Sorry for the delay, but this week’s Q&A is very special: I went to Seattle earlier this week to co-moderate debates between Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson and challenger Stan Rumbaugh and Justice Richard Sanders and challenger Charlie Wiggins (the other challenger, Bryan Chushcoff, didn’t show. Neither did Chief Justice Barbara Madsen, who is running unopposed).

The candidates discussed their views on judicial activism, victims’ rights,  the relationship between the Legislature and the court, medicinal marijuana, the high-earners income tax on the ballot, gun rights, opponents’ allegations and much, much more.

Here’s the video:

On a related note: Have you received your ballot yet? They were sent out this week, so check your mailbox. In the case of the candiddates in the video above, if one gets more than 50 percent of the vote they win. No general election required.

Tags: elections, Q&A, supreme court

On the last day of our eastern & central Washington tour, we visited a small business in Spokane. Janine Vaughn owns Revival Lighting – a specialty lighting store with ten employees. Janine has provided insurance to her workers since she started the company with two partners nearly 12 years ago. Every December she says she spends 40 hours researching insurance plans in an effort to provide the best coverage at the lowest cost, but she’s consistently watched her rates increase and benefits decrease. Right now, she spends about $23,000 per year to insure her 10 workers.

We talk with Janine about how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act addresses concerns of small businesses, specifically tax credits and the yet-to-be-launched small business insurance exchange. You’ll hear how she envisions it impacting her business and where she thinks the law falls short.

We’re heading back from Spokane today, and next week, we’ll be focusing on Medicare, talking with AARP experts and seniors concerned about how their coverage will and could change. I’ll continue posting blogs about what I learn in my travels. You can watch for The Impact special report on health care reform in September on TVW.

Tags: health care reform, The Impact

While The Impact is on hiatus, I’m working on a special report on national health care reform and what it means for Washingtonians. We’re based out of Olympia, which means we spend a lot of time covering the state’s main population zone – the Puget Sound area. However, some of the biggest health care issues are in rural areas – central and eastern Washington.

To address health care access problems, there are a lot of programs already underway in Yakima, in particular. These programs will be expanded under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law by President Obama in March. One such program is Yakima Neighborhood Health Services – what’s known as a community health center. A demonstration project, launched 45 years ago, created the country’s first two community health centers – one in Massachusetts and one in Mississippi. More than four decades later, community health centers serve 20 million people across the country.

At YNHS, the health services are vast and comprehensive: pediatric, maternity, dental, mental health, pharmaceutical, and vision. Its patients, too, are diverse – Spanish speakers, low-income, Medicaid users, the uninsured. One consistency is that anyone is welcome. The national health care reform law includes $11 billion to expand community health centers like YNHS, in order to address the skyrocketing demand that will come from insuring millions more people. We talk with one of its long-time patients – 29-year-old Leticia Garcia, a mother of 5, who was visiting the clinic with a fever, stomach virus and anxiety-related issues. We learn about her care under the community health center model.

(more…)

Tags: health care reform, The Impact

The Supreme Court issued an opinion today on Brown vs. Vail – over whether using a three-drug cocktail constituted “cruel and unusual” punishment. The decision: Since Washington has already moved from a three-drug cocktail to a one-drug system in March, the Department of Corrections argued that the constitutional challenge was “moot.” The court agreed.

That means Brown — Cal Coburn Brown, who was convicted of kidnapping a woman at knifepoint in 1991, then sexually assaulting and torturing her for 36 hours before killing her — can be put to death. Brown was joined in the lawsuit by two other convicted killers.

Brown’s execution date is set for Sept. 10 — though further legal challenges could cause delays.

In the unanimous opinion written by Justice Debra Stephens, the court wrote: “It is the policy of the State of Washington to execute inmates condemned to death by use of lethal injection, now under a one-drug protocol. The legislature properly delegated authority to the Department to develop and implement the death penalty protocol. And we decline to issue a declaratory judgment invalidating the Department’s use of the substances involved in lethal injection on the basis of state and federal controlled substances acts. As a result of the Department’s adoption of a one-drug lethal injection protocol instead of three-drug protocol on March 8, 2010, the Appellants’ constitutional challenge to the protocol is moot.”

Tags: death penalty, supreme court

Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., TVW will have a live webcast of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee meeting. They’ll be hearing about “helping to ensure the viability of small forest landowners.”

What’s at issue: Some small forest landowners have been considering legal and legislative options because they feel the state law to create and enlarge stream buffers in forests infringes on their rights. They say the state has forbid them from harvesting trees off some parts of their property, but didn’t provide resources to hold up its end of the bargain. The Legislature directed the Department of Natural Resources to meet with landowners and other interested groups to work toward a resolution.

Read more on the debate here. And tune in tomorrow at 9 a.m. right here to hear more on the issues facing small forest landowners.

Tags: DNR, forestry, small forest landowner

Jordan Schrader at The News Tribune has a post about the likelihood of a special session to patch the potential $480 million hole in the state budget.

Schrader says that early this week, Gregoire will talk to legislative leaders to determine if a special session is the way to go.

The $480 million hole is still “potential” because it all depends on whether Congress passes an extension of support for FMAP — the Federal Medicaid match. The state banked on that money while writing the supplemental budget in the 2010 session, but Congress hasn’t yet approved it.

Tags: Budget, Gregoire, special session

For the first time in three years, the Employment Security Department is reporting there are 21 percent more jobs listed than six months ago.

The Washington Job Vacancy Survey is done twice a year — in the fall and spring. The spring results were just released, and show38,732 vacancies — up from 32,037 in the fall. The record high was 90,000 vacancies in 2006, ESD reports.

“This is positive news for the thousands of people in our state who are hungry to get back to work,” Employment Security Commissioner Karen Lee said in a press release. She said it will take some time to get all of the hundreds of thousands of unemployed people in the state back to work, but she sees this as a positive sign.

About 44 percent of the jobs listed were in King County. Many of the jobs statewide were in healthcare. Read the entire survey here.

Tags: Jobs, unemployment

The Department of Licensing announced on Friday that some tickets — including tickets issued for talking on the cell phone while driving — could be invalid because of a technical error. That means you could get your money back.

The error: The book that most cities (except Seattle) use as the basis for traffic law was not updated between 2004 and July 1 of this year. That meant the book did not include the ban on talking on a cell phone while driving.

DOL estimates some 3,000 people may have been ticketed for invalid offenses during the six years; Now, they are due a refund. But: Each city will decide whether to contact those who are due a refund or wait for people to contact them. That means you might want to check the list, check your records and see if you might be due a refund.

For more on the story, go here to read Jerry Cornfield’s account.

Tags: cell phone law, Department of Licensing

Just a reminder, courtesy of the Secretary of State’s office: Monday is the deadline to register to vote in the convenience of your own home — if you want to vote in the Aug. 17 primary.

If you miss that deadline, head to your local county elections office until Aug. 9 and you can still vote in the primary.

If you’re already registered, ballots will go out at the end of the month.

Don’t forget: TVW is the channel to watch on the evening of Aug. 17. Starting at 8 p.m., Jessica Gao will be reporting on the results, interviewing experts for analysis and, of course, interviewing candidates. Tune in.

Tags: elections, primary

This week’s Q&A is with Sheryl Hutchison, communication director for the Employment Security Department. The department is responsible for tracking employment statistics, maintaining WorkSource offices around the state and much, much more.

Q: What’s the latest unemployment rate? Is the economy recovering yet?

Hutchison: Let’s start with the first question. We announced today that the unemployment rate in June dropped to 8.9 percent, which is the lowest since April, 2009. That’s obviously a better direction.

The next set of statistics for July will come out Aug. 17.

In all likelihood what we’ve been seeing when the rate has dropped as much as this one did, chances are it will be revised up to 9 percent.

But, it’s just exciting to see something less than 9 percent. This is the third month in a row that it has declined. Since the start of the year, we’ve had a net job growth in this state of more than 23,000 jobs. For us, that’s a lot more exciting than what the unemployment rate is. You’re seeing things turn around – it’s not a steep U-shaped recovery where it’s going right back up. But it is the right direction….last year (in the same five-month period) we had lost about 77,000 jobs. So that’s a big sea change.

Q: Part of high unemployment is that it depletes the Unemployment Insurance trust fund. When the Legislature increased the benefit payout, there was some concern the trust fund would be depleted too far. Where does that stand?

Hutchison: We still have the healthiest trust fund in the country. Thirty five states and territories have bankrupted their trust funds. Furthermore, we do not anticipate triggering any surcharges.

One of the benefits going into the recession with a healthy trust fund is it allowed us to increase benefits. At the end of May, the trust fund reserves were at 13.9 months. Typically, the federal government advises that you go into the recession with at least 12 months. We’ve come down, but we’re still healthy.

Q: Do you anticipate the fund dipping further?

Hutchison: No, we really don’t.  Part of the reason is that through our governor and the Legislature, we’ve created a responsive system that reacts before we get to a critical stage. The result is you do start to see taxes start to rise, but it should happen in a gradual manner — rather than in other states when you see these sharp ups and downs, ours will kind of undulate for a while. They’ll go up for two or three years – that provides more stability.

Q: Have rates increased already?

Hutchison: They did start to increase this year. They’ll go up a little bit again next year. Probably … in 2012 they’ll start to flatten out. We don’t know yet – there’s a lot to happen between now and then. In 2011 it’ll go up again a bit more.

We call them “taxes,” but for the most part it’s really an insurance system with insurance premiums. So if you’re an employer who uses the program more, you’re going to pay a higher premium than an employer who doesn’t.

But it is an insurance system, which means shared costs. Some people who don’t use it at all are going to pay some of the freight for the people who do. There is more cost shifting going on right now – the people who haven’t used it are having a larger percentage increase than those at the top.

Q: Are you hearing complaints about that? From people who haven’t laid anyone off but are seeing a large increase in their premiums?

Hutchison: You always do. No one likes taxes. Some understand the system – they’ve been with it for a long time. If you’re someone at the bottom of the system whose rate is small – less than 1 percent of payroll – you might have seen your premiums double.
There’s two parts of the rate – there’s the experience rating and then there’s the piece that’s a socialized cost. That cost-shifting component varies more frequently. Experience rated taxes are averaged out over four years. They’ll see some increase over four years rather than just in one year. But it does mean there’s more cost shifting right now to make up for the loss in the trust fund. Our system is designed to increase the socialized cost to help even that out.

Q: Let’s talk about the Unemployment Insurance changes required by federal law. What needs to happen, and when does the Legislature need to make changes?

Hutchison: The Department of Labor has been encouraging states to do what we call “modernize” the unemployment system. (more…)

Tags: economy, Thursday Q&A, unemployment, WorkSource