Washington Department of Natural Resources will be holding an online "town hall" to discuss issues related to recreation on DNR managed lands. The forum will be open from 8am - 5pm September 13-17.

This is an opportunity to have your voice heard on this important issue without leaving home.

All of the details on how to participate can be found here.

Politico.com reports that key “White House allies are dramatically shifting their attempts to defend health care legislation, abandoning claims that it will reduce costs and the deficit and instead stressing a promise to ‘improve it.’”  It’s no surprise that Obamacare is not turning out to be what was promised. It seems the more the public gets to know about it, the less they like it.

And while some members of Congress and the President promised us that reform would cut costs, it is becoming increasingly clear that they were wrong. And now, facing the fact that Obamacare is becoming less popular with the public, many are doing what politicians do best, offering to “improve” the bad bill they passed in the first place. This is what happens when 2,500 page bills are passed without being read.

In other fiscal news, the Congressional Budget Office reports that over the last 31 months Congress has added more than $4.4 trillion to the federal budget baseline.  In comparison, in 2005 total federal spending was only $2.47 trillion. Healthcare is a part of that equation, and I’d hate to see what the numbers will look like if we send the same elected officials back to “improve” on the $1 trillion piece of legislation they already passed. In order for the situation to really be improved, we need to send a new crop of legislators to Congress.

More than 20 years ago I traveled with a delegation from the American Farm Bureau to assess China’s agricultural production.  China was about to enter the world market but little was known about rural China and even if the nation would be a net importer or exporter of agricultural products.

We had been encouraged to refrain from discussions about socialism, capitalism, personal freedom and similar topics with our hosts.  But while in Beijing we asked why most citizens on the street were riding bicycles and a few were in chauffer-driven limousines.  We finally got our hosts to agree that some people are more equal than others.

Which brings me to New York Representative Jerrold Nadler who happens to support higher taxes but wants to protect the citizens of his high income state.  His solution is to have the IRS adjust tax brackets in areas where the average cost of living is higher than the national average.

Nadler’s bill, called the Tax Equity Act would codify the concept that some people are more equal than others.  For example a family with the same earnings in Manhattan would pay less federal income tax than the same family in, say, Spokane or Yakima or Olympia.

One of the reasons taxes run higher in New York has to do a lot with the local and state tax burden, union work rules, and heavy business regulation that make it more expensive to produce, sell and buy things.

A more accurate title for his proposal is the Blue State Tax Preference Act.

It seems not a day goes by that we learn of something new hidden in the healthcare reform bill. We now know, unsurprisingly, that it will cost over $1 trillion, even though we were assured it would save us money.

While the costs and paperwork  associated with the Obamacare are staggering, the greatest amount of opposition is still to the individual mandate to buy health insurance. This has led several states, including ours, to file lawsuits against the federal government. One of those lawsuits was filed by the state of Virginia, and it passed its first major legal hurdle yesterday. The White House has dismissed the lawsuit as frivolous and political since it was filed, and argued that the states didn’t have standing to sue in this case. According to US District Judge Henry Hudson, they were wrong. While this case is a long way from being heard, it is a significant development in potentially challenging aspects of the healthcare bill.
 

As more and more comes out about Obamacare, we are sure to see new challenges to its constitutionality, as well as its practicality. But, while the challenges are good, the best defense against this type of legislation is electing the right people to represent us.

As Nancy Pelosi famously put it, “…we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it…”. They did. Now we’re finding out what’s in it, and the results aren’t pretty.

Regulars to Farm Bureau know that we have disagreed with Gov. Chris Gregoire on a host of issues, but I wanted to point out one issue of agreement – immigration reform.

The governor recently took a tour of Eastern Washington and saw first-hand the need for comprehensive immigration reform. I say “comprehensive” because reform must include more than just enforcement, and all steps must be taken simultaneously so that communities and the economy are not destroyed in the process.

The governor, as reported by Seattle PI columnist Joel Connelly, understands the three necessary elements of reform:

• Better control of the U.S.-Mexico border, in both directions. …
• A program of "earned legalization" in which immigrants who want to stay will pay their taxes, pay fines for not being in the U.S. legally and learn the English language.
• An "approved visa program" in which workers come into the United States for a set period to do a job, and return to their home country when it is done.

A large part of agriculture here in Washington depends on migrant, seasonal labor, and farmers desire to have a stable source of legal workers. Yet the politicians and mass media personalities who have attempted to turn the complex issue of immigration reform into a matter of partisan politics do all of us a disservice.

We need to have civil, substantive discussions on the topic. Gov. Gregoire seems to understand this need. The big question is, “When will members of the U.S. Senate understand and take action?”

For more information on what you can do to help pass comprehensive reform, join us at the ImmigrationWorks USA summit in Seattle on August 12. Go here for conference agenda and registration information.

On Thursday, WFB representatives attended the 8th Annual Environmental Policy Conference & Luncheon hosted by the Washington Policy Center.

For more insight, check out Dr. Pielke’s blog at http://pielkeclimatesci.wordpress.com/.>

As the debate rages over how to deal with the “threat” postulated by government officials and some in the scientific community that the climate is spinning wildly out of control due to human-generated greenhouse gas emissions, Ross Douthat captures much of the skepticism on this issue in “Why conservatives are fighting climate-change legislation.”

Douthat deftly points out that past fear-based actions that resulted in “left-wing policy prescriptions” of the 1970s and 80s proved unfounded. The list of alarmist positions that proved untrue include such dire predictions as the end of oil by the 1980s, a world  that would be stricken with famine due to overpopulation. It is this historical pattern that serves as “the lens through which most conservatives view the global-warming debate. Again, a doomsday scenario has generated a crisis atmosphere, which is being invoked to justify taxes and regulations that many left-wingers would support anyway. (Some of the players have even been recycled. John Holdren, Barack Obama's science adviser, was a friend and ally of Paul Ehrlich, whose tract "The Population Bomb" helped kick off the overpopulation panic.)”

Our job is to analyze all the facts and let these facts guide any necessary policy. Unfortunately, the climate change band wagon is large and very attractive. It is also well funded. When any challenges to the science occur, such claimants are virtually branded as ignorant heretics.

The facts are not settled and an abundance of scientific evidence has cast tremendous doubt on the “facts” that serve as the basis for potential public policy actions today such as “cap and trade” legislation.

So check out the literature on the subject and question public agencies who claim man is the cause. We will face climate variability due to many factors, chief among these solar activity. Think first, then act. We simply cannot let fear drive our policy process.

Employers and taxpayers are on the hook for even more unemployment insurance benefits. Yesterday, the U.S. Senate passed a measure that would extend UI benefits yet again, and the U.S. House and White House concurred today.

Normally, a laid off worker is eligible for benefits for six months. But for the past two years Congress has extended that time period to 99 weeks -- nearly two years of payments. Today’s action by Congress will extend those benefits further -- at a time when government unemployment trust fund balances are falling.

The funding source for the extension: more deficit spending -- with employers potentially on the hook for years to come.

And then there is the pile-on effect.

• Employers may pay as much as 40 percent more in UI taxes next year, depending on their experience rating and social costs.
• The average wage for calculating UI benefits and premiums is going up, which will add costs to employers as well.
• Finally, the Bush tax package is set to expire at the end of the year. This means higher estate, capital gains, and personal taxes will be in force next year -- to say nothing about the tsunami of Obamacare taxes and fees coming in the next few years. These tax increases will have a significant impact on employers.

Depending on the economy, it may be another year or so before UI tax rates level off and begin to decline.

Meanwhile, employers must know how to deal with the UI system. We are offering a two-part series of webinars to explain the importance of responding to ESD forms.

July 29, 11:00 a.m. Unemployment Insurance: Understanding the Claimant Separation Statement (Part One)

August 5, 11:00 a.m. Unemployment Insurance: Understanding the Notice to Base Year Employer (Part Two)

Register here.

Take a look at the first video in support of ending our state’s monopoly on workers’ comp insurance. The moral of the story: Competition is good, and we desperately need more of it. The current failures in the workers’ comp system are stifling job creation.

For more info on why I-1082 matters, visit www.saveourjobswa.com.

Most importantly, contribute to the Yes on I-1082 campaign.

As noted last week on The Farm Stand, Governor Gregoire is holding a series of public hearings across the state on her initiative to “transform Washington’s budget.” This is an opportunity for citizens to testify in front of the governor and the committee she appointed for this process. 

The first stop was in Tacoma last night, and although I attended, lobbyists were not allowed to testify. The citizens that did testify last night were almost exclusively state workers, union members, environmentalists, or on some sort of public assistance. The consistent message was that raising revenues is necessary and that cuts are unacceptable.

WE CANNOT ALLOW THAT MESSAGE TO BE ALL THE PANEL HEARS!

I am asking for your help as volunteer leaders to attend one of the meetings and talk about the affects new taxes would have on your farms. It does not need to be a long prepared speech, but the story about the hardship new taxes would cause on your business is a point of view that our elected officials must hear!

The next meeting will be Wednesday in Everett, followed by meetings in Vancouver and Spokane next week. Now is the time to tell your leaders how you think the state should do its budgeting.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Everett Community College
Parks Building, Multi Purpose Room
2000 Tower Street
Everett, Washington

Tuesday, July 27, 2010
7:00 – 9:00 pm
Administration Building Room 110
Washington State University- Vancouver Campus
14204 NE Salmon Creek Avenue
Vancouver, Washington 

Thursday, July 29, 2010
Time TBA (evening)
Spokane City Hall  City Council Chambers
808 W. Spokane Falls Boulevard
Spokane, Washington