which may be of interest to Republicans.  In this first installment I'll deal with legislative and tax agenda that the AWB put forward in their kick off of the conference and that were covered by the legislators in other sessions during the rest of the day.

The AWB staff kicked off the day by discussing impacts on the cost of doing business in Washington State caused by government actions and initiatives.  They believe that there is pressure to review the Employment Security Laws as the State's Unemployment Compensation Fund has grown to a huge figure (no number given) and that a "tax holiday" in this area is expected.  The issue of mandatory employee medical insurance through a Washington State agency (and the resultant loss of "small group" plans) would also add to the employee cost burden on small businesses.  The panel on budget and tax legislation said there were over 2000 bills introduced or scheduled to be introduced by the first day of the session; 44 on sales and use tax reduction.  Representative Hans Dunshee (D) said that cost driver for business is the employee.  According to him, the employee constitute 60-70% of the businessman's costs because in the US all of the employee's health, retirement, etc., costs are borne by the employer.  He said that makes our businesses non-competitive as they try to compete in the world market where such costs are borne by the government.  He pointed to HB 1451 as one in which there was tax relief for business.

The maternity leave initiative, which had caused great concern in our own Chamber business community, was touched on during the AWB kick-off session, but was dealt with in more detail by the Unemployment and Workers' Comp Legislative Panel.  Representative Steve Conway (D), House committee chairman will sponsor this bill.  He said he wanted it to be fair to all, but it still came across as being a levy on business.  He asked for a show of hands of the business people in the audience (the room was quite full) who already had some form of this kind of leave in force in their companies. A significant number of them did.  This raised a question during the session Q&A as to why then the State Government would need to interfere in the running of the individual businesses.

In the subsequent three installments I'll cover Governor Gregoire's priorities and education, the healthcare initiatives that were covered, and a "sweep up" of other issues that the conference touched on, to include the Growth Management act.

Sam Sevier/Government Affairs Committee

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