U.S. Senate candidate Dino Rossi has once again urged Sen. Patty Murray to enforce the rules she voted for and support an effort to fully pay for extending unemployment insurance.

“Patty Murray says she’s standing up for Washington State families, and, if that’s true she needs to support a commonsense effort to pay for extending unemployment insurance so that our children and grandchildren aren’t footing the bill,” said Rossi. “Our children and grandchildren are a key part of Washington families, and their futures shouldn’t be used as a down payment for today’s spending.” read more »

Alaska Airlines, Boeing, Portland International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Spokane International Airport and Washington State University announced a strategic initiative to promote aviation biofuel development in the Pacific Northwest. The first regional assessment of its kind in the United States, the “Sustainable Aviation Fuels Northwest” project will look at biomass options within a four-state area as possible sources for creating renewable jet fuel.

The comprehensive assessment will examine all phases of developing a sustainable biofuel industry, including biomass production and harvest, refining, transport infrastructure and actual use by airlines. read more »

In late June, a fantastic case study in unintended consequences vis-à-vis tax policy in The Wall Street Journal emerged. As a part of the massive health care overhaul, the Obama Administration and Congress passed earlier this year, officials levied a special tax on the tanning industry to help pay for the expansion in coverage. Someone wants to take a turn in the tanning bed? Fine, they just have to pay a little more, right?

If only it were that simple.

According to the story in the Journal, the tax depends not only on the type of tanning bed, but also where the fake ‘n bake takes place. read more »

A Redmond-based seller of e-commerce services agreed to change course after customers complained the company promised Web hits but struck out, the Washington Attorney General’s Office announced.

“Visible.net and Captures.com promised small businesses that they’d be ‘blown away’ by achieving top Internet search results,” Attorney General Rob McKenna said. “But merchants who paid thousands of dollars hoping to increase sales found the defendants couldn’t always deliver on their promises. This settlement requires Visible.net and Captures.com to accurately represent their services and will enable us to provide restitution for some customers.” read more »

Signatures are expected to be turned in to put a number of initiatives with significant fiscal impacts on the ballot at a crucial time in the state’s history.

Voters will be considering these initiatives in a context where current revenue expectations will be $3 billion short of the amount needed to continue our current commitments to education, communities, health, and economic security.

What they decide will help determine our state’s ability to recover from the recession and maintain key public priorities. read more »

Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW), the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), Association of Washington Business (AWB), Washington Farm Bureau and Washington Food Industry Association and others delivered over 340,000 signatures to Secretary of State Sam Reed in support of Initiative 1082, the business community’s measure to allow private insurers to compete with the state Department of Labor & Industries to offer employers workers’ compensation coverage. Supporters of an initiative must gather 241,153 signatures of registered voters in order to qualify for the November ballot. read more »

The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) issued $245,825 in penalties of $1,000 or more in the first three months of the year. A table describing the violations and resulting penalties is available at www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2010news/2010-152.html.

Ecology issues individual news releases for penalties of $10,000 or greater. Links to the news release are included in the table. A particular penalty may be fully satisfied at this time or in the process of an appeal or settlement discussions. read more »

Acknowledging the widespread dislike of the state’s onerous business-and occupation (B&O) tax Gov. Chris Gregoire recently said, “If you want to come forward with an alternative to the B&O tax system in the state of Washington, the welcome mat is out from me.”

Thank you, governor, for the invitation.

To answer the call for alternatives, we utilized economic modeling to determine the impacts of various replacement taxes, including the potential creation of an income tax. read more »

Over the next few years, your trusty incandescent light bulbs will become illegal. Didn’t know that? Don’t feel bad, few people do.

Perfected by inventor Thomas Edison in the 1880s, the incandescent light bulb has been a shining example of American ingenuity and innovation. In fact, the light bulb is the very symbol of a good idea.

Alas, after 130 years of faithful service, the incandescent bulb has been banned by Congress as energy inefficient. Beginning in 2012, 100-watt bulbs will be banned, followed by all others in 2014, although three-way bulbs and some specialty lights will survive — for now. read more »