Democratic legislators looked out for business

Contrary to some reports, majority Democrats did not pull down the shades and turn over the “closed” sign for Washington’s businesses. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. What Democrats accomplished in 59 days (how’s that for saving taxpayer money?) instead of the usual 60 is historic and deserves to be put into context.

Washington’s economy is rebounding. Our unemployment rate in April was 4.7 percent — the lowest since November 1999. In that same month, we added 5,200 non-farm jobs for a total of 94,700 new jobs in the past year. That’s 3.4 percent more jobs than a year ago, one-and-a-half times the national growth rate.

Soon after the Legislature convened in January, the state’s revenue forecast projected an additional $1.6 billion for 2006–07. Democrats salted away $935 million for future needs, and targeted the balance to families, education and economic development.

To create jobs, we passed a number of tax breaks favorable to business, totaling $46 million for the next fiscal year. We approved incentives for biotech investments to build on Washington’s momentum at the forefront of this field. Since 1993, we have given a number of tax incentives to the aerospace industry to keep one of Washington’s largest employers competitive in the global marketplace. This past session, we expanded the B&O tax to include commercial aircraft pre-production development expenses, aircraft manufacturing property and certified equipment repair stations. And to increase our competitiveness in the motion picture industry, where we have lost ground, we set up a program of incentives for covering production-related costs.

With small businesses representing the lion’s share of our state’s economy, we took action to promote their interests, too. Restaurants and small businesses pay a hefty B&O tax on soft-drink syrup; we passed a tax credit to phase in over the next four years so the credit will match the tax. By moving back the due date for monthly taxpayers from the 20th to the 25th, and eliminating the automatic 5 percent penalty for late payment, we will put extra dollars in their pockets. A new partnership plan will make health care more affordable for small employers.

Pardon the pun, but how does cultivating the interests of more than 400 in-state wineries sound? My legislation to settle a matter before the courts allows out-of-state wineries and breweries the same three options for getting their products to retailers that in-state producers have. This is a fillip to our state’s growers, previously at risk of losing their right to self-distribute, who collectively produce more wine than any other state but California.

To build jobs, you must ripen conditions for economic development. We did that when we passed tax increment financing to help local communities secure future tax revenues to pay for basic infrastructure, such as wastewater treatment and parking and traffic improvements. This Local Infrastructure Financing Tool (LIFT) will promote healthier communities and job growth. We also created a competitive grant program to help communities develop cluster growth. By encouraging this co-location of interdependent, competitive companies, we’ll reduce demands to our already stressed transportation infrastructure, too.

But our crowning achievement may well be unemployment insurance reform, reached with the cooperation of our Republican colleagues and the business and labor representatives on the Unemployment Insurance Task Force that met throughout last year. We struck a balance between reducing taxes for businesses and protecting claimants’ benefits — while ensuring a robust trust fund. It’s bad faith for business to negotiate and support a landmark bill, only for the Association of Washington Business to call it a job killer after the votes — nearly unanimous! — were tallied.

Businesses cannot grow without well-educated and trained employees. We funded 479 new high-demand enrollments in higher education and earmarked $4.1 million for new work-force education opportunity grants. To make sure our K-12 students are prepared for the demands of postsecondary education, we added money to help students meet state academic standards and approved alternative assessments to the Washington Assessment of Student Learning for students who don’t do well on traditional tests. We can train tomorrow’s work force and maximize taxpayer dollars on public projects by requiring the use of apprentices on certain projects. How could such a requirement be anything but a job promoter?

To say that Democrats turned their backs on business ignores the facts. We proposed and passed an array of measures to boost businesses large and small, and keep our economy growing. Our bold actions will pay dividends for years to come. Washington is open for business.

Jeanne Kohl-Welles
State Senator
36th Legislative District

Kohl-Welles is chair of the Senate Labor, Commerce, Research & Development Committee and serves on the Early Learning, K-12 & Higher Education; Ways & Means; and Rules committees. She was co-chair of the Joint Legislative Task Force on Unemployment Insurance Reform.

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