ix yearSs ago, Washington’s Legislature passed a fatally flawed family-leave bill that, fortunately, has been postponed twice because the state can’t afford it. Now that green shoots of an economic recovery are showing, some lawmakers want to implement the bill, even expand it.This prompts us to make two observations. First, it’s still a bad bill. Expanding and implementing it will only make it worse. Second, the state is still broke. Actually, that’s an understatement. The state faces another huge budget shortfall as the Legislature enters its third week of the new session.
The 2007 state law was to have provided five weeks of paid time off — up to $250 a week — for parents of infants. Who would pay for it? All workers, with or without children, through a new payroll tax. Conceivably (no pun intended), even low-income workers would have to pay for family leave of high-income workers. As we editorialized at the time, that was a rather ghastly proposition. And one silver lining of the recession was that the state’s paid family-leave gift was shelved, unopened.
This year, according to a recent Associated Press story, state Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, has introduced a bill that would not only implement the flawed program but amplify it from five weeks of paid leave to 12 weeks, and from a cap of $250 a week to $1,000. A better bill sponsored by state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, would repeal the old law. Braun explained: “It may have seemed like a good idea, but we don’t have the money to do it. We need to face the reality and deal with it.” (No lawmaker from the three legislative districts that serve solely Clark County is listed as a co-sponsor of either bill.)
Keiser said of Braun’s repeal measure: “It’s an appalling move at a time when middle-class families are having a hard time making things work.” We’re not so appalled, although we agree times are tough for almost everyone, especially middle-class families. All the more reason not to increase their taxes.
