West Plains News

February Chamber Newsletter

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 22:10:10 GMT

December Ag Newsletter

Wed, 28 Dec 2022 22:14:31 GMT

December Chamber Newsletter

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 23:32:15 GMT

November Municipal Newsletter

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 22:06:00 GMT

November Ag Newsletter

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 22:19:48 GMT

November Chamber Newsletter

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 17:25:02 GMT

October Municipal Newsletter

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 14:10:38 GMT

October Ag Newsletter

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 01:01:44 GMT

October Newsletter

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 17:59:55 GMT

New Member Feature--Billie's Diner

orionsframe@gmail.com (Matt Stephens) — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 02:39:17 GMT

New Member Feature

Billie’s Diner---Cooking up Community Connectivity

By Matthew O. Stephens

Bringing community and conversation to the dining table is one of the main reasons McKenzie DonTigny decided to work in the food industry to begin with, and more recently helped motivate her to start up Billie’s Diner in Airway Heights which held a grand opening on September 16.

Area residents have already taken notice, as the diner has seen a steady stream of customers since the restaurant launched. Hungry patrons can find a good selection of breakfast and lunch choices, in which the ingredients are primarily locally sourced. Customers can expect to see seasonal shifts in menu items when different meats and produce are made available.

DonTigny explained she believes in operating her diner in a “farmer first” fashion, and that there is a big difference in the quality of farm fresh foods as compared to processed foods.

“Many people may not think about the difference in quality at times,” DonTigny said. “Take hydroponic farming for example, which is really popular right now. Compare a head of lettuce that is grown hydroponically as compared to soil grown and you may find a big difference in the nutrient density of the two. The soil system is going to produce a higher nutrient rich product.”

That is why she works with nearby producers to keep the freshest products in her kitchen, and quality good on the customer plates. She feels that working with other local and regional businesses will help cultivate more community relationships moving forward. As a local business owner, DonTigny explained the importance in keeping the local economy stimulated with local funds, that is why she gets her beef from Browning Beef out of Spangle, Washington.

“We are always looking to build relationships with other local and regional producers,” DonTigny said. “Even if we are happy with our current products, we will find other ways to connect with and support them. I’ve been lucky to have found so many great partnerships early on, because these relationships keep the businesses, communities, and entire regions going strong.”

She also works closely with Vets on the Farm, who according to their website help Veterans find new ways to transition back into civilian life through careers in agriculture, farming, ranching or other conservation-based industries. Palouse Brand and Western Farms of Idaho are also on her list of local suppliers.

DonTigny explained she got interested in working with fresh foods at an early age by helping her mother work in the garden at home, and as DonTigny went into high school her interest continued to grow. She eventually started working in the marketing side of the food industry and stayed with that until she was laid-off due to the economic fallout of COVID in late 2020.

“I originally started off in the food industry in the marketing side,” said DonTigny. “I went to school for marketing and finance and worked for nearly a decade in the corporate world, but unfortunately I was laid off in 2020.”

“When I was figuring out my next steps,” she continued. “I knew I didn’t want to work for anybody else and I thought the middle of a pandemic was the prefect time to try and start up a restaurant. Some of the troubles I ran into are the fact it was my first business and first restaurant, so it took me a while to find adequate financing.”

She spent some time during the pandemic developing a plan to start up a diner and start working for herself. The entrepreneur explained that there were a lot of obstacles to overcome, and the economic issues intensified some of those troubles.

Finally, after finding a suitable location in January of 2022, DonTigny had to get to work on overhauling the building to fit the theme she had in mind. Now hungry folks can walk into a brightly lit cozy diner with rustic accents, farmland photos, and paintings adorning the walls.

The most troublesome issue the owner currently faces is getting the diner adequately staffed to expand the hours they can be open, and eventually she has goals to offer dinners and outdoor barbecue experiences for area residents. DonTigny also wants her diner to be 100 percent locally sourced at some point but mentioned it is extremely hard to get produce such as lemons locally.

The diner is named after her father who “could connect with anyone,” she said and she has artwork from other relatives creating a calm and very heartfelt atmosphere. DonTigny explained that because of those family ties, this will be the one and only Billie’s Diner she will operate, but she does have plans to try out another type of restaurant after the current business gets stabilized.

“I could never start another Billie’s, as this place is very near and dear to my heart,” DonTigny said. “There is so much heart in this location I could never even think of franchising.”

She continued by recalling some of her early motivation to grow fresh foods.

“My mother grew up on a farm, and I was lucky enough to grow up with a very large garden,” she added. “In the Summer we would go out and help pick the green beans and harvest the other foods. My father was a man that could connect with anyone, and that’s the spirit I hope to bring to life in the diner.”

“I want it to be a place where everyone feels welcome, and everyone can sit together and connect with one another,” DonTigny said.

Starting Billie’s has been a lifelong dream according DonTigny, and early on she never expected to come into fruition. She explained she is extremely proud of her team and is optimistic for future growth.

DonTigny said anyone can visit their website at www.billiesdiner.com to find out more about the diner and the producers they work with.

The most rewarding part for DonTigny is the seeing people come in and have conversations over a cup of coffee and a hot meal where “community is built at the table,” she said.

State of the County 2022

orionsframe@gmail.com (Matt Stephens) — Tue, 27 Sep 2022 23:14:04 GMT

The 2022 State of the County Address will be held on September 29 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with doors opening at 11. This address will be presented by Commissioner Mary Kuney, and she will speak regarding many of the current issues Spokane and the surrounding communities are facing.

She will give a rundown of some of the governmental successes they plan to keep building on, as well as finding effective solutions for other community issues.

A variety of economic issues, housing, an ever increasing homeless population, and rising crime rates in certain areas will all be brought to the table for discussion. The rate of growth in the area continues to be one of the highest rates in the nation, and she will also provide some insight as to where local government will be looking to invest time.

Spokane County has seen a growth rate of over 17 percent since 2010, now the home of over a half million residents in 2022. This puts the county as the fourth largest in the state, and Spokane as the second largest city.

Kuney will also speak about how the county will look as it moves into a system with five county districts.

"Together Forward" will be this year's theme as the region grows socially and economically.

The presentation will be held at the Spokane Convention Center- Centennial Ballroom at 334 W. Spokane Falls Blvd. Spokane, WA 99201.

More information and registration details can be found at 2022 State of the County Address (greaterspokane.org)

Game Plan 2023: Ag Megatrends and Outlook for Fertilizer and Inputs

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 15:25:57 GMT

Game Plan 2023: Ag Megatrends and Outlook for Fertilizer and Inputs with Northwest Farm Credit Services

Featuring Dr. Dave Kohl, Professor Emeritus, Virginia Tech University and Jason Troendle, Economist, The Fertilizer Institute

Recorded September 15, 2022

Watch recording here

Eastern tops Tennessee State

Sun, 04 Sep 2022 05:18:15 GMT

Eagles outlast Tennessee State

By Matthew O. Stephens

CHENEY – Redshirt Senior Gunner Talkington led Eastern Washington to a 36-29 victory over the Tigers of Tennessee State September 3 at Roos Field.

Talkington put up solid numbers throwing for 348 yards and five touchdowns while completing 29 of 46 passes. Talkington was also the leading rusher for the Eagles with 60 yards on nine attempts and was only sacked one time during the game. He also spread the ball out well, completing passes to 11 different receivers on the day.

It took some time for Eastern to get some momentum behind them, and the defense let several big plays through early in the game. This left the Eagle offense to keep up with and overpower Tennessee State who are coached by former Tennessee Titan running back Eddie George.

Having received the ball initially, the Eagles faltered going nowhere on the first drive. Tennessee State started from their own 33-yard line, and quarterback Draylen Ellis connected with Zack Dobson for a 67-yard touchdown pass down the right sideline.

Eastern Washington got a little momentum in the following drive. After a couple of quick plays to gain nearly 20 yards, Freddie Roberson caught an eight-yard pass from Talkington but fumbled the ball leading to a turnover. The Tigers were stopped on the following drive.

A couple of possessions later, Talkington completed a 41-yard pass to Nolan Ulm down the left side of the field. Following a balanced playbook, Eastern Washington moved the ball within the 10-yard line. The 80 yard drive was topped off when Ulm jumped up and grabbed a seven yard touchdown pass. The Eagles took the lead 8-7 after a successful two-point conversion to Jett Carpenter.

The lead didn’t last long as Tennessee State would strike back quickly with an 87-yard drive. Cam Wyche would catch a 57-yard touchdown pass for the Tigers with another huge play from scrimmage. The kicker would miss the extra point however leaving the Tigers with a 13-8 lead with 5:18 left in the first quarter.

The Eagles took flight once again, and moved the ball 75 yards in under two minutes with several quick passes. They capped the drive off with a 22-yard touchdown pass from Talkington to Robert Mason III bringing the score to 15-13 Eagles.

The Tigers went straight to work when they got the ball back and once again moved the ball quite effectively on the ground. Tennessee State totaled 290 rushing yards on 54 attempts through the game, and a huge part of that came through Tiger running back Devon Starling.

Starling rushed for 207 yards on 25 attempts and earned his longest run of 43 yards to score another Tiger touchdown. A failed 2-point conversion put the score at 19-15 in favor of the Tigers.

The second quarter started with K’Vaughn Pope of Tennessee State being ejected for a helmet to helmet hit on Gunner Talkington that resulted in a targeting penalty. Even with the big penalty, the Eagles couldn’t get anything going and Seth Harrison would miss a 33-yard field goal.

Both teams fought back and forth without giving much ground for half of the second period, but Tiger quarterback Draylen Ellis fumbled the ball and it was recovered by Eagle defensive lineman Joshua Jerome at the Tiger 26 yard line.

With great field position Talkington went to work for the Eagles, and in 1:16 the Eagles would score again on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Talkington to tight end Blake Gobel. Eastern led 22-19 at that point.

More smashmouth football led to both teams punting back and forth until the second quarter was winding down. With just under two minutes remaining in the first half, Brock Harrison, defensive lineman for Eastern Washington hit the Tiger quarterback and forced another costly fumble. The ball was recovered by Caleb Davis for the Eagles, and Talkington went back to work.

Throwing a quick 30-yard pass to Freddie Roberson set the Eagle offense up at the Tiger one yard line, and a couple plays later Efton Chism III caught a quick pass and powered over the goal line for another Eagle touchdown putting them up 29-19 over the Tigers.

Both teams went scoreless through the third quarter, and the game was held up for nearly an hour due to weather delays. In the fourth the Tigers would make it exciting again as they scored 10 straight points to tie the game at 29 with just over six minutes left.

The Eagles needed to move the ball quickly, so Talkington went back to the air. He led Eastern 75 yards down the field with a 14-play drive that was capped off with a diving touchdown catch by Efton Chism III with 2:39 left in the game and taking the score to 36-29.

The Eagles weren’t out of hot water yet, as the Tigers had been scoring with quick strikes throughout the day. The defense was tasked with making one final stand, and with :44 seconds left in the game defensive back Tre Weed came up with the game sealing interception for the Eagles.

Although the Eagle defense made some key stops later in the game, they also allowed a lot of big plays early on. Eastern also allowed 547 yards of total offense, and much of that was through the rushing game. They also allowed the Tigers to successfully convert on three fourth down conversion attempts.

Eastern Washington grabs the first hard fought win of the season and will travel to Eugene, Oregon next week to face the Oregon Ducks on September 10.

Senator Murray Statement on Findings of Murray-Inslee Joint Federal-State Process

Thu, 25 Aug 2022 15:49:13 GMT

Senator Murray Statement on Findings of Murray-Inslee Joint Federal-State Process

Murray and Inslee state breach is not feasible at this time as more needs to be done to replace the benefits of the dams–particularly investments in clean energy

Murr ay and Inslee prioritize major salmon recovery projects that can be undertaken in the near term while other benefits of the dams are matched by medium and long-term regional investments

Murray and Inslee prioritize continued Tribal consultation as the Administration works with the entire region toward comprehensive salmon recovery solutions outside the courtroom

(Seattle, WA) – Today U.S. Senator Patty Murray issued the following statement on her and Governor Inslee’s findings and recommendations at the conclusion of their joint federal-state process.

Their joint findings and recommendations can be found HERE .

A final version of the independent report commissioned by the Senator and Governor was also released today and can be found HERE .

The independent report—along with months of public input, and discussion with stakeholders and Tribes—helped guide the Senator and Governor’s current recommendation.

“The Governor and I began this process, focused on salmon recovery, stating that all options should be taken into consideration, including the potential breaching of the Lower Four Snake River Dams.

“The Governor and I carefully considered research and studies on all sides of this issue: around salmon decline, the benefits provided by the dams, the cost of mitigating or replacing those benefits, and much more.

“We have also held months of discussions with all stakeholders—farmers, fisherman, local utilities, environmentalists, scientists, and many others—and engaged in rigorous consultation with regional Tribes in particular.

“However, it’s clear that breach is not an option right now—while many mitigation measures exist, many require further analysis or are not possible to implement in the near-term. Importantly, the Pacific Northwest cannot delay its decarbonization goals as we confront the climate crisis. Key infrastructure and energy investments must be in place before we can seriously consider breach. Still, specific salmon runs are struggling, and breach is an important option that could help save the salmon—and we cannot under any circumstances allow the extinction of salmon to come to pass.

“Therefore, it’s critical that Tribal, local, state, and federal entities immediately pursue interventions and implement policies that will protect salmon populations. In the coming years, local, state, and federal partners must work together to invest in the communities and industries that rely upon the dams—the onus should not be on the Tribes who have borne the brunt of salmon declines as a result of the dams being built.

“Furthermore, it should not be lost on anyone that breach would ultimately require Congressional authorization and strong bipartisan support—for that to become a credible option, the benefits of the dams must be sustained or mitigated.

“Sustaining or replacing the benefits of the dams will require several urgent undertakings: we need to do a lot more to transition to clean and renewable energy sources, we have to invest in the region’s infrastructure to lower the cost of shipping goods to market, and we have to invest in water infrastructure and irrigation to support our producers in the face of a worsening climate crisis.

“The passage of recent landmark federal investments in clean energy, climate, and infrastructure will help accelerate this work—but this will require collaboration at every level of government and the administration's support. Finally, justice for the Tribes of the Pacific Northwest must be at the forefront of the environmental and economic agenda as we work toward salmon recovery—this will require an ongoing commitment and consistent consultation as regional investments are made.

“I want to thank the independent consultant team who put tremendous work into this process and the final report they released. As we work toward a shared regional goal to save our salmon—I look forward to partnering closely with Democrats and Republicans, with all stakeholders from every community, and with Tribes from across the Pacific Northwest.”

Eastern football holds first scrimmage of season

orionsframe@gmail.com (Matt Stephens) — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 04:21:13 GMT

The energy was high for the first Eastern Washington scrimmage of the 2022 football season that was held on August 19.

The offense has work to do according to Head Coach Aaron Best, but the momentum seemed to be there during the initial scrimmage. The Eagles racked up 3 touchdowns and 2 field goals totaling 27 points in the first skirmish of the season.

Coach Best explained how he didn’t feel or see the energy or consistency that he wants to see with the team during that scrimmage.

“I thought that we were consistently inconsistent,” Best said. “I don’t know if it was because the defense was making plays or the fact that the offense wasn’t just trying to make plays themselves. We’ll see the film, and I thought the energy lacked. There’s no reason or excuse for that and we need to come out here and compete.”

The offensive numbers showed some stability in the ground game, but the passing game seemed to struggle in a couple areas. Several wayward snaps led to lost yards and situations in which the quarterback was hurried.

“There just wasn't any flow,” Best continued. “Even when we did make a play it seemed like we got backed up with a bad snap, sack or a dropped ball and we will be better than that and continue to work on that.”

Eastern Washington had 250 passing yards on 22 catches and rushed the ball 33 times for 207 yards on the day. The 435 yards of total offense came from a balanced gameplan that spread the ball across the field.

All three touchdowns came from the rushing game, and running back Davante Smith scored the first with a 15 yard touchdown run early in the day. Davante Smith ran the ball five times for a total of 49 yards and the one score.

Another Smith was a rushing powerhouse as well, and that was Eagle running back Micah Smith from Spanaway, Washington. He ran for 74 yards on eight attempts capping his efforts off by powering through two defenders on a two-yard touchdown in the second half of the scrimmage.

“The highlight of our offense were those running backs, and when they got their carries they did a lot with those carries,” Best explained. “It’s a competitive group and they all wants turns running the ball. The best way to get turns running the ball is to be productive in the situations we put them in.”

Spokane local Silas Perreiah has been recovering from some injuries and took three carries for the Eagles that ended with a three-yard touchdown. According to Perreiah he feels good about being back on the field.

“It’s really good to be back out here on the field with my teammates and coaches,” Perreiah said. “It is good to be successful as an offense as well.”

Coach Best discussed his excitement in seeing Perreiah working through his rehabilitation efforts.

“He’s done a good job over this last year rehabbing from his lower extremity injury,” said Best. “I didn’t really expect to see him today based on what he has been able to do in practice, but he is a fighter and worked his way back to this opportunity. Super excited about Silas and his work ethic because not only will he be a factor on offense but also special teams as well.”

Perreiah went on to explain that the rushing efforts for the team come from solid teamwork and supporting each other through practice.

“Coach A.P. (Aaron Prier) has been really good for us and we’re all just really supportive of each other,” Perreiah added. “We all want each other to win and to do well, and I think that’s the biggest thing is that we are all fans of each other.”

Kicker Seth Harrison knocked a pair of field goals through the uprights during the competition as well. Harrison made one from 51 yards, and another for 35 yards. Wyatt Hawkins added an extra point to each of the three touchdowns.

Without having Eric Barriere, the quarterback question remains, although a couple of names lead the conversation. Gunner Talkington backed Barriere last season, and has worked hard and made a lot of good plays according to the coach.

During the scrimmage however, it was redshirt freshman quarterback Kekoa Visperas that led in both passing attempts and yards. Visperas went 12-19 for 140 yards through the air, and added 46 yards rushing on six attempts.

10 different receivers had catches during the game, and were led by Malaki Roberson who had five catches for 66 yards. Jakobie James and Nolan Ulm both brought in four receptions each as well.

Defensive lineman Sean Skladany, a redshirt freshman out of Gig Harbor, Washington made his presence felt on the opposite side of the ball as he recovered two fumbles and forced one of them. Skladany hurried the quarterback a couple of times as well while also tallying a sack during the scrimmage.

The defense had four quarterback sacks on the day, showing a strong defensive front. Linebacker Derek Tommasini from Eagle, Idaho led the team in tackles with nine, while four other defensive players accounted for six tackles a piece.

The defense forced one interception, and defensive back Zane Thornton came down with that. The secondary also made a couple of key plays to break up touchdown passes.

This scrimmage was the first of two before the Eagles host their first game of the 2022-2023 college football season.

The season opener is September 3 at 1 p.m. The showdown will be at Roos Field where they will face Tennessee State University.

Fairchild hosts Unity Day Celebration

Sat, 13 Aug 2022 18:29:42 GMT

Fairchild Hosts Unity Day Celebration

Organizers hope to hold future events

August 5, 2022 brought the first celebration of Unity and Diversity to Fairchild Air Force Base in over 20 years, and the turnout was better than expected according to event organizer Salor Johnson.

Dozens of volunteers helped serve food representing the seven continents to hundreds of hungry visitors, and kids could enjoy many field games and inflatables. Music and dance performances kept the crowd entertained, and kept people moving to the cultural beats of various nations.

Members of the Spokane Tribe of Indians played a communal drum and chanted along to the rhythmic drumming. The Fairchild Spirit Crew was also on hand to show off their athleticism and keep the crowd full of energy. A regional dance team recreated dances that are performed in other countries

Johnson, Equal Opportunity Practitioner for the Wing Staff Agency organized the event and explained the motivation behind putting Unity Day together.

“It’s very important to have these events in the region we live in to showcase the diversity and culture,” Johnson said. “I wanted to show the minorities in the area that even though it may not seem like it sometimes, there is a lot of diversity here.”

Master Sergeant Trae Clark welcomed guests of all ages to dance and sing to the music as the show went along. Clark also expressed his gratitude in being able to participate in this event.

“We are so thankful that our leadership supports this,” Clark said. “Being in the military events like this give us all the chance to meet with people from all over because we have to work with people from different places so we can be the world’s greatest Air Force.”

The event displayed 24 booths from different regional groups promoting unity according to Johnson, and this was in large part to help educate people about some of the cultural outlets available.

“Today we have 24 booths that all represent something within the realm of diversity,” Johnson said. “We have a disability booth to help showcase disability awareness, we have a booth for military children that help educate about the struggles of being a military child, and we have our special observance booths as well such as the African American heritage booth, Hispanic Heritage booth and more.”

According to Liz Guinn it is important to educate other and learn about others at the same event, and she was running the Hispanic heritage booth for Unity Day.

“The importance in these events lies in the fact that celebrations like this make it easy and accessible for people to not only learn about, but begin to understand other cultures and lifestyles,” Guinn said. “So we have our booth set up with different decorations to highlight historic and notable Hispanic figures and the traditions that have helped shape Hispanic culture in general.”

Some people were providing information about local non-profits as well such as Erica Cleveland, Outreach Coordinator for The Way to Justice.

According to Cleveland the group is run by two women of color and focuses in criminal law and works to help people regain certain rights that may have been lost. She explained some examples are regaining a drivers license, or regaining gun or voting rights if applicable.

“Basically, we work in criminal law,” Cleveland said. “We help people get their drivers license back, restoration of rights, expungements, gun rights, getting voters rights back.”

“We also do some housing assistance on the side,” she added. “But that is primarily what we do.”

According to Cleveland who has lived in the area for 12 years, these events are important to the growth of the West Plains because diversity is not highlighted much out here as she sees it, but events like the Unity Day celebration can help encourage future celebrations.

Other vendors were on site to promote their art such as Antonio Romero owner and artist at Romero Artwork. Much of the art was culturally themed, including Romero’s works which highlighted a variety of culturally influential people through history.

“I am Mexican American, and both my wife and I love not only studying culture but educating people about ours as well,” Romero said. “It is so important for people to understand other cultures, but it is equally important for people to get to know about their own cultures. We have so many people of Hispanic heritage that have never been to Mexico and only know their culture through growing up in America.”

“There are some significant differences in how culture is presented from country to country,” Romero added.

According to Johnson this event is the first of its kind for Fairchild in over 20 years, but he has hopes to make this an annual event for the community to take part in.

“Fairchild has not had a Unity Day or celebration of diversity of this kind in over two decades,” said Johnson. “I wanted to do this one because I’m on base now and I’ve organized a cultural event before, and now our wing leadership wants to make this an annual event.”

“This is the first one we put together at Fairchild but we certainly have plans for future events,” Johnson concluded.

August Newsletter

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 22:11:17 GMT

Police partner with adventure group - Last year the Airway Heights Police Department (AHPD) got approval to fill a position for a Youth Engagement Specialist or Y.E.S. officer.

New Program Sees Big Impact on Local Teens

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 21:43:38 GMT

New Program Sees Big Impact on Local Teens

Officer Pat Carbaugh grew up in a broken home with drug addiction in his family. When he was just 11 years old, his mom passed away. The family lived in a single-wide trailer in Airway Heights, weighed down by the poverty single-parent families often experience.

It was a bleak start to life. Pat was statistically at a higher risk to use illegal drugs, to be involved in criminal activity, and to become incarcerated.

“I experienced firsthand what many of the kids in the Airway Heights area are facing today, “ Pat says. “With the assistance of positive adult role models that invested time, energy, and resources in me, I was able to escape the addictions my family had suffered.”

His path out took him into service with the United States Marine Corps, and then to become a police officer with the City of Airway Heights, coming full circle back to his youth.

Seeing kids in the community struggling with the challenges he remembers so well, Pat started to dream and pray about how he could help kids having the same rough experience he did growing up. Pat kept dreaming for 14 years.

His dream became a reality this year with the launch of the newly minted Airway Heights PAL program, a joint effort between the City of Airway Heights, the Airway Heights Police Department and Peak 7 Adventures with grant funding from the US Department of Commerce.

The Police Adventure League (PAL) offers a 6 week, 4-day per week program with an audacious goal: help build trusting relationships between the youth and local law enforcement by engaging in outdoor recreation.

“This program, the opportunity to work with the youth and engage them in positive recreation, means everything to me. To think I might have the ability to impact a child, the same way I experienced when I was a kid, is a blessing,” Pat says.

The pilot program started on July 5 with 10 teens selected from the Cheney School District, which manages the schools in Airway Heights. Ranging from 7th-11th grade, the boys were selected based on school counselor referrals, parent interest and Pat’s conversations with kids. Each has experienced trouble in school and needs some extra support.

“All ten of these boys came into the summer not knowing each other or having much experience in the outdoors. And both have changed so fast. I have seen this group come together and let their guard down,” says Jonathan Shaw, Peak 7 Summer Guide and Whitworth Masters in School Counseling student.

To provide relationship consistency, Jonathan is the primary Peak 7 Guide working with the PAL program, assigned to work with Pat in running trips. With recreation as the focus, the group has spent the last three weeks sampling the best in local adventure. The program kicked off with a day-long challenge course experience. They rafted the Clark Fork River, visited several local and regional rock climbing sites and still have three weeks of adventures to go.

“I have seen Hashim, who was afraid of the outdoors because of bugs, exploring spider webs. I have seen trust develop through the process of belaying. I have seen a group from a variety of backgrounds laughing and having fun together,” Jonathan says. “ I have seen many of the boys be silly and free. They have let loose and had space to let their curiosity and fun run wild. I have seen many of them push themselves into uncomfortable environments and find it is fun.”

Parents are seeing similar changes. During the summer, many teens retreat to their bedrooms to spend hours on their phones and computers.

“Seeing the changes has been the best part. He (Caleb P) looks forward to every day now, mostly because the people and program have helped him feel safe, wanted and a part of something bigger. I can not say thank you enough,” Caleb’s mom, Tammy, shared.

“My son is not the typical teen who likes to hang out with friends, (he) doesn’t care for the outdoors and is very hesitant to try new things that are outside of his comfort zone, especially being outdoors. This program has brought out a different side to him. It has motivated him to step out of his comfort zone and truly enjoy what life and this program has to offer. This program is a great way to keep our young teens out of trouble while having a great time practicing life skills and going on outdoor adventures that help motivate them to put their phone down and enjoy being a kid,” reflects Emilio’s mom, Veronica.

In the coming weeks, PAL will head to the Smith Rocks in Oregon for a multi-day rock climbing trip before official graduation and the end of the program on August 15. Plans are underway to expand PAL in the future, with hopes to introduce a girls’ program, and possibly grow into the school year with adventures offered to larger groups of students.

Pat reasons, “I fully realize that children in those types of environments are the victims. If it were not for the adults that invested in me, I may have become one of those statistics. It is now my turn to pay it forward and become one of those positive adults to as many youth as I can.”

Washington still adding jobs, but hiring is showing a slowdown

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 18:16:39 GMT

Washington still adding jobs, but hiring is showing a slowdown

Article from AWB

Employers added jobs last month, but there are hints that hiring is slowing down, the Puget Sound Business Journal reports.

Washington added 2,500 net jobs overall in J une, the Employment Security Department reports. That was led by 3,300 new jobs in the Seattle area. Many other parts of the state lost jobs. The state’s unemployment rate remains at 3.9%, with King County at the state’s lowest jobless rate (2.2%) and Ferry County the highest (7.8%).

“Efforts underway to curb high inflation — such as raising interest rates — will likely continue to dampen job growth and hiring as the year progresses,” said Paul Turek , economist with the state’s Employment Security Department economist.

Some industry sectors are already cutting back on hiring, including the tech sector. Google is pausing hiring for two weeks. Microsoft is limiting its new job openings, although it is still expanding its overall workforce. Amazon said it has gone from being understaffed during the pandemic to now being overstaffed. Facebook is planning to hire 30% fewer engineers. Bloomberg and the Seattle Times have more.

State Supreme Court rules state can continue to log public lands

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 18:13:36 GMT

State Supreme Court rules state can continue to log public lands

Article from AWB

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state Department of Natural Resources can continue to harvest and sell timber from state-owned land, but that the DN R is not constitutionally obligated to harvest timber or maximize revenue on state-owned land.

Justice G. Helen Whitener wrote in the 8-0 majority opinion that while the use of logging revenue generated from public lands is constitutionally protected, it’s not the only way to manage public land for the benefit of “all people,” as required by the constitution.

Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said the ruling gives her agency more leeway in managing the state’s three million of acres of state forest.

AWB had filed an amicus brief on behalf of DNR and our forestry members.

“We won pretty clearly,” said AWB Government Affairs Director Peter Godlewski. “The main issue was about logging trust lands to support the state. Some environmental groups had argued that DNR’s state trust mandate should be interpreted to mean no logging at all on public lands. This was hugely troubling and it's good the Supreme Court held up the longstanding interpretation of the state constitution in supporting schools and timber harvest.”

Contact Peter Godlewski for questions about environmental policy, or AWB General Counsel Bob Battles for questions about this case.

Cap-and-trade allowances could sell for twice the original estimate at upcoming auctions

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 18:15:36 GMT

Cap-and-trade allowances could sell for twice the original estimate at upcoming auctions

Article from Capital Press

A Washington Department of Ecology consultant projects that cap-and-trade auctions next year will be more costly for fuel suppliers and manufacturers than originally expected.

Vivid Economics predicts that allowances will go for at least $41 each, nearly double the $22.78 state agencies estimated in 2021.

An allowance will grant the right to emit 1 ton of carbon dioxide. High auction prices will increase business costs while raising more money for state-funded climate-reduction programs.

Allowances could average $58 or $68 in 2023 under two other scenarios analyzed by Vivid. The firm did not project cap-and-trade’s impact on gasoline and diesel prices.

The state in 2021 estimated auctions would raise $441 million in government revenue the first year. The figure has not yet been updated based on Vivid’s forecast, Ecology spokesman Andrew Wineke said Tuesday.

NERA Economic Consulting, hired by the Western States Petroleum Association, estimated Ecology’s proposed cap-and-trade rules will increase gas prices by 56 cents a gallon and diesel by 64 cents in 2024.

Ecology maintains that its proposal will increase pump prices by less than 1%.

Supply-and-demand and global events, such as COVID and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, drive fuel prices, Wineke said. “Regulations play a very minor role in the price people pay at the pump,” he said.

Whatever the additional cost, fuel suppliers probably will pass them along to Washington motorists, Washington Research Council economist Kriss Sjoblom said Tuesday.

The world market sets fuel prices and suppliers aren’t limited to serving Washington, he said. The auctions also will be another reason for pump prices to fluctuate, he said.

“Because there is uncertainty about what allowance prices will be, it probably adds a bit to the volatility of gas prices,” Sjoblom said.

The Legislature in 2021 passed cap-and-trade, the centerpiece of Gov. Jay Inslee’s climate agenda. To carry out the law, Ecology has proposed 138 pages of regulations.

Auctions are at the heart of the rules. Beginning next year, large carbon-emitters will bid for allowances. The number of allowances auctioned off will decline each year.

Allowances are expected to become increasingly expensive as the state moves closer to its goal of cutting emissions by 45% by 2030 and 95% by 2050.

State agencies in 2021 projected the cost of alliances based on California’s experience, which has been holding cap-and-trade auctions since 2014. For many years, allowances were going for near the minimum price, though they have been rising recently, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Vivid warned allowance prices were uncertain. Many factors will influence prices, including how fast drivers convert to electric vehicles, reducing demand from fuel suppliers for allowances.

Merging Washington’s cap-and-trade auctions with those jointly held by California and Quebec also would hold down allowance prices, according to Vivid.

Presumably, a bigger pool of allowances will hold down bids. Ecology will start looking at linking up with California and Quebec once it’s finalized Washington’s cap-and-trade rules.

”Given the benefits linkage could have for our market, Ecology has accelerated our timeline and will begin exploring the benefits of linking in the fall,” Wineke said.

Food Northwest, a trade association of food processors, says cap-and-trade will increase the cost of making food in Washington.

If Ecology doesn’t hold down allowance costs, food makers may move to Idaho, the association said in comments sent to Ecology.

J.R. Simplot Company warned that rapid increases in gas prices will cause a consumer backlash and cause political pressure to revise cap-and-trade.

Faced with uncertainty, businesses will be reluctant to invest in long-term emissions reductions, the Boise-based company commented.

Simplot has two vegetable processing plants in Washington that will be covered by cap-and-trade. Like other energy-intensive manufacturers with foreign competitors, Simplot will be eligible for cost-free allowances that gradually decline over time.

Top Five Issues Driving the Spokane House Crisis from Spokane Home Builders Association

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 16:59:27 GMT

Top Five Issues Driving the Sopkane Housing Crisis

Article from SHBA

Eight out of 10 Spokane residents can’t afford to buy a home in current market conditions. Read that sentence again. We’re in a housing crisis like never before.

Home prices in Spokane rose 30% over the past year alone, hitting an all new high for the average median home price this week at $460, 000.

But the recent spike in home prices is only the tip of the housing crisis iceberg; the driving forces behind housing affordability started years ago.

It’s past time to take action, and that work begins by getting a clear understanding of what’s driving the crisis.

Here are the top five reasons we’re in such bad shape.

1. Population growth

Between 2010 and 2021, Spokane County’s population grew by 56,000 people, or around 14 people per day. That’s A LOT.

And data from the U.S. Census Bureau illustrates what many policymakers and homebuilders already know: Spokane is one of the cities leading the nation for population growth and the need for housing units.

The pace shows no sign of slowing. Spokane County’s population growth is expected to grow by nearly 50,000 people over the next decade, according to the state’s Office of Financial Management’s medium growth projections.

This is a problem we must solve for the sake of our growing community.

2. Lack of supply

It’s simple economics: lack of supply drives up costs, and we’re way behind on supply.

Between 2010 and 2021, Spokane County underbuilt new homes to the tune of hundreds of homes per year. Even now, we’re building around 1,400 fewer units per year than needed by our growing population. Projections show that Spokane will need to add nearly 2,900 housing units per year to meet housing demand, but we’re only building around 1,500.

The supply issue is driving up costs in the rental market, too. As home prices increase, more would-be buyers are stuck renting, creating more demand for rentals.

“The rental and single-family housing markets are very tied together,” Joel White, SHBA’s Executive Officer, told The Spokesman-Review . The rental-to-housing market connection is evident by these rental statistics:

1.4% – Spokane County’s vacancy rate for all apartment units, according to the Washington Center for Real Estate Research’s fall 2021 apartment market report .
10% – The increase in median rent for all rentals in Spokane from May 2021 to May 2022, according to Apartment List , which publishes monthly reports on rental data.
34.5% – The increase in median rent for all rentals in Spokane since the beginning of the pandemic (March 2020), according to Apartment List .

3. Lack of skilled labor

Our members experience the shortage in skilled homebuilders firsthand. In fact, our Workforce Development Program was created in response to SHBA members saying they’re having trouble finding skilled workers.

The demand for housing drives the demand for skilled workers and contractors are finding themselves in bidding wars for workers. This results in longer build times, which is another issue driving up the cost of housing.

The labor gap is expected to get worse as a large population of construction workers near retirement age. 23% of construction workers in the state are over the age of 55 and 750,000 will be of retirement age by 2030.

Unfortunately, budgets for career and technical education (CTE) in high schools continue to be cut and students lack access to career pathways for home building trades. There’s a misconception that school districts are prioritizing trade programs but budget allocations tell the real story. One of the latest cuts happened in Mead School District, the third-largest in Spokane County, where the CTE Director position was not included in the 2022-2023 budget.

Through Frame Your Future , SHBA’s industry-funded trades exposure program, we’re collaborating with Spokane area schools and industry leaders to create a future worker pipeline for residential construction but we can’t do it alone.

4. Resistance to change zoning

Ok, so we know that we need more houses and more skilled workers to build those houses. Is there anything else keeping homebuilders from building enough homes for everyone? Unfortunately, yes.

In order to keep up with the demand for housing, Spokane needs about 2,900 more housing units per year. But under current zoning policies, that’s nearly impossible to do.

Jim Frank, SHBA member and founder of Greenstone Homes, recently told the Inlander, “the Spokane development code makes it very difficult to build anything but large homes on large lots and restricts all multifamily development to segregated high-density zoning districts. When you look around Spokane, what you see are single family homes on large lots, along with large multifamily projects. There is virtually nothing in between.”

Missing middle housing types like duplexes, triplexes and townhouses make up only 9% of Spokane’s housing while single-family detached homes account for over 68%.

Sadly several neighborhood councils and currently elected City Council members are not eager to help change zoning.

John Schram, a co-chair of the neighborhood council in Spokane’s Comstock neighborhood was recently quoted saying “I have nothing against duplexes and triplexes, just not next to my house.”

That is in stark contrast to the prioritized agenda set forth by Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward in an effort to help bring relief to the housing emergency .

“We need more housing and greater variety now,” Woodward said. “Business as usual isn’t currently equipped to deliver new construction quickly enough to immediately increase inventory.

Efforts to modernize zoning codes and policies are underway but can’t happen soon enough.

5. Out of market buyers

The ultimate underline in the housing crisis is that our workforce simply can’t afford housing here. And there are several factors at play when it comes to who can, and who can’t, afford housing in Spokane.

A primary cause for the recent spike in prices is an influx of new residents who are willing and able to pay much higher prices for a home.

A Redfin survey revealed that in 2021, home buyers that moved into Spokane had a housing budget that was 23% higher than that of locals. These new residents are cashing out in more expensive markets such as Seattle and the Bay Area, and then using those payouts to lock down homes in our market–at far higher prices than local residents can afford to pay.

According to some reports, the individuals and families that began migrating from high-cost cities to Spokane in 2014 come with higher salaries. Steve Silbar is a local real estate agent whose clients were “nurses and teachers” when he started selling homes about five years ago. Today, his clients are engineers, corporate managers and others with higher incomes that locals can’t compete with.

Here are a few statistics from a recent study conducted in partnership with the Spokane Association of Realtors (SAR) that help paint this picture:

Housing Affordability in Spokane, 2017 vs. 2022

So where do we go from here?

Researchers have identified several decisive actions that our community can take to combat Spokane’s housing crisis. We also need to elect leaders who are focused on solving the issues we can control: such as reworking restrictive zoning laws and prioritizing policies that support families being able to live in the same community they work in.

We aren’t helpless in the face of this crisis, but it will take leadership, strategic planning, and cooperation across Neighborhoods and Councils to ensure Spokane is an affordable place to live… and grow.

State revenues rise again, and inflation takes a bite

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 17:32:04 GMT

State revenues rise again, and inflation takes a bite

Article from AWB

State government will collect nearly $1.5 billion more in taxes than expected in the current two-year budget cycle. But inflation will likely wipe out that gain , a gover nment watchdog group says.

Total revenues for the 2021-23 budget are projected to be $63.2 billion. And the 2023-25 budget would be nearly $66 billion, the state's Economic and Revenue Forecast Council said Wednesday during its periodic update on expected future tax collections. But the inflation surge applies to state government, too.

“These gains, however, are totally erased by increases in the forecast for inflation,” Kriss Sjoblom of the Washington Research Council wrote . “When adjusted for inflation, the apparent $2.3 billion gain becomes a real $1.2 billion loss.”

Meanwhile, Washington employers and families continue to battle high fuel prices, rising food costs, a tight housing market and ongoing challenges in the supply chain. Editors at The Columbian say it's time to consider tax relief .

“Property tax relief, a sales tax reduction, and a reduction in the business and occupation tax all should be on the table,” a recent editorial says.

Contact Government Affairs Director Tommy Gantz to learn more and get involved.

Volatility drives increase in logistics expenses

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 17:30:53 GMT

Volatility drives increase in logistics expenses

Article from AWB

Employers face new increases to the cost of logistics this year as they work to balance their supply chains and inventories, The Wall Street Journal reports . Continuing disruptions and rising inflation are among the new challenges.

These challenges are on top of major cost increases in 2021. Business logistics costs rose 22% last year, according to a new report from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.

Transportation costs rose 22% and inventory-carrying costs rose nearly 26% over 2020, the newspaper reports.

Companies are working to get ahead of supply chain disruptions and delivery delays.

Firms “have a lot of stuff sitting in places that are different than where they want it to be,” said Steve Bobb, chief marketing officer at BNSF Railway Co.

One freight broker told the newspaper there have been supply chain disruptions for 18 months now. And his company was unloading Halloween costumes at California ports last December.

Ag groups express concern over SEC’s proposed rule on climate-related disclosures

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 18:05:38 GMT

Ag groups express concern over SEC’s proposed rule on climate-related disclosures

Concern SEC's proposed rule, “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors"

from Morning Ag Clips

WASHINGTON — Editor’s note: The following organizations have issued statements concerning the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s proposed rule, “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors.” The rule would would require registrants to provide certain climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports.

American Farm Bureau Federation
Proposed SEC Rule Requirements Nearly Impossible for Family Farms

The American Farm Bureau Federation warned the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today about the consequences to rural America of the SEC’s proposed rule, “ The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors .” The proposal would require public companies to report on Scope 3 emissions, which are the result of activities from assets not owned or controlled by a publicly traded company but contribute to its value chain. While farmers and ranchers would not be required to report directly to the SEC, this regulation would impose additional burdens as they provide almost every raw product that goes into the food supply chain.

The comments were filed on behalf of AFBF and 10 other agriculture organizations. The organizations state, “Our organizations and our members are committed to transparency in climate-related matters to inform our stakeholders in a manner consistent with existing practices in the agriculture industry. However, without changes and clarifications, the Proposed Rules would be wildly burdensome and expensive if not altogether impossible for many small and mid-sized farmers to comply with.”

AFBF President Zippy Duvall said, “Farmers and ranchers are committed to feeding America’s families while protecting the resources they’ve been entrusted with. We’re doing this through voluntary, market-driven incentives, but this proposed rule threatens that progress.

“Family farms don’t have teams of compliance officers and attorneys to respond to Wall Street. Higher costs could keep small farms from doing business with publicly traded companies, which could lead to more consolidation and fewer farmers at a time when the world is increasingly calling on rural America to meet the needs of hungry families.”

Recommendations to the SEC include:

Removing the “value-chain” concept from the proposed rules;
Removing or substantially revising the Scope 3 emissions disclosure requirement to include an explicit exemption for the agricultural industry;
Removing the requirement that registrants provide disclosures pertaining to their climate-related targets and goals;
Revising the proposed rules so that disclosures of GHG emissions operate in unison with existing federal emissions reporting programs;
Ensuring the final rules do not include location data disclosures for GHG emissions, which may inadvertently disclose the private information of family farms.

Read the full comments here .

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association
Cattle Industry Fights Controversial SEC Climate Rule

Today, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) filed comments on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) controversial proposed greenhouse gas disclosure rule. The rule would require publicly traded companies to disclose their direct (scope 1), energy/electricity consumption (scope 2), and supply chain emissions (scope 3), creating a burden on cattle producers who supply beef to publicly traded processors, restaurants, and retailers.

“With cattle producers facing record inflation, rising input costs and labor shortages, another bureaucratic rule from Washington is a burden we cannot afford,” said NCBA President Don Schiefelbein, a cattle producer from Kimball, Minnesota. “Policymakers should be focused on lowering costs and solving the real problems facing farmers and ranchers, not creating more complex rules that require a team of lawyers to understand.”

While the proposed rule is aimed at public companies, mandating the disclosure of scope 3 emissions would place a burden on cattle producers who supply beef to public entities. Additionally, the federal government has acknowledged that accurately calculating emissions on the farm or ranch level is impossible, while industry-wide metrics are already collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) at a level that should satisfy federal regulators.

“Cattle farmers and ranchers are America’s original conservationists. Thanks to decades of innovation and continuous improvement, cattle account for just 2% of overall U.S. greenhouse gas emissions,” said NCBA Environmental Counsel Mary-Thomas Hart. “Cattle producers have a proven track record of sustainable practices and should not be penalized with overreaching rules from an agency with no expertise in agriculture.”

In addition to submitting technical comments, individual cattle producers submitted over 6,700 letters to the commissioners of the SEC and members of Congress to inform them of the widespread unintended sequences this rule would have on the cattle and beef industry.

NCBA’s technical comments were filed with a coalition of agricultural organizations including the American Farm Bureau Federation, National Pork Producers Council, National Cotton Council, National Corn Growers Association, National Potato Council, American Soybean Association, Agricultural Retailers Association, National Association of Wheat Growers, U.S. Poultry & Egg Association. Numerous NCBA state and breed affiliates submitted comments as well.

BACKGROUND

The SEC is a Wall Street regulator, not an environmental or agricultural agency. This proposed rule goes far outside the SEC’s primary jurisdiction and places an unreasonable burden on private small businesses, farms, and ranches. NCBA has urged the SEC to limit the proposed rule to publicly traded companies—the agency’s actual jurisdiction.

For agriculture specifically, this rule would force private entities to release confidential information. Court decisions like American Farm Bureau Federation v. EPA have solidified the right to producer data privacy. Industry-wide emissions data is already collected through the annual EPA Greenhouse Gas Inventory and USDA Life Cycle Assessments, which should satisfy any requirement for supply chain emissions data.

National Milk Producers Federation
Given Dairy’s Progress, NMPF Voices Concern with Proposed SEC Climate Rule

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) proposed rule mandating extensive climate disclosures from publicly traded companies could undermine the dairy industry’s progress toward its sustainability goals and create far-reaching technical and financial challenges for American dairy farmers and their cooperatives, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) said in comments submitted today.

“Dairy farmers are on the frontlines confronting the many challenges associated with climate change and remain committed to making progress to reduce the industry’s environmental impact,” said Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of NMPF. “The SEC rule, as written, could hamper our ability to make progress through the industry’s robust, voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) assessment program, and jeopardize our goal of reaching GHG neutrality by 2050.”

U.S. dairy farmers have been leading environmental stewards for decades, tending their animals, land and water with great care. Thanks to improvements in productivity, new technologies and evolving best management practices, the environmental impact of producing a gallon of milk requires less water, less land and has a smaller carbon footprint than ever before. Still, the industry remains committed to its continued progress, devoting resources to programs, research and services that advance its 2050 goals to achieve industrywide neutral or better greenhouse gas emissions, optimize water usage and improve water quality.

To track progress and reach these important environmental goals, the National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program in 2017 launched the Environmental Stewardship (ES) platform. The program provides a comprehensive estimate of GHG emissions and energy use on dairy farms with a suite of tools and resources for farmers to measure and improve their environmental footprint. FARM ES is the dairy community’s platform for a consistent, unified approach to GHG measurement that is free and accessible to all dairy farmers. Currently, over 80 percent of U.S. milk is handled by cooperatives and processors participating in FARM ES.

SEC’s proposed rule, “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate Related Disclosures for Investors”, would require public companies to disclose GHG emissions, including emissions from upstream and downstream activities in its value chain, known as Scope 3. NMPF cautioned SEC that the inclusion of Scope 3 emissions disclosure within the rule is premature, and risks undermining the extensive efforts the dairy industry has made toward developing trust and buy-in for its voluntary GHG assessment program.

NMPF also emphasized the significant financial burden the proposed rule would have on dairy farmers and their cooperatives related to the collection and aggregation of on-farm GHG data.

National Pork Producers Council
Pork Industry Asks The SEC To Reconsider Climate Disclosure Rules For Farmers

The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) filed comments today to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its controversial reporting requirements proposal on climate-related disclosures for investors.

In its comments, NPPC and other agricultural groups requested that the SEC reconsider its application of burdensome and unnecessary climate disclosure requirements under Scope 3 of the proposed rules. As currently drafted, these requirements would overly burden American farmers, forcing them to take on costly and expensive reporting that will set back farm environmental performance, and would be in violation of federal law. These requirements will ultimately be neither accurate nor serve any useful purpose.

“The U.S. pork industry represents a mere one-third of 1% of U.S. climate emissions. Despite this, American pig farmers have managed to shrink their GHG footprint by over 21% over the last three decades while at the same time, the industry has increased its production of affordable pork for consumers 77%,” said Michael Formica, assistant vice president and general counsel, NPPC. “This demonstrates not only the commitment of farmers to address long-term sustainability challenges we all face, but also that voluntary, market-based incentives have helped make real progress on climate change.”

NPPC submitted comments in conjunction with ten other agricultural organizations, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and various crop and livestock organizations. Among the seven recommendations made, NPPC asked the SEC to consider removing the “value chain” concept, removing or substantially revising the Scope 3 emissions disclosure requirement and revising the proposed rule to ensure alignment of GHG emissions disclosures with existing federal emissions reporting programs and federal law protecting livestock farmers from costly, inaccurate and unduly burdensome GHG emissions reporting. Read the full comments here .

“American pig farmers are committed to transparency in climate-related matters and believe in doing this in a manner consistent with existing practices,” Formica said. “Costs associated with the proposed rule would be significant, especially for small to mid-sized farms and would lead to industry consolidation and further impact not just rural communities where those farms are located but the ability of every American to enjoy bacon with breakfast.”

Record inflation drives increases to minimum wage, workers' comp rates and more

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 17:54:20 GMT

Record inflation drives increases to minimum wage, workers' comp rates and more

from AWB

The highest inflation rate in 40 years will lead to additional costs for Washington employers, including likely increases in the minimum wage and state benefits like une mployment and workers’ compensation.

Increases in the minimum wage are tied to the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. Inflation reached 8.6% in May , The Wall Street Journal reports.

Washington's average wage is also rising. The average annual wage grew by 7.5% in 2021 to $82,508 , according to the state Employment Security Department.

"The strong demand for workers and hiring difficulties across different sectors drove average wage growth in 2021 to the second largest increase on record," the agency reports.

The average wage is used to calculate unemployment benefits, Paid Family and Medical Leave benefits and employers' taxable wage base, which is used to calculate UI taxes and workers compensation benefits.

"All of this will have a huge impact on employers," AWB Government Affairs Director Bob Battles says. "Employers already face supply chain disruptions and increased energy and other costs. This is another reason for Washington lawmakers to consider tax relief."

Contact Battles at BobB@awb.org to learn more.

Cheney Public Schools Community Connection

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 16:37:30 GMT

Neon Pizza opening Wednesday at Northern Quest Resort & Casino

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 18:11:40 GMT

Neon Pizza opening Wednesday at Northern Quest Resort & Casino

Amy Edelen

amye@spokesman.com

(509) 459-5581

from the Spokesman Review

Northern Quest Resort & Casino patrons will soon be able to fulfill their cravings for New York-style pizza.

Neon Pizza, a 1980s-themed counter-service eatery serving pi zza by the slice, is opening at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

Neon Pizza, located near the north-family entrance of Northern Quest Resort & Casino, spans 1,300 square feet with capacity for 50 people.

The restaurant features high-top counters for dining, décor celebrating classic rock music as well as retro pinball and arcade games, including Ms. Pac-Man, Space Invaders and The Simpsons.

“If you’re nostalgic for the days of your youth, there couldn’t be a better place to come and grab a slice of pizza than at Neon,” Sam Askew, executive director of resort operations at Northern Quest Resort & Casino, said in a statement.

“When you step through the retro arcade and lights, you’re going to be transported back through time to the ‘80s, when rock ‘n’ roll, pizza, Ms. Pac-Man and Pop Rocks ruled the world.”

The restaurant features chicken bacon ranch, pepperoni, cheese, supreme and margherita pizzas.

It will also offer rotating daily specials with bacon cheeseburger, Hawaiian and barbecue chicken pizza slices. Neon Pizza will have a selection of vintage candy, including Nerds, Pop Rocks and Tootsie Roll Pops.

Northern Quest is hosting a grand opening celebration Wednesday, starting with a tribal blessing and welcome at 5:45 p.m.

That will be followed by a ceremonial pizza cutting by Spokane native and comedian Michael Winslow, who is best known for his role as Cadet Larvell Jones in the Police Academy movie series.

Spokane-based HDG Architecture designed the restaurant. Lydig Construction Inc., of Spokane Valley, was the project contractor.

Neon Pizza will be open daily from 11 a.m.-3 a.m.

Latest edition of Washington Business magazine now available

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 19:08:50 GMT

Latest edition of Washington Business magazine now available

Article from AWB

AWB’s print magazine, Washington Business, is in the mail to members and is also available to read online .

The cover story looks into the worker shortage that is a chal lenge for many employers.

Other stories:

Do you have a great idea for a business to feature or issue to cover in Washington Business? Contact AWB’s Jason Hagey .

Report: Removing Lower Snake River dams could cost economy $27 billion

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 19:07:17 GMT

Report: Removing Lower Snake River dams could cost economy $27 billion

Article from AWB

U .S. Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee released a draft report last week estimating it would cost as much as $27 billion to replace the energy, irrigation, recreation and other benefits provided by the four lower Snake River dams.

That’s a lot of money — but it probably still understates the true value of the dams, which helped build the Northwest economy and make Washington a leader in green energy production.

In a statement released the day of the draft report, AWB President Kris Johnson said that clean, renewable and affordable hydropower is one of our region’s primary competitive advantages and the state will need it more than ever to keep pace with a growing population plus the transition to a clean-energy economy.

“Sources like wind and solar need the steady baseload power provided by the dams to ensure an affordable and reliable power grid,” Johnson said. “Replacing hydroelectric power with fossil fuel power would be moving in the wrong direction.”

The same day the draft report on the dams was released, U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse introduced legislation to protect the dams. The Tri-City Herald has more on the report and the response from our congressional delegation.

Contact Government Affairs Director Peter Godlewski to learn more and get involved.

New emergency heat and wildfire smoke rules take effect June 15

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 17:21:26 GMT

New emergency heat and wildfire smoke rules take effect June 15

Article from AWB

The Department of Labor & Industries released new emergency heat and wildfire smoke rules on Wednesday that will take effect June 15 and last through this summer.

The h eat rules are in force once temperatures hit 89 degrees, or at lower temperatures for workers wearing protective equipment. The Seattle Times and Bellingham Herald covered the story. L&I’s Be Heat Smart web page has more on the requirements along with steps employers and workers can take to prevent heat-related illnesses.

This is the second year in a row that Washington state has implemented emergency rules for heat.

AWB believes that employers and workers would have been better served this year with a permanent rulemaking process, rather than a succession of emergency rules, as the proper way to address foreseeable issues such as summer heat and wildfire smoke.

Contact Government Affairs Director Bob Battles to learn more and get involved.

State considering ban on natural gas, forced electric heat in residential construction

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 17:20:21 GMT

State considering ban on natural gas, forced electric heat in residential construction

Article from AWB

Two months after banning nearly all non-electric space and water heating in commercial buildings, the Washington State Building Code Council is now proposing to extend t he ban to residential structures.

The proposed residential rule change would require heat pumps for nearly all space and water heating in single-family homes, duplexes, townhomes, and multi-family dwellings of 1 to 3 stories. Natural gas, baseboard heaters, wall heaters, radiant heat systems and electric furnaces would be banned.

Full electrification would wind up being more expensive, AWB Government Affairs Director Peter Godlewski told The Center Square . Figures from Seattle show that installing a heat pump adds anywhere from $3,000 to $22,000 to the cost of each apartment.

“Natural gas remains an efficient and reliable energy source for many Washington businesses and consumers,” Godlewski said. “As Washington struggles with housing affordability, we need policies that make houses more affordable, not less.”

Contact Godlewski to learn more and get involved.

Coaching for Process, Energy, and Environmental Improvement

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 17:52:40 GMT

Coaching for Process, Energy, and Environmental Improvement

from Impact Washington

It’s hard to see opportunities for process improvement and cost reduction when you’re focused on running a business day-to-day. Break out of your usual routine, use new tools, and see your operations from a new perspective. The Lean and Green Project Support Program is online and helps you learn new skills, find low-cost opportunities to reduce utility bills and environmental impacts, and increase profits.

You will use simple continuous improvement tools to uncover opportunities and inefficiencies in your facility that fall outside of traditional approaches. You can also get help navigating regulatory and permitting issues. Results will lead to:

Pollution prevention.
Energy reduction.
Improved worker morale and engagement.
Improved public and customer image
Reduced operating costs.
Improved process efficiency.

Lean and Green Program Details:

The program offers two tiers of support that address W.A.S.T.E. (Water, Air, Solid Waste, Toxics, Energy). Ecology or Impact Washington can help you select the right project for your company.

W.A.S.T.E. Walk: Designed for smaller companies and involves less time (4 hours of class and 12 hours of coaching, plus time on your own to work on your project).
W.A.S.T.E. Project: Designed for larger companies with dedicated resources for environmental or process improvement initiatives (10 hours of class and 40 hours of coaching, plus time on your own to work on your project).

Additional program details can be found here

Lean and Green Program Dates:

W.A.S.T.E. Walk: Begins August 30, 2022 - November 10, 2022 (sessions are once every two weeks).

W.A.S.T.E. Project: Begins September 13, 2022 - March 9, 2023 (sessions are weekly, minus a few breaks over major holiday periods)

Receive a Lean and Green certificate from the Washington State Department of Ecology upon completing the program and project.

Fill out the interest form to participate.

Instructor:

Brion Hurley, Program Lead and Coach: A Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with Business Performance Improvement. He spent 18 years in the aerospace industry and has spent the past 10 years working on sustainability projects to reduce private sector energy and environmental impacts and improve nonprofit operations.

For more information, contact us here

Governor’s office pays $70,000 in settlement and two State Building Code Council members resign

Mon, 30 May 2022 14:20:44 GMT

Governor’s office pays $70,000 in settlement and two State Building Code Council members resign

Article from AWB

The state will pay $70,000 to settle a public records lawsuit over two of Gov. Jay Inslee’s appointments to the State Building Code Council. Two of Inslee’s recent appoi ntments to the council will also step down after a settlement with state building associations.

State law requires that two of the council’s 15 members must be nominated by trade associations representing residential and commercial builders. However, last year Inslee ignored major builder group recommendations and instead named two of his own picks, The Seattle Times reports.

Last September the Building Industry Association of Washington and the Associated General Contractors of Washington sued over the appointments. In November they sued again, saying Inslee’s office had not turned over relevant documents. The state later admitted that a member of Inslee’s staff had made a materially false statement in court by falsely stating that one of Inslee’s nominees had been put forward by another building trade group.

In December, Thurston County Superior Court Judge James Dixon called that misrepresentation “at a minimum … negligent. It may have been reckless, it may have been intentional.” However, he declined to immediately impose sanctions against the state over it.

In April the state and the builder groups agreed to a settlement agreement under which both of Inslee’s appointees would resign and the governor would replace them with two new members from a list of nominees provided by the BIAA and AGC.

Contact AWB’s Peter Godlewski or Mike Ennis to learn more.

Washington Community Economic Revitalization Board invests $200,000 in three counties

Mon, 23 May 2022 18:56:15 GMT

Washington Community Economic Revitalization Board invests $200,000 in three counties

WSU tech transfer center study among projects receiving planning grants May board meeting

OLYMPIA, WA – The Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) today approved $200,000 in grants for rural broadband and economic development feasibility studies.

Projects awarded funding are located in Clark, Spokane, and Whitman counties and will spur broadband deployment, business growth and job creation.

Clark County
$50,000 grant to the Port of Camas-Washougal for the “Southeast 41stStreet Broadband Planning Project.” This project will identify opportunities to bring broadband access to rural constituents and improve broadband service for the entire port district. CERB funds are matched by $12,500 in local resources.
$50,000 grant to the Port of Ridgefield for the “Port of Ridgefield and Port of Woodland La Center to Yale Broadband Feasibility Study.” This project will assess the feasibility of connecting broadband conduit from La Center to Yale and connecting the Port of Ridgefield’s La Center line to the Port of Woodland’s Lewis River Road line. CERB funds are matched by $12,500 in local resources.

Spokane County – $50,000 grant to the county for the “Spokane County West Plains and South County Site Survey.” This project will identify ways to bring and/or enhance broadband to the underserved West Plains and South County areas, excluding the City of Airway Heights. CERB funds are matched by $12,500 in local resources.

Whitman County – $50,000 grant to the Port of Whitman County for the “Biological Systems and Mechanical and Materials Engineering Tech Transfer Building Study.” This project will assess the building of a commercialization facility that integrates privatization of intellectual property out of Washington State University to create jobs in Whitman County and Washington State. CERB funds are matched by $12,500 in local resources.

“CERB is dedicated to helping communities across the state develop the infrastructure to attract, retain and grow businesses and jobs, for many this starts with planning. These investments will have a positive economic impact at a time when it is needed the most.” said CERB Chair Randy Hayden.

The release of CERB funds to these projects is contingent upon each applicant completing specific pre-contract requirements, such as finalizing other funding sources and obtaining necessary permits. If you are a Washington local government or federally recognized Tribe and have project ideas, please reach out to Janea Delk or Leslie Wolff .

Since 1982, CERB has committed nearly $203 million to local jurisdictions across the state, an investment generating more than 36,000 jobs, and private capital investment of $5.8 billion – a $29-to-$1 return on CERB investments. Read the 2020 CERB Legislative Report and the 2020 CERB Rural Broadband Legislative Report to learn more.

Washington a negative outlier as most states have large reserve accounts

Mon, 23 May 2022 17:09:05 GMT

Washington a negative outlier as most states have large reserve accounts

Article from AWB

States across America are registering record budget reserves, according to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts . Washington state is an outlier, with a negative r ainy day fund balance.

“The strength of states’ rainy day funds ranged widely—from 301 days’ worth of spending in Wyoming to a negative balance in Washington,” the report notes. “Washington was the only state to end the budget year with a negative rainy day fund balance after draining its savings of $1.7 billion; however, the state is projected to at least partially replenish its savings over the next several fiscal years.”

Contact Government Affairs Director Tommy Gantz to learn more and get involved.

LRF 2022 Recreational Fishery Webinar

Fri, 20 May 2022 17:12:02 GMT

LRF 2022 Recreational Fishery Webinar

From the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife

If you missed the Lake Roosevelt Forum 's webinar on fish in Lake Roosevelt and fishing for them, you can now watch it online. And if there was a particular topic you are interested in, here is a "cheat sheet" so you can go directly to that time code:

4:17 Rainbow Trout Hatchery & Net Pen Report

26:11 Walleye Report

50:28 Sturgeon Report

1:14:13 Northern Pike Suppression

1:33:56 Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area Update

1:43:52 Water Forecast & Lake Operations

1:52:28 Question & Answer Session

Skyfest draws large crowd

Thu, 19 May 2022 17:31:46 GMT

Skyfest draws large crowd

By Matthew O Stephens

Cheney Free press

FAIRCHILD AFB – Tens of thousands of area residents came to experience the fun of Skyfest 2022 hosted at Fairchild Air Force Base on May 14 and 15.

Many showed up to se e the headlining Air Force Thunderbirds. Some came to watch the 11 aerial acts and others were there to tour the multiple aircraft staged for public viewing. Some folks were there to experience the whole event.

"I wanted to bring my sons out because they really just love planes," said Tiffany Hanson from Spokane. "They had so much fun being able to sit in and view the helicopters and planes and when the actual airshow started, they were in awe."

The Air Force Academy Wings of Blue parachute team started the aerial performances by gliding to the ground with the American Flag trailing behind and the National Anthem playing in the background. Shortly afterward, a pair of T-38 Talons screamed by for a couple of passes.

The aerial acrobatics teams took to the sky next and provided an exciting performance going into free falls and catching the plane as it tumbled back toward the earth.

Another highlight of the day was the historic B-29 Superfortress called "Doc," one of only two B-29s left in the world. The aircraft was built in 1944 and still catches the eye when flying by.

Hanson's son, 9-year-old Bradley, said that there were so many "good parts" to see at Skyfest but admitted the Thunderbirds were his favorite.

"They were so fast and loud," he said excitedly. "I couldn't believe they were flying so close together- it was really awesome!"

Thousands of people lined up to visit the static displays, many surrounded by the various food tents set up for the event selling hot dogs, burgers, pizza, nachos, and more.

Some of the static aircraft that families could tour included a C-17 Globemaster, a KC-10 Extender, KC-46 Pegasus, and an A-10 from the Idaho Air National Guard. The tours gave people a chance to learn about the history and abilities of the featured aircraft.

Multiple West Plains businesses donated the food at the distinguished visitor's tent, according to Volunteer Committee Chair and Social Media Manager for the West Plains Chamber of Commerce Tonya Murray.

"Since I have a history with the base and have experience catering, they came to me with a question," Murray said. "What if the West Plains Chamber could rally some west plains businesses to provide some food for the distinguished visitors tent?"

Murray said she was able to bring in food from 40 partners to put together a sandwich bar for Saturday and a salad bar on Sunday. She added that she found success in simplicity because the food from day one rolled right into day two for the salads.

"We absolutely could not have done it without those partners," Murray said. "It was so easy too because everyone pitched in. We got tomatoes from one place, olives from another place, lettuce from another partner and then we just brought it all together. I can't even believe how smoothly it all went this year."

When Thunderbirds took to the skies and finished their performance with a signature "Delta Burst," the crowd screamed and cheered, and the afternoon excitement came to an end.

‘That’s farming’: After facing drought last year, Washington farmers contend with cold delaying crops in the new season

Thu, 19 May 2022 14:34:20 GMT

‘That’s farming’: After facing drought last year, Washington farmers contend with cold delaying crops in the new season

Article from the Spokesman Review

Talk to farmers in Washington, and they will tell you it’s one challenge after another. Right now, it’s the incessant cold and blustering spring giving them grief.

Agric ultural communities across Washington are contending with one of the coldest and wettest springs on record; one that has already hit the Northwest’s beloved cherries and will likely lead to delays in crop production statewide. April was the third-coldest on record for Washington, and snowpack in some parts of the Cascades is still around 130% of normal, according to the National Weather Service.

Compared to last year, planting and growth for virtually every major crop in Washington is delayed, according to data published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this week. Just 40% of corn is planted in the Evergreen State, compared to 80% last year, while spring wheat, barley, onions and dry peas are emerging at a much slower rate.

From the inviting “you-pick” pumpkin and berry patches at Green Bluff, to the sweet corn fields of the Columbia Basin, Washington growers are anxiously waiting as the state struggles to reach higher temperatures.

Ryan Poe is a fifth-generation farmer on a 15,000-acre centennial farm in Grant County, where he grows mostly winter wheat and canola.

While some might think the cold temperatures and consistent precipitation are better than the drought conditions seen last growing season, Poe said he’s much more concerned about his crops than he was last year.

“It’s definitely been a challenging start to the year; crops are way behind what we would normally see at this time,” Poe said. “Winter wheat normally would be really taking off, and it’s just kind of sitting there.”

Usually planted in the fall and harvested in the summer , winter wheat gets its name for its flip-flopped season. Poe does some spring planting, but prefers to take advantage of the moisture that comes with planting in the fall and growing through the spring. He said both his winter and spring crops are behind schedule; the spring canola he planted this year is coming up a lot slower, and his winter wheat will have to be harvested much later than usual unless things warm up.

“We’re usually, in our area, done harvesting by the time that we’re planting our winter wheat; we’re not really set up very well for doing both at the same time, so that’ll definitely have an impact for us,” Poe said. “But if it just turned hot and dry right now, we’re definitely going to see reduced yield; it’ll cook it.”

The price of wheat shot up after Russia invaded Ukraine, one of the top producing wheat countries in the world. Poe said he hopes to get a good crop this year so he can at least break even. He finds some relief knowing he has crop insurance, but after having to file a large claim last year due to drought conditions, he’d like to avoid doing so again.

“It’s a kind of a wait-and-see game here at this point,” Poe said. “Talking to my uncle that has been farming a lot longer, probably 45-plus years or so, he just doesn’t remember a time with these kinds of back-to-back real big challenges.”

Read full article here

SharedWork and Labor Market and Economic Analysis

Wed, 18 May 2022 17:40:02 GMT

SharedWork and Labor Market and Economic Analysis

Spokane is the third largest labor market in a state where there are currently 1.5 jobs for every job seeker.

Ajsa Suljic is one of six regional economists serving local labor markets in Washington. Regional economists support private businesses at no cost and can help employers incorporate the best information when making important business decisions.

“Spokane lost 11.9% of jobs in April 2022, but through March of 2022 Spokane has regained all of those jobs lost and added an additional 16% to its numbers (this is excluding agricultural activities). The majority of industries are in full recovery and growth mode,” said Suljic.

“Our goal in the labor market information division is to measure labor market activity, working conditions, price changes and productivity in the economy and around the state and nation and to support private and public decision-making,” said Suljic, “If you’re opening a business, want to expand your service market or gain more customers, if you’re hiring employees or being asked to raise wages, labor market information can help you make those decisions much easier than without the information.”

To get in touch with your regional economic, view labor market statistics and occupation and wage data, visit the Labor Market Information webpage at esd.wa.gov/labormarketinf

What we learned about SharedWork:

In these uncertain times, employers need to carefully guard their payroll costs. Leigh Rowley showed us how businesses can do that using ESD’s SharedWork program .

SharedWork is a no-cost, employer opt-in program that supplements workers’ paychecks when hours are cut back, using unemployment insurance as a bridge to avoid layoffs and quits during uncertain times.

“This program allows you to reduce payroll costs and keep morale up. Employers with more than two employees are encouraged to enroll and renew year after year,” said Rowley, “The program takes little time to manage, and it’s best to be prepared.”

To learn more about SharedWork, watch this two minute animated video or visit their website at sharedworkwa.com.

The employer resource webinar series is open to any business at no cost and is hosted in partnership with the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce , Greater Spokane Inc. , West Plains Chamber of Commerce and the SharedWork program.

The Employer Resource webinar series

SharedWork and WA Cares Fund

10-11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 15 | Register now!

SharedWork, Work Opportunity Tax Credit and Federal Bonding

10-11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 20 | Register now!

SharedWork, Paid Family and Medical Leave

10-11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, August 17 | Register now!

SharedWork and WorkSource resources, programs and services

10-11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, September 21| Register now!

SharedWork, unemployment taxes and wage reporting

10-11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, October 19| Register now!

Disaster Loans Available For Eastern Washington Small Businesses

Mon, 16 May 2022 19:23:43 GMT

Disaster Loans Available For Eastern Washington Small Businesses

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is now accepting applications for Economic Disaster Loans to help businesses dependent on farming and ranching to recover fr om financial losses caused by last month’s drought.

Some of the businesses that may qualify for these low-interest loans include:

Small non-farm businesses
Small agricultural cooperatives
Small businesses engaged in aquaculture
Most private nonprofit organizations

To learn more about the Economic Disaster Loan program and see if you’re eligible, I encourage you to visit the SBA’s website here . The deadline to apply is December 19, 2022. In the meantime, if you have any questions about this program or need other assistance, please do not hesitate to contact my office by calling (509) 353-2374 or visiting my website .

New record for gas prices reached in Washington and nation

Mon, 16 May 2022 19:20:43 GMT

New record for gas prices reached in Washington and nation

Article from AWB

Washington gas prices set a new record last Wednesday at $4.89 a gallon, The Olympian reports . The Evergreen State ranks No. 4 in the country for the most expensive gaso line. Prices ranged from $5.46 a gallon in San Juan County to $4.47 a gallon in Asotin County.

The national price set a record as well at $4.40 a gallon.

Washington's economy is powered by exports, including manufactured goods and agricultural commodities. These goods rely on gasoline and diesel fuel both during the production process and later as these goods are exported to markets.

Earlier this year, the Washington state gas tax of 49.4 cents per gallon ranked No. 8 in the country, according to the Tax Foundation.

Contact Government Affairs Director Mike Ennis to learn more and get involved.

Inflation slows, yet prices up 8% over past year

Mon, 16 May 2022 19:19:41 GMT

Inflation slows, yet prices up 8% over past year

Article from AWB

First the good news: Inflation slowed in April, The Wall Street Journal reports. Now the bad news: Prices are still up 8.3% compared to a year earlier.

That's close to t he fastest pace in four decades as the economy continued to face upward price pressures, the newspaper explains. Prices have risen for groceries as well as dining out, airline travel and other services.

"Inflation is no longer just contained to the supply chain—these pressures are actually becoming more broad-based," said Aneta Markowska, chief financial economist at Jefferies LLC.

Inflation is a major reason consumer confidence is down now, despite positive signs in the U.S. economy, Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics said at AWB's Spring Meeting last week.

Macroeconomic and Interest Rate Outlooks from Northwest Farm Credit Services

Mon, 16 May 2022 19:17:31 GMT

Macroeconomic and Interest Rate Outlooks from Northwest Farm Credit Services

Watch the latest outlook with Dr. Ed Seifried, economist, university professor and nationally recognized speaker and author. In his presentation, Dr. Seifried shares ins ights and reactions following the release of major economic reports. Highlights include:

History indicates the probability of recession increases when short-term rates become higher than long-term rates (inverted yield curve).
Producers should budget for interest rates to rise by approximately 3% if the Fed responds to inflation as they have in the past.
Growth rate of near zero for first half of 2022 is a challenging place to start to stay optimistic for a “soft landing.”
Mortgage rates already increasing in light of the Fed’s balance sheet reduction plan set to begin in June.

Schweitzers make ‘game-changer’ $20 million donation to WSU’s engineering college

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 23:09:59 GMT

Schweitzers make ‘game-changer’ $20 million donation to WSU’s engineering college

Article from AWB

ashington State University is celebrating a $20 million endowment to help construct a “student success” building for the WSU Voiland College of Engineering and Architect ure.

Edmund and Beatrice Schweitzer are giving $10 million, with the other $10 million coming from Pullman-based Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. It’s the largest gift ever to the Voiland College and one of the biggest to WSU of all time.

“An investment in student success of this magnitude is a game changer for the Voiland College and for the entire WSU system,” WSU President Kirk Schulz said. Demand for engineers is growing. Voiland College’s enrollment has increased to 5,500 students from just over 4,200 a decade ago.

The new Schweitzer Engineering Hall, as it will be called, is being designed as a central hub for engineering and design students to innovate and collaborate. WSU aims to break ground in 2024.

AWB Survey: Inflation, workforce, supply chain top challenges for employers today

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 23:08:50 GMT

AWB Survey: Inflation, workforce, supply chain top challenges for employers today

This year is tougher than ever for many Washington employers. Inflation, a lack of qualified workers and supply chain disruptions top the list of current challenges.

AW B’s spring member survey shows employers are confronted by several major challenges all at once. The top five concerns are inflation, lack of qualified workers, supply chain disruptions, government regulations and the overall tax burden.

It's the first survey in many years where this many different issues rose to the top of employer concerns.

Nearly 600 employers were surveyed over the last two months. Most are small and medium-sized businesses with fewer than 50 employees. Read more at AWB News.

Natural gas HVAC systems and furnaces banned in most new commercial and multi-family construction

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 23:07:55 GMT

Natural gas HVAC systems and furnaces banned in most new commercial and multi-family construction

Article from AWB

After a contentious seven-hour meeting Friday , the State Building Code Council voted 11-3 to effectively ban traditional HVAC systems and natural gas in most new commerc ial and multi-family construction in favor of heat pumps. This concludes a yearlong effort by the code council to pass the Commercial Energy Code update that saw many AWB members and chamber partners weigh in over concerns about how this proposal will increase housing costs and negatively affect grid reliability.

The building code revisions go into effect July 1, 2023, at which time new businesses and apartments will have to mostly use heat pumps to warm air and water. In most instances, new buildings couldn’t use natural gas or electrical resistance systems such as baseboard heaters, wall heaters, radiant heat systems and electric furnaces.

There remains a question as to whether the state building code council has the authority to ban natural gas. The council is authorized to make changes in the name of energy efficiency, but does not have the authority to take action to ban an energy source for Washingtonians. In fact, the Legislature, which does have that authority, has declined for the past three years to pass bills which would ban natural gas. HB 1770 , which would have specifically granted the code council this authority, died this year in the Senate, with three other governor request bills that would have banned natural gas.

The code proposal was able to pass after Gov. Jay Inslee suddenly appointed four new members to replace other members who had followed this process from the beginning and were planning on voting against the proposal.

Spokane County Commissioner Al French, a member of the building code council, voted against the provisions. He said it should be up to the Legislature to make major decisions, The Spokesman-Review reports.

“One of the criticisms I’ve had of this board for a long time is it’s not accountable,” French said at the meeting. “It’s not accountable to the Legislature, it’s not accountable to the public, and yet they make decisions that are far reaching.”

Similar heat pump proposals are being made over the next few months for the residential section of the state energy code. Anyone interested in reviewing the residential proposals or providing public comment may do so at sbcc.wa.gov .

Contact Government Affairs Director Peter Godlewski to learn more and get involved.

Cheney Free Press: Dirt turned on small arms range

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 17:12:17 GMT

Cheney Free Press: Dirt turned on small arms range

By Matthew O. Stephens ; Article published here

FAIRCHILD AFB – The collaborative efforts of several parties converged on April 13 for the Air Force and the Spokane County Sheriff's Office small arms range and trainin g facility groundbreaking ceremony.

The facility, located at 13033 West Medical Lake Road, is just minutes from Fairchild Air Force Base. According to Chair of the Spokane County Board of Commissioners Mary Kuney, having a single facility for both parties to train at will help save taxpayer money because there won't be a need for additional facilities.

pokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich explained that much of what drives a community is the partnerships built around the public. His office has been working to establish a relationship with Fairchild for 10 years. He said that better training opportunities allow everyone to do their job more efficiently.

"Training is what makes professionalism, and training is what it's all about when it comes down to discipline and doing things right -and having the confidence and the competence to do your job," Knezovich said. "For law enforcement, this is the most important thing we do for our staff, so they can have the tools necessary to do a difficult job under difficult circumstances."

According to Kuney, the dedication of the people involved moved the project this far along. She explained that some federal directives needed changing along the way.

"It's been years in the making and required changes to federal regulations and commemorates a first of its kind landmark partnership between the Air Force and Spokane County," Kuney said. "It's been almost exactly one year since we executed an intergovernmental support agreement. So, thank you to all parties that helped keep moving this project forward."

Spokane County Commissioner Al French echoed Kuney's thoughts on the legal process and explained it as very time-consuming.

"When we started this 10 years ago, the laws at the federal level and the procedures did not allow for this to happen," French said. "So with the help of our federal delegation, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Senator Murray and Senator Cantwell, we were able to change those laws and make it possible."

Col. Cassius Bentley, Commander of the 92d Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild, said the project is historic.

"This is a big, big deal and a big day for Fairchild Air Force Base and Spokane County," he said. "The examples the Air Force uses to discuss community partnerships and opportunities are partnerships like this. I'm so proud of the effort put forth for this initiative.

"I think it's a great story. About nine years ago, Jeff Johnson, one of our all-star civilians, sat down with Sheriff Knezovich. They came up with a concept of how we can share our resources to train our defenders and the Sheriff's Office and many others."

Clark Nexsen, the design architect firm behind the state-of-the-art facility, has been involved in many Department of Defense contracts. Principal of the firm Bobby Cummings described how the situation is unique to Clark Nexsen.

"This was the opportunity to get a federal agency working together with a local agency in a way that we have never experienced," Cummings said. "I can tell you from a technical side this range will be one of a kind.

"There is no other place in the country where you can take a facility that has been built to the criteria and standards of the U.S. military and have it be something the air force base and law enforcement agencies can use.

"I want to invite everybody to come out in about 18 months and be here when we open this up for operations to start. We are looking forward to turning dirt as well."

State tax receipts continue to surge

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 17:01:52 GMT

State tax receipts continue to surge

Article from AWB

Washington state’s collections of Business & Occupation taxes from employers increased by 24% year-over-year, part of a continued upswelling of tax receipts collected by state government.

The latest monthly report from the state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council showed that the state collected $183 million more than expected in major general fund state revenues under its forecast from February. That’s a 10.9% increase of tax collections above expectations.

The fact that B&O taxes paid by employers increased by almost a quarter “is a big year-over-year increase,” said AWB Government Affairs Director Tommy Gantz.

The Washington Research Council has more. Read the original collections report here .

Inflation rate at 8.5% for the year; highest rate since 1981

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 17:00:06 GMT

Inflation rate at 8.5% for the year; highest rate since 1981

Article from AWB

The rising costs for food, gasoline, housing and other necessities have pushed the consumer price index up to an 8.5% annualized rate , the Department of Labor said last week. That’s the sharpest year-over-year increase since 1981.

Price increases are linked to choked supply chains, heavy consumer demand and the disruption to food and energy markets from Russia’s war with Ukraine. From February to March, inflation rose 1.2%, the biggest monthly increase since 2005.

Bank of America is warning that high inflation is a real threat to the economic recovery which began only two years ago.

“‘Inflation shock’ worsening, ‘rate shock’ just beginning, ‘ recession shock’ coming,” Bank of America chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett wrote in a note to clients on Friday. Inflation is “out of control,” he said, adding: “Inflation causes recessions.”

Earlier this month, Deutsche Bank became the first major bank to forecast a recession , predicting that the Federal Reserve’s increase of interest rates to fight inflation will push the economy into a “mild” downturn that begins in late 2023.

Hear more on inflation and what’s ahead for the economy on May 11 at AWB’s Spring Meeting, where economist Christopher Thornberg will give the morning keynote. Learn more and register here to attend in-person or virtually.

Cheney Public Schools Announces Superintendent Finalist Candidates

Sat, 16 Apr 2022 16:57:50 GMT

Cheney Public Schools Announces Superintendent Finalist Candidates

Cheney Public Schools is excited to announce the finalist candidates for our next district superintendent. After completing preliminary interviews with the Cheney Sc hool Board of Directors on April 14 and 15, the field has been narrowed to three excellent candidates with great experience and a passion for education. The three finalists are Dr. Sean Dotson, Dr. Ben Ferney, and Mr. Donald Vanderholm.

Dr. Sean Dotson has served as the superintendent of the Tumwater School District since 2019, prior to that he served as the associate superintendent here in Cheney Public Schools for five years. He has served as principal or assistant principal at elementary, middle and high school levels and taught high school English for five years. Dr. Dotson holds an Education Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Washington State University, a Master of Education in Educational Leadership and a Bachelor of Arts, Education in Secondary English, both from Eastern Washington University.

Dr. Ben Ferney is currently the superintendent of Valley School District south of Chewelah, Washington and has served in that role since 2018. Prior to that he served as principal of Freeman Middle School, and assistant principal at Westwood and Cheney Middle Schools and taught high school science for ten years. He holds an Education Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Gonzaga University, a Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from Eastern Washington University and a Bachelor of Science from Washington State University.

Mr. Donald Vanderholm is currently the superintendent of the Lind-Ritzville Cooperative Schools and has served in that role since 2018. Before his time at Lind-Ritzville Mr. Vanderholm served as the principal of Manson High School for eleven years. He has fourteen years of experience teaching social studies and language arts in Springdale and Inchelium School Districts. Mr. Vanderholm is currently pursuing an Education Doctorate from Washington State University, he holds a Master in Education from Eastern Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts from Whitworth University.

Cheney Public Schools congratulates Dr. Sean Dotson, Dr. Ben Ferney, and Mr. Donald Vanderholm and looks forward to the next stage of the interview process. Dr. Dotson will interview on Tuesday the 19th, Mr. Vanderholm will interview on Wednesday the 20th and Dr. Ferney will interview on Thursday the 21st. Finalist interviews will include a full day interview in which the public will have the opportunity to participate during open community forums each day from 5:15 – 6:00 p.m. in the Cheney High School auditorium. Forum attendees will have the opportunity to write questions on cards that will be shared with the forum moderator and provide written feedback for consideration.

Airway Heights - 2021 Governor's Smart Communities Award Winner

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 16:55:27 GMT

Airway Heights - 2021 Governor's Smart Communities Award Winner

The City of Airway Heights is booming. Once a bedroom community next to Fairchild Air Force Base, it’s now the fastest growing city in Spokane County with a 64% increase in population in the last 10 years.

U.S. Highway 2 runs through the heart of downtown, dividing the city in two. The high-speed traffic corridor poses challenges to the nearby community and local businesses, as many of the people driving through are not residents.

Airway Heights is home to many of the largest employers in the county, so 95% of people working there commute in, clogging the roads and highway with 30,000 daily car trips.

City leadership knew their city needed a gateway to welcome people to town and encourage them to venture into the community. With the planning commission, professional consulting and community involvement, Airway Heights developed a plan to update commercial zoning and development standards to create a new, mixed-use downtown core. The Downtown Subarea Plan was born.

“The spirit in this community is our community members, our businesses, our residents,” said former Mayor Sonny Weathers. “They’re a deserving population and they’ve gone without for a really long time. So these outcomes matter. They matter to the heart of our community. Communities are more than just a collection of houses.”

The spirit of Airway Heights is welcoming, and the multi-generational community is focused on creating a place to live, work, learn and play for everyone. For too long, the West Plains community has felt forgotten, with cars speeding through on their way to or from other places.

The Downtown Subarea Plan will create a sense of place for Airway Heights. It includes new civic buildings, open courtyards and makers’ spaces. Transition zones will be added along the highway and the designation of a main street will bring visibility and the awareness that people have arrived somewhere special.

Through the years, development has focused on the area bordering the highway, with the residential areas clustered away from the downtown core. Now, the community is poised to add more missing middle housing and enhance mixed-use development in the downtown corridor. Adding more resources, updating infrastructure and filling the gaps in services is central to the plan.

“We need to leave a legacy,” Weathers said. “That’s our responsibility as leaders in the community today – to leave a legacy behind us that sets up our future generations for success.”

2021 Smart Vision Award: For a comprehensive plan, subarea plan or countywide planning policies

Livestock auction investments allowed under A-PLUS bill

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 18:59:01 GMT

Livestock auction investments allowed under A-PLUS bill

By Jacqui Fatka

Article from BEEF Magazine

The administration, Congress and the livestock industry agree there is a need for increased packer competition and additional shackle space, and a new bill would help in those efforts. Currently, livestock auctions are not able to own, invest or participate in the operation of a packing plant or meat marketing business due to current Packers and Stockyards Act regulations.

Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., alongside Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., introduced the Amplifying Processing of Livestock in the United States (A-PLUS) Act , which would fix regulatory roadblocks to increasing meat processing capacity and allow livestock auction market owners to invest in small and regional packing facilities.

“The meatpacking sector continues to be the bottleneck in the cattle and beef supply chain,” says National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Senior Director of Government Affairs Tanner Beymer. “Opening more small and medium-sized processing facilities increases opportunities for producers to market their cattle and helps balance leverage in pricing negotiations.”

This legislation directs the secretary of agriculture to amend the Packers and Stockyards Act to allow livestock auction market owners to hold ownership in, finance, or participate in the management or operation of a meat packing entity with a cumulative slaughter capacity of less than 2,000 animals per day or 700,000 animals per year. This cap would exclude investment in the top 10 meat packers.

Livestock auction markets, called marketing agencies selling on commission, are not currently able to own or invest, or participate in the management or operation of a packing plant or meat marketing business due to a Packers and Stockyards Act regulation.

“For decades, livestock auction markets have played by an outdated and restrictive book of rules which limited capacity and created a system where large meat packer behemoths literally and figuratively slaughtered the competition,” Hartzler says. “The A-PLUS Act would even the playing field and fix these regulations for the benefit of our livestock auctions and small packers.”

Panetta says allowing for livestock auction market investments in regional packing facilities will support small businesses, increase competition and drive down costs for consumers.

“As the livestock industry continues to deal with supply chain disruptions, the federal government needs to remove any unnecessary barriers that are hurting our producer’s ability to compete in a global marketplace. This bipartisan legislation will remove outdated regulations from the early 1900s and better reflect the needs of our modern-day livestock producers,” he says.

Clint Berry, chairman of NCBA’s Livestock Marketing Council, says the need for new packing facilities has become a critical issue for the cattle industry.

“Huge amounts of capital are required to get new facilities up and running. Understanding the need for these new facilities, producers themselves have invested in these efforts but outdated regulations still prevent livestock markets from having ownership in packing facilities, Berry says. “The A-PLUS Act paves the way for the marketing segment of the cattle industry to be included as investors in these facilities, helping reduce dependence on major packers and improving the competitiveness of the live cattle market.”

Livestock Marketing Association President Larry Schnell says A-PLUS Act would reduce a regulatory barrier that currently prohibits livestock auction owners like himself from investing in much-needed packing capacity expansion. “This is a great bill that will spur additional capacity and especially additional packers to increase competition and improve profitability for producers,” he says.

United States Cattlemen’s Association President Brooke Miller notes that the Packers & Stockyards Act is over 100 years old. “It’s time to modernize parts of this historic legislation that no longer make sense in the modern world,” Miller says. “Today’s livestock auctions are often family-owned and regionally based. If one of these entities wanted to invest in a local processing facility to increase processing capacity for producers in their area, there shouldn’t be an outdated regulation holding them back from doing so.”

Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., who is the ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee’s livestock subcommittee, says Congress should continue to partner with the livestock industry to find creative ways to increase cattle processing capacity. “The A-PLUS Act accomplishes that goal and prioritizes investment for our producers,” he says.

Give Data to Get Data: Associated Industries Launches Essential Pay and Benefits Survey for Regional Employers.

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 17:19:21 GMT

Give Data to Get Data: Associated Industries Launches Essential Pay and Benefits Survey for Regional Employers.

Employers looking to adapt to heightened expectations for pay transparency, disclosure, and equity, will need valuable market data in the coming months.

Spokane, WA, April 12, 2022 (aiin.com) – Associated Industries announces the launch of the data collection process for the Inland Northwest Compensation and Benefits Sur vey. This report provides employers with insights into local compensation, base pay, salary increase, emerging job titles, employee benefits, and new remote work arrangements. Employers can input their data via an online platform funded by Associated Industries at aiin.com until May 12, 2022. The survey typically takes two to three hours, depending on the company size and benefit offerings. Participants are able to start, stop, and return to the platform conveniently without losing their data.

Employers need comparable market data to make informed decisions about their current compensation strategy. National surveys have limited value for most organizations. While they serve to have a snapshot of what’s going on in the general market, localized data is best to know trends in our local economic community. “As we move into 2023, compensation data will be even more critical for workforce planning as employers must disclose wage scales or salary ranges, as well as a general description of all offered benefits and other compensation in job postings.” Said Jennifer Hanson, Legal Counsel for Associated Industries.

Participating employer members of Associated Industries receive the report for free, and members of the West Plains Chamber of Commerce and Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce will receive a 30% discount. Employers not providing data will not be able to purchase the final report, which isexpected to be published in early August.

To learn more about Associated Industries, visit our website aiin.com

About Associated Industries

Associated Industries is trusted employer association founded on the mission to deliver HR and employment law services and resources to help Spokane employers reduce risks and costs, while increasing workplace success.

Struggling to find affordable child care? You’re not alone

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 17:07:45 GMT

Struggling to find affordable childcare? You're not alone.

Article from KXY by Emily Blume

SPOKANE, Wash. — In today’s world, many households have dual incomes, with moms and dads working. That means childcare is essential, and right now, it’s tougher than eve r to find and pay for.

There are a couple of issues at play here, and none of them have an easy fix. Quite a few local daycares were simply too busy to talk, but eventually, we found someone who had some insight to share. If you’re in a similar situation, there are a few things you can do to help yourself, and your kids, get ahead.

“Since the beginnings of COVID, there has always been a struggle with childcare and at this point, every place in Spokane that’s in my area, or even outside my area has a waitlist of 40 and 200 children,” Deanna Barber-Myhal explained. She is a mom of two and feels this pain. She says it’s never been this bad.

“It’s so frustrating. I’ve never had… with both my children… I’ve never had to fight so hard to fight somewhere for my child to go and be safe at,” she added.

As District Operator at Papa John’s, her full-time job carries her into the evenings, and her daughter is out of school at 3:00 P.M.

“Every day is a different day. Every day is a different person,” she told us.

Brian Trimble, Executive Director at Herzog Family Center, agreed, it’s a struggle for everyone. He told us that at Herzog, 85% of tuition fees go straight to paying for teachers. Bringing in high-quality teachers is a top priority for them, and in order to do so, they need to be paid fair prices. He explained, that we all want our teachers paid well, but we also want affordable child care, and we can’t have both. Further adding to the issues is the reality that it’s tougher to hire teachers post-pandemic as many people are turning to other careers that pay better, with more flexibility.

Meanwhile, Barber-Myhal is also struggling to find a summer camp for her daughter, “I signed up for the summer YMCA camp, the way we have every other year and then I got the email. Better do it quickly… then, I was waitlisted. I put my application within about an hour of its opening.”

Brian Trimble says, if you know you’re going to need child care, get yourself on a waitlist ASAP (months in advance). For expecting parents, he recommends starting the search immediately. Also, get yourself on as many waitlists as possible, because you never know which one might work out.

Article published here

Employers will soon have to list salary in job postings

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 15:07:28 GMT

Employers will soon have to list sal ary in job postings

Article from AWB

Under a bill signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee, employers in Washington will need to include salary and benefits information in job postings, rather than waiting until they make a job offer to a prospective employee. The provisions of Senate Bill 5761 apply to employers with 15 or more workers and will take effect Jan. 1, 2023.

The new Washington law applies to any solicitation the employer uses to attract new workers, whether through a third-party recruiter, a printed job announcement or a posting on a digital job board, The Seattle Times reports . Any posting that includes qualifications expected of applicants also must include salary information.

AWB Government Affairs Director Bob Battles told The Seattle Times that he is hearing many questions from employers about the bill: What does it mean to give notice to workers? How much detail does a company need to provide about available benefits? Does that include things like paid parking and dental coverage? If an employer chooses a candidate with less experience than originally expected, can it change the salary range? Or does it have to repost the position and start the application process from square one?

He hopes and expects that the Department of Labor & Industries will provide guidance or rules answering these questions before the law goes into effect.

“This is really a good example of a bill with good intentions, but it simply isn’t necessary,” Battles said. “And I think it really makes it more difficult, especially for small businesses.”

Contact Bob Battles to learn more.

Washington Wolf Population up 16%, tops 200

Sat, 09 Apr 2022 19:03:47 GMT

Washington wolf population up 16%, tops 200

By DON JENKINS Capital Press

Washington's wolf population grew in 2021 by 16% to at least 206 wolves, most of them grouped in packs in the northeast corner of the state, according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife annual wolf report.

The population grew for the 13th straight year, though at least 30 wolves died. Tribal hunters harvested 22 wolves. Hunting outside tribal reservations is illegal.

The department was to present the report Saturday to the Fish and Wildlife Commission. The department has been taking an annual census of wolves since counting five wolves in 2008.

The department says its count, done in coordination with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in northeast Washington, is a minimum number and that there are likely more wolves in Washington.

The Colville tribe reported harvesting 14 wolves, while the Spokane tribe harvested 8. The previous year, the Colville tribe harvested 8 wolves, while the Spokane tribe reported harvesting no wolves.

Fish and Wildlife killed two wolves in 2021 to stop chronic attacks on cattle. Four wolves were hit and killed by vehicles, while two other deaths are under investigation, according to the report.

Fish and Wildlife carves the state into three wolf recovery regions. Wolves have long surpassed recovery goals in Eastern Washington and are moving toward recovery in the North Cascades.

They have not, however, made progress in colonizing the South Cascades.

Fish and Wildlife reported that a lone collared wolf dispersed from a pack in the North Cascades and crossed Interstate 90 into the South Cascades. The department, however, has not confirmed any pack in the region.

Under the state's wolf plan, wolves won't be recovered until there are at least four packs with pups for at least three straight years in all three regions, including the South Cascades.

The department counted 33 packs in 2021, four more than in 2020, with 22 of the packs in northeast Washington. Some 19 of those packs had at least two pups surviving to the end of the year, up from 16 packs the year before.

Eastern Washington had 15 of the successful breeding pairs, while the North Cascades, for the second straight year, had four.

Two of the four new packs were in Ferry and Stevens counties, the northeast counties with most of the wolves. Previously, even before the new packs, Fish and Wildlife described the counties as "saturated" with packs.

The new Dominion pack in Stevens County formed between the Smackout and Dirty Shirt packs, according to the report. The Keller Ridge pack formed in Ferry County on Colville tribal land.

The other new packs were the Columbia pack in Columbia County and the Shady Pass pack in Chelan County.

The department confirmed 13 wolf attacks on livestock, the fewest since 2017. The department classified six other attacks as "probable" depredations.

Fish and Wildlife reported spending $1.4 million on wolves in 2021. More than $1 million of that was on management and research.

The department reported spending $205,969 on range riders and $111,649 to reimburse ranchers for expenses related to preventing attacks on livestock.

Fish and Wildlife paid $20,866 to compensate producers for losses to wolves and spent $19,957 to remove the two wolves.

Pack territories averaged 193 square miles, according to the report. Packs ranged in size from two to 10 wolves. Most packs had three to six wolves. The department counted 10 wolves in the Lookout pack in the North Cascades.

Article published here

Highest Paid Occupations in Construction in 2021 from NAHB

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 18:31:10 GMT

Highest Paid Occupations in Construction in 2021

By NATALIA SINIAVSKAIA

Article from NAHB

According to the latest May 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) and analysis by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), half of payroll workers in construction earn more than $49,070 and the top 25% make at least $75,820. In comparison, the U.S. median wage is $45,760, while the top quartile (top 25%) makes at least $68,590.

The OES publishes wages for over 400 occupations in construction. Out of these, only 58 are construction trades. The other industry workers are in finance, sales, administration and other off-site activities.

The highest paid occupation in construction is Chief Executive Officers (CEO) with half of CEOs making over $162,390 per year. Lawyers working in construction are next on the list with the median wages of $152,650. Out of the next 13 highest paid trades in construction, 12 are various managers. The highest paid managers in construction are architectural and engineering managers, with half of them making over $135,900 and the top 25 percent on the pay scale earning over $170,940 annually.

Among construction trades, elevator installers and repairers top the median wages list with half of them earning over $98,600 a year, and the highest paid 25% making at least $120,950. Pile driver operators are next on the list, with half of them making over $77,030 and top quartile earning at least $96,440. First-line supervisors of construction trades are third on the list. Their median wages are $72,600, with the top 25% highest paid supervisors earning in excess of $91,310.

In general, construction trades that require more years of formal education, specialized training or licensing tend to offer higher annual wages. Median wages of construction and building inspectors are $61,360 and the wages in the top quartile of the pay scale exceed $78,940. Half of plumbers in construction earn over $59,810, with the top quartile making over $78,190. Electricians’ wages are similarly high.

Carpenters are one of the most prevalent construction crafts in the industry. The trade requires less formal education. Nevertheless, the median wages of carpenters working in construction exceed the national median. Half of these craftsmen earn over $48,420 and the highest paid 25% bring in at least $62,370.

With the May 2021 estimates, the OEWS program adopted a new estimation methodology. As a result, the previously published estimates are not directly comparable to the latest 2021 edition. While the recent methodological changes prevent direct comparison with the earlier estimates, the new design is expected to improve the data users’ ability to compare occupational wages across years in the future and better access the changing demand for particular occupations in the labor market.

Discover a Future Career in Energy with Avista Utilities

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 21:50:22 GMT

Discover a future career in energy with Avista Utilities

Wonder what a career in the energy business is like?

Avista is offering interested students at participating schools the opportunity to do an immersion experience in energy delivery that could help you discover a potential career.

The free 4-week program includes hands-on activities, facility tours and job shadowing—all designed to help you develop fundamental knowledge, skills and abilities for a career in energy. Students who successfully complete the program will be awarded up to $2000.

See if there is an energy career that’s right for you. Apply today at:

sites.google.com/wvsd.org/energypathways/home

Applications due: April 15, 2022

For more information, please contact your Career Counselor or Career & Technical Education Director

Residential Building Worker Wages on the Rise

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 18:26:47 GMT

Residential Building Worker Wages on the Ri se

Article from NAHB

Average hourly earnings for residential building workers continue to rise as the construction labor market remains tight. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BL S), average hourly earnings for residential building workers was $28.66 in February 2022, increasing 6% from $27.01 a year ago.

Earnings for residential building workers have increased significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic recession. Between December 2019 and December 2021, average hourly earnings increased about 12%.

Jing Fu, NAHB director of forecasting and analysis, provides more in this Eye on Housing post .

Salmon may soon return to the Spokane and Columbia Rivers

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 18:22:57 GMT

Salmon may soon return to th eSpokane and Columbia Rivers

by Will Wixey

Article from KXLY

SPOKANE, Wash. — Salmon may soon be reintroduced to the Spo kane and Columbia Rivers.

The Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUT) secured over $3 million in funding to bring salmon back to the Inland Northwest. The money will go to Colville, Spokane and Coeur d’Alene member tribes to restore salmon, revitalize tribal culture and strengthen the region’s economy.

Salmon have been blocked from the upper Columbia for nearly 110 years due to the development of five hydropower dams without fish passage facilities. Since 2015, the tribes in the upper Columbia have been leading an effort to reintroduce anadromous fish to areas upstream of Chief Joseph, Grand Coulee, and Spokane River dams.

“We applaud the state of Washington for accepting their role in this most righteous of endeavors,” said Hemene James, Chairman of the Upper Columbia United Tribes. “We as the original inhabitants of this great country of ours look forward to the joint efforts going forward with not only Washington but all those that want to experience all that this beautiful land of ours can be!”

This salmon reintroduction has been years in the making, and years of research have gone into making the return of salmon possible.

UCUT developed a Phase 2 Implementation Plan, which will focus on fisheries research, developing local rearing facilities, and expanding fish transport capacity. The funds will enable the tribes to purchase needed research and transport equipment that will be used throughout the Phase 2 implementation.

“The Upper Columbia Tribes and our partners are committed to leading this effort with sound science,” said Jarred-Michael Erickson, Vice Chair, Upper Columbia United Tribes. “Our approach to Phase 2 studies will ensure that we obtain the scientific information necessary for future decisions about restoring salmon populations in the Upper Columbia.”

The $3 million in funding comes from the Washington State supplemental budget, and will be provided through the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

You can learn more about salmon reintroduction efforts in the upper Columbia here .

Link to KXLY article

Gov. Inslee vetoes bipartisan bill, passed unanimously, to study risks of rolling blackouts

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:59:40 GMT

Gov. Inslee vetoes bipartisan bill, passed unanimously, to study risks of rolling blackouts

Article from AWB

During last week’s bill signings, Gov. Jay Inslee vetoed House Bill 1623 , an AWB-supported bill aimed at ensuring a predictable, reliable supply of electricity and preve nting rolling blackouts. Power reliability is a growing issue for the business community as demand on the electrical grid increases from the combined pressure of increased population and economic growth added to the increasing popularity of electric vehicles.

The passage of the governor’s two signature pieces of legislation, Clean Energy Transformation Act and Climate Commitment Act, further add costs and complications for utilities in procuring and delivering energy to Washington businesses.

Bills like HB 1623 help ensure that Washington does not go down the path of California and the rolling blackouts they experienced last summer, especially as the world faces energy insecurity issues due to the war in Ukraine.

The Governor’s veto message claimed that the bill was redundant. In contrast, the unanimous vote of every legislator on this bill speaks to the important protections this bill would deliver to the state.

HB 1625, sponsored by Rep. Gina Mosbrucker, R-Goldendale, and co-sponsored by House Energy Committee Chair Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, passed unanimously out of both chambers of the Legislature.

AWB supported this bipartisan bill, which would study the extent to which Washington residents are at risk of rolling blackouts and power supply inadequacy events, and would help to ensure a reliable power supply for employers and families in Washington.

Contact Peter Godlewski , AWB government affairs director for environmental and energy issues, to learn more.

Gov. Inslee signs $64.1 billion budget

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:58:04 GMT

Gov. Inslee signs $64.1 billion budg et

Article from AWB

On Thursday Gov. Jay Inslee signed a historically large supplemental state budget. The $64.1 billion spending plan is a $5 billion increase from the $59 billion budget h e signed less than a year ago. In addition to spending a surging surplus of tax monies, the budget also spends more than $1 billion in remaining pandemic-related federal relief funds.

The Legislature hit the gas on spending but bypassed many opportunities for meaningful, structural tax relief, AWB President Kris Johnson wrote in his most recent column printed in newspapers across the state.

“It would have been the perfect time to give more of Washington’s astonishing surplus back to taxpayers, something we’ve seen other states do as state treasuries have swelled during the pandemic era,” Johnson wrote. “Bills to lower the state sales tax rate or reduce the B&O tax for manufacturers were introduced, but failed to even get a hearing as lawmakers appeared more intent on spending.”

Last year’s budget increased spending by $3.9 billion. This year’s supplemental budget increased spending by almost $5.1 billion. That’s the first time since modern budgetary record-keeping began that a supplemental budget has increased spending by more than the original budget in the same two-year budget cycle, according to an analysis by the Washington Research Council.

Contact Government Affairs Director Tommy Gantz to learn more and get involved.

Spectacular aerial exhibition returns for Skyfest 2022!

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 16:05:29 GMT

Spectacular aerial exhibition returns for Skyfest 2022!

Article from KHQ

AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. - Skyfest is returning to Fairchild Airforce Base, promising a, "fun-filled weekend packed with heart-pounding air performances and family-friendly activities," with a free two-day event on May 14 and 15!

The last Skyfest was back in 2019 and drew in an estimated 70,000 people; this year the base is set to welcome even more. Guests will not need to provide proof of vaccination, nor will they be required to wear a mask, as the event takes place outside.

Gates of the base open at 9 a.m. both days, but the air show doesn't actually take off until noon. The event ends at 4:30 p.m.

Here is a schedule of the show:

12:00 - Wings of Blue Skydivers
12:15 - Air Oshinuga
12:27 - Historic Flight Foundation: B-25
12:39 - Historic Flight Foundation: P-51 / C-47 / B-25
12:51 - B-29 Doc
1:11 - KC-135 / B-52
1:23 - Kyle Fowler Go EZ Aerobatics
1:35 - MAAFFA C-130J
1:50 - SERE C-130J / UH-1
2:02 - Undaunted Airshow RV7 x 2
2:14 - US Air Force T-38
2:26 - US Air Force C-17 Demo
2:38 - US Navy F-18 Legacy Flight
3:15 - US Air Force Thunderbirds

2022 Annual Meeting Recap

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 15:53:10 GMT

2022 Annual Meeting Recap

Article from Cheney Free Press

Area leaders plan for 2022

by Matthew O. Stephens

AIRWAY HEIGHTS – The West Plains Chamber of Commerce brought area leaders together on March 23 to give them a chance to speak about plans for this year.

Executive Director Mark Losh welcomed a crowd of nearly 200 people into the Pavilion at Northern Quest Resort and Casino to listen to the panel of speakers.

Panelists from the area included Mayor Chris Grover from Cheney who spoke about water issues facing the city. Grover also mentioned a water reclamation project that may be in the works. Mayor Terri Cooper spoke on behalf of Medical Lake. She wants Medical Lake to be recognized as an outdoor recreation hot spot.

"I don't want Medical Lake to be the best kept secret in the West Plains," Cooper said. "I want people from all over the region to come visit our town and see what we have to offer."

Councilwoman Jennifer Morton took the microphone to speak about the recent accomplishments of Airway Heights including a Governor's award for their downtown plan, and the recent opening of the Highland Village housing project. She also described some of the goals Airway Heights has set for this year.

Todd Coleman Executive Director of S3R3 Solutions spoke about the industrial growth the area is going through, as his company works in that capacity. Coleman is also the President of the West Plains Chamber. He reassured guests that the chamber is working on building partnerships throughout the West Plains and surrounding region.

"We have an established identity in the West Plains," Coleman said. "But we really want to expand those partnerships further into the region."

Representing Fairchild Air Force Base was Jeff Johnson. He brought air traffic concerns to the table. Johnson handed out copies of a map that shows the flight patterns and noise contours of aircraft flying out of the Spokane International Airport and Fairchild.

"People need to be aware of these when building, and it doesn't mean people can't build in certain areas," Johnson said. "It just means that parties need to coordinate with us prior to going into a project full swing."

Eastern Washington University has plans for this year according to Provost Jonathan Anderson. Anderson also discussed some milestones for the college and said Eastern has no intention of slowing down. He also explained how the college had just received funding for a school of nursing, which drew massive applause from the audience.

"We're number one in the state for upward economic ability," Anderson said. "Meaning our graduates are able to move themselves and their families forward."

All of the regional leaders affirmed they will continue creating partnerships and working to make the West Plains a great place to live, work and recreate.

Thank you to our Sponsors!

Small trucking fleets hit hard by rising fuel prices

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 16:14:41 GMT

Small trucking fleets hit hard by ri sing fuel prices

Article from AWB

ig increases in the price of diesel are making a big impact on trucking's smallest operators, according to the Wall Street Journal's Logistics Report .

Some fleets are t aking steps to conserve fuel, described as a "shock factor" across the sector. Diesel prices have surged to $5.25 a gallon on average – nearly $2 a gallon higher than a year ago.

Several carriers are passing along higher fuel surcharges to shipping customers, and one operator reports he “may park trucks without relief.”

Relief measures are being discussed around the world. California Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed an $11 billion relief package that would make direct payments to car owners, and reduce fuel taxes. Germany is also cutting fuel taxes, the newspaper reports, and aid for truckers has been debated in Spain as well.

Contact Government Affairs Director Mike Ennis to learn more and get involved.

Gov. Inslee signs transportation package into law

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 16:13:16 GMT

Gov. Inslee signs transportation pac kage into law

Article from AWB

During a pair of ceremonies in Mukilteo and Tacoma, Gov. Jay Inslee on Friday signed into law a nearly $17 billion, 16-year transportation package. The revenue and spend ing package sets aside $1 billion to replace the Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River between Vancouver and Portland.

It will also pay for four new hybrid electric ferries, the electrification of two existing ferries, highway maintenance, court-ordered culvert replacement, free public transportation for those 18 and younger, and more.

The plan gets $5.4 billion of its funding from a carbon pricing program signed into law last year that requires the state’s largest emitters, like refineries, to purchase credits for allowed emissions if they exceed a cap set by regulators, the Associated Press reports. The rest comes from several other sources, including federal infrastructure money, funding from the state budget, and higher fees on enhanced licenses and license plates.

Sen. Marko Liias, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, said the package is “changing the framework for how we approach transportation forever in this state.”

Rep. Andrew Barkis, R-Olympia, the ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee, said the Democratic majority ignored his framework to redirect existing revenues to fund transportation needs without fee increases.

“We do need to address our transportation system,” Barkis said. “This process cut out the entirety of the Republican delegation. We were not considered in the policy.”

Contact Government Affairs Director Mike Ennis to learn more.

Farmers and ranchers see rising crop prices, but higher production costs as well

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:12:32 GMT

Farmers and ranchers see rising crop prices, but higher production costs as well

Article from AWB

Commodity prices continue to rise for farmers and ranchers in Washington and across the country. The war in Ukraine is having an impact in this sector as well.

A year a go, a bushel of wheat traded for $6.27, according to the Wall Street Journal . On Friday it traded for $10.98 – a 75% increase.

This means more income for Washington's wheat producers, and other farmers and ranchers throughout the U.S.

But inflation and supply chain problems continue to pose major challenges for American agriculture. In fact, the price of fuel and fertilizer is rising faster than the price of grain, leading the Washington Post to conclude "Higher Food Prices Aren't Making Farmers Richer."

Washington wheat farmer Mike Carstensen also discussed rising production costs with the Seattle Times last week in this overview of Washington's wheat crop , which is consistently one of the largest in the country.

International Energy Agency warns of coming energy shock

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:09:39 GMT

International Energy Agency warns of coming energy shock

Article from AWB

Russia could soon reduce oil production by 30%, leading to one of the biggest supply crises in decades, CNN reports .

The International Energy Agency on Wednesday report ed that Russia could be forced to cut production by 3 million barrels per day in April. The country was producing about 10 million barrels per day before it invaded Ukraine. About half of that production was exported.

But things have changed quickly as a major land war in Europe continues. The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia have banned Russian oil imports. And "moves by major oil companies and global banks to stop dealing with Moscow following the invasion are forcing Russia to offer its crude at a huge discount," CNN explains.

Washington state is not immune to these risks. Petroleum provides more than 54% of the state's energy needs, followed by electricity at more than 20% and natural gas at 17%, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration .

As of this morning, the statewide average for a gallon of gasoline was $4.73, AAA reports. The national average gas price is $4.25.

To learn more about energy issues, contact AWB Government Affairs Director Peter Godlewski at PeterG@awb.org .

ESD will recalculate lower Unemployment Insurance rates after AWB-supported bill passes

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 16:06:54 GMT

ESD will recalculate lower Unemploym ent Insurance rates after AWB-supported bill passes

Article from AWB

The Washington Employment Security Department will recalculate employer Unemployment Insurance tax rates for 2022 in response to Senate Bill 5873 . The bill, sponsored by Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, and signed into law on March 11, reduces social tax rates for employers in 2022 and 2023. It also reduces the 2023 social tax rates for employers who report 10 or fewer employees for fourth quarter 2021.

AWB supported this bill as part of ongoing work to provide relief to employers, who bear the cost of replenishing the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund after it was drained to support families and the economy during the pandemic.

“Recognizing the continued need for relief from UI rate increases, the Legislature has reduced the socialization tax that affects everyone’s rates,” said AWB Government Affairs Director Bob Battles. “We’ve all suffered and as we come out the other end of this pandemic we continue to need assistance and help employers grow and recover. This is going to be a good step toward that.”

Most employers will see a reduction in their tax rates in 2022 and 2023.

For 2022, most employers will see a reduction in their social cost factor rate from 0.75% to 0.5%. An employer’s social tax rate could vary based on the rate class.
For 2023, the flat social cost factor rate will cap at 0.7% rather than 0.8%.

The social cost factor rate is the baseline social tax rate for all employers. This rate will go up or down depending on an employer’s rate class. Contact AWB’s Bob Battles to learn more and get involved.

Watch for Child Tax Credit and Economic Impact Letters from the IRS

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 16:03:55 GMT

Watch for Child Tax Credit and Economic Impact Letters from the IRS

A version of this article appeared on eidebailly.com

If you received advance Child Tax Credit (CTC) or Economic Impact Payments (EIPs) from the government in 2021, be on the lookout for letters from the IRS. The letters pr ovide important information that could be relevant when preparing 2021 income tax returns.

What to Expect from the IRS Child Tax Credit Letters

The IRS has begun sending letters including the total amount of advance CTC payments taxpayers received in 2021 and the number of qualifying children used to calculate the advance payments. The letters are labeled “Letter 6419, 2021 advance CTC.”

Taxpayers and their tax professionals will want to review this information and compare it to the amount of CTC that can be claimed in your 2021 tax return. If you received less than the amount you’re entitled to, you can claim a credit for the remainder; if you received more advance CTC payments than you’re entitled to, you may need to repay some or all the excess.

If you received advance CTC payments in 2021 but haven’t received your Letter 6419 or have lost it, the IRS suggests you check the amount of your payments using its CTC Update Portal .

To help clarify the amount of CTC that taxpayers can claim on their 2021 tax return, the IRS recently updated its list of frequently asked questions (FAQ). The updated FAQ – listed in IRS Fact Sheet 2022-03 – provides guidance on calculating the 2021 CTC, comparing and reconciling that amount to the advance CTC payments received, updating your CTC information, and other information that may be needed when preparing your tax return.

What to Expect from the Economic Impact Payment Letters

The IRS will also soon begin issuing another letter, “Letter 6475, Your Third Economic Impact Payment,” to taxpayers who received Economic Impact Payments (EIPs), or stimulus payments, in 2021. Similar to the advance CTC letter, this letter will summarize the amount of stimulus payments you received in 2021 and the process for claiming an additional credit, if you’re eligible, in your 2021 tax return. And the IRS has also released a list of FAQ ( IRS Fact Sheet 2022-04 ) concerning EIPs.

What to Do with the Letters

Watch for the IRS’ advance CTC and EIP letters and be sure to keep them with your 2021 tax information.

To learn more about tax credits and rules for filing, visit eidebailly.com.

Key Considerations When Looking to Outsource

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 16:02:43 GMT

Key Considerations When Looking to Outsource

A version of this article appeared on eidebailly.com

Many companies have big dreams. To support the vision they want, companies often think they need cutting edge technology, up-to-date financials to drive business growth, data that helps them move forward and quality security parameters that make them feel protected.

Although these are great goals to have, not many organizations can accomplish them using their internal staff alone. Each goal takes deep market expertise, industry knowledge and strategic foresight along with experience to make it happen. Rather than hiring internal employees or specialists, organizations often turn to outsourcing to complement the skill sets and knowledge of their team, grow their thinking and make their goals reality.

What is Outsourcing?

Outsourcing is simply the process of hiring an outside source to help with particular tasks. This could be an individual freelancer or a consultant company with expertise in a specific field. Outsourcing services can be found across a number of industries, including accounting, technology, cybersecurity, data, human resources and more. You essentially create your dream team through trusted advisors, consultants and resources on loan when and where you need them and for what you need them for.

Outsourcing can be helpful for organizations that want to get a better handle on their finances, create a budget, enter transaction conversations, conduct an internal audit or whose ultimate focus might be construction for remodeling or expansion, for example, but their finances are not aligned to that goal. Rapid growth calls for additional support, fast.

Outsourcing is not a replacement to core functions of a business, ones that are aligned with the organizations mission and values. Rather, outsourcing helps support and serves as a resource for needed services, where having someone on staff does not make sense, right now. Often, organizations outsource to bring in needed expertise or an extra set of hands where they cannot yet bring someone on fulltime to serve as a CFO, CIO, CSO, etc. Outsourcing is a way to supplement business needs and goals and current staff resources.

Why Outsourcing is Good for Business

Your reasons to outsource will depend on your mission and goals, but here some of the commonsituations where outsourcing can help fill a need.

• You don’t have the expertise in-house to accomplish your next strategic decision.

• You lack the time or resources to make sense of your business data in a useful, meaningful way.

• You don’t have the budget capacity to hire high-level accounting, payroll, technology or IT personnel.

• Your organization lacks policies, procedures and risk mitigation strategies to make you feel safe and secure.

• Your business is growing rapidly, and you need additional resources to help you move forward.

• You need help administering your technology solutions but lack the internal knowledge or resources to effectively govern and manage the systems.

• You have turnover in your IT department and need experienced eyes to monitor your network and security.

• You want to free yourself from running the day-to-day back-office operations of your company, allowing you to focus on driving your company’s mission, vision and growth initiatives.

Benefits of Services Outsourcing

Outsourcing talent is critical in business today, and the benefits often speak for themselves.

• Access to experienced resources with the skills you need to save time and money, for a monthly service fee

• Hands-on knowledge without going through the hiring, onboarding and training process

• Access to a larger talent pool of resources that know your industry and understand your needs

• Flexibility

• Remote services

• Increased ability to better meet customer needs, as employees are freed from more minimal or unrelated tasks

• Leveraging the best tools and technology, specifically when you outsource IT, data or cybersecurity services

• A future focused approach where you can plan for long-term projects and get them done sooner

Things to Consider When Outsourcing

Now that all the benefits of outsourcing have been outlined, the task at hand is whether or not to outsource for your particular organization. And, if so, now, or in the future?

1. Make a detailed list of common tasks. This exercise provides insight into how you or your employees are spending your days. Are there certain tasks that might be better off as an outsourced service so time is spent more wisely? Identifying inefficiencies will lead to options for streamlining performance.

2. Take a hard look at company finances. Does outsourcing make financial sense? There is a cost saving opportunity, as you’re not hiring a full-time employee and paying for benefits or onboarding, but it’s wise to take a close look at expenses and profits before making this financial decision.

3. Does outsourcing a particular task align with company values? It’s important to be thoughtful when outsourcing core company value linked tasks. If customer service is a value that your company prides itself on, then co-sourcing or engaging project thought leadership could help you focus on maintaining or elevating your standards, providing depth of resources and new insights.

The Future of Outsourcing

Recent global events have made companies hyper aware of remote working options and the need for advances in technology. It also solidified the beneficial relationship between service providers and companies. While companies will continue to invest more in developing in-house capabilities, research also shows that a majority of companies will continue to outsource tasks far into the future. Outsourcing has been normalized for companies of all sizes and is set to remain a smart and strategic business option.

To learn more about outsourcing for your organization, visit eidebailly.com .

How to Identify Your Inefficient Business Processes

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 16:01:40 GMT

How to Identify Your Inefficient Business Processes

A version of this article appeared on eidebailly.com

As your organization scales and changes over time, managing business processes becomes increasingly complex. Organizational leaders are often so busy keeping things runn ing that there’s little time left to devote to reviewing processes. This lack of review essentially institutionalizes inefficiency and ensures that you will stay in a continuous cycle of wasting time and resources.

Whether your processes started out inefficient or you’ve just outgrown the old way of doing things, process improvement is vital to the continued growth and success of your organization.

Process improvement isn’t just for internal optimization—it’s also about making sure that you are providing quality products, customer experiences and vendor relations.

Identifying Inefficient Processes

The first (and simplest) way to evaluate your processes is by having a collaborative conversation. Gathering a cross-functional group of people in a room provides an opportunity to identify how processes really work and outline inefficiencies that you can immediately improve. For example, your operations department leaders may not realize that the finance department leaders use inventory reports to make strategic business decisions. It’s natural for information to become siloed, as teams are often so focused on keeping their pieces moving that they lose sight of how interconnected business processes really are. An open conversation can help form a big-picture view and allow teams to deliver shared information in a faster, more cohesive way.

Reviewing Digital Business Processes

There is a misconception that technology and automation are a quick fix for streamlining processes . However, your digital processes can have just as many bottlenecks and redundancies as your person-driven processes. People and technology cannot stand alone; you can’t talk about one without talking about the other. It’s important to analyze how technology is used to support your key business processes and whether or not your organization’s IT environment is meeting strategic needs. Start thinking from an improvement mindset by focusing on these four key areas:

• Business Applications: Review the use of current business applications, including their functionality and the level of adoption. Are there opportunities in which technology can be used more effectively to support your organization’s key business processes?

• IT Operations & Infrastructure: In today’s business landscape, your IT health is mission-critical. Conduct a thorough review of IT support processes, system operations and maintenance to ensure you have the appropriate foundation in place to power your critical business systems:

• Security: The threat of a security breach has never been stronger. That’s why it’s vital that your organization maintains a secure IT infrastructure. Do you feel confident that your business data is secure? Does it make sense for your organization to explore security as a service?

• Data: In the modern digital economy, most organizations are collecting massive amounts of data and are struggling to develop effective solutions for turning data into “intelligence” for operational decision making. It’s important to review the quality and accessibility of your data and how you can use it to make better business decisions.

o Data Governance: Evaluating the quality, management and availability of data required

Identifying Inefficient Business Processes

Once you’ve evaluated your general applications, operations, data and security, you can dive even deeper by asking yourself the following questions to identify inefficient business processes and explore additional technology solutions to streamline them:

• Do you use multiple systems to track your projects, accounting, inventory and financial reports? Do these systems talk to one another?

• Are there manual processes performed outside of those systems for tracking or reporting? How are they managed, how often are they updated, and how many team members are involved?

• Is there an overlap or duplication of efforts to track these processes across roles, teams, departments or locations?

• Are you able to actually see the data you need in real-time?

• How often do you use your financial reporting? How long does it take to get the final product? Better yet, can you trust the numbers being reported?

• Does your technology have the ability to scale as your business changes?

Next Steps

Once you’ve identified your inefficiencies, the first step to process improvement is change management. Whether you’re restructuring your teams, replacing outdated systems, upgrading your IT environment to stay compliant, or even implementing a whole new technology stack to address your evolving needs, the digital demand on your business is felt most acutely by your people. Studies suggest that less than half of organizational change initiatives are successful, so as your business shifts and responds to the market, you need to keep your people at the top of your change management.

And always remember, your people, processes and technology each play a vital role in your success. Remove one and your project is no longer capturing the full scope of your business. It’s like a tripod with a missing leg; you’ll never capture a balanced, complete picture without all three.

To learn more about optimizing your efficiency, visit eidebailly.com.

Digital Transformation Success Factors: Why Technology Only Gets You So Far

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 15:59:54 GMT

Digital Transformation Success Factors: Why Technology Only Gets You So Far

A version of this article appeared on eidebailly.com

If you rely solely on adding or upgrading technology for your business’s digital transformation , you will miss out on key benefits and solutions. Digital transformation is not a black and white process. Every business has different needs with various stakeholders, requiring different customized solutions. If you approach your business initiative holistically, reviewing the needs of people (both internal and end users) and processes (infrastructure and training) you will be able to make impactful improvements and achieve success.

Technology as Part, not the Whole

Technology plays an essential role in digital transformation. However, it’s only one of many critical components and, on its own, doesn’t lead to true business transformation . Starting your journey with just a new technology solution is like going on a road trip with one good tire and three that are ready to pop.

A true transformation involves changing your business model and business processes. Empowering individuals and teams to be more productive and improving the customer experience will improve overall business processes, eliminating waste and inefficiencies. Once you outline these objectives, technology can be introduced as one of many means to achieve those objectives.

Businesses often start their journey only focused on one or two business problems and the technology that would solve them, and they don’t frame the initiative as “digital transformation.”

In today’s climate, you can’t afford to throw semi-solutions at your problems. You must think broader and consider people and processes, then align your technology to them in order to make the most of your time, budget and outcomes. You might find you need to pursue an entirely new strategy, pursue a culture shift, make a process change and/or a people change ahead of any technology implementation.

Essentials of a Successful Digital Transformation

If you’re ready to broaden the scope of solving your business problem and pursue true digital transformation, there are several essentials to consider.

Business, Skill and Technology Assessments

To understand your organization’s optimal state, analyze and document the capabilities of your team members, business structure and existing technology stack.

• Analyze your business strengths and weaknesses with an assessment such as a Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat (SWOT) analysis internally or with the help of a consultant.

• Evaluate team members’ skill sets and capabilities as they pertain to their roles. Is their department understaffed or overstaffed? Does staff have the necessary expertise? What is their willingness to change?

• Assess employees’ processes and the technology they use. What do they perform manually versus in a system? How efficient are these processes and systems?

• Determine what the capabilities are of the technology systems used today. What is missing to support your business objectives?

Goal Setting

Defining clear objectives and mapping out a strategy to achieve them are keys to success. Develop a vision and strategy among leadership using the assessments you’ve performed, considering opportunities such as:

• How you might restructure, retrain or reallocate resources to address inefficiencies.

• How you might improve processes to reduce waste, such as multiple reviews that can be consolidated into one.

• How you can improve the customer experience by introducing a more seamless technology.

To be sure you don’t interrupt a process that does work as it is, ask yourself the following questions for each component you might involve in the transformation:

1. Is there a business need for the way it’s being done today?

2. What is the business value or customer value of doing it this way?

If there’s no need or value for the process as it is, it’s a candidate for change.

Change Management

It’s critical to think through how this will impact people across everything you do, which includes employees, customers and vendors. Employees understand why the change is important, how it helps them and improves their processes, and how they can get the most out of the innovation. Any transformation should address customer needs and how they prefer to interact with your business but consider how you will communicate it. And how you can improve your interactions with your vendors is important to consider during transformation planning.

Leadership Buy-In

A transformation won’t be successful without having leadership support from the executive level. Culture is driven from the top down. Leaders can be vocal advocates for the initiative via email, in meetings and otherwise, leveraging their strong influence on change.

Transform from a Place of Confidence

Once you have these elements in place, you must carefully select which improvements are right for your business, customers, employees and vendors. This includes process changes, structure changes and the technologies you plan to introduce. It can be an intimidating level of planning and preparation, but it’s worth your while to identify and confirm the best next steps to successfully transform.

To learn more about digital transformation, visit eidebailly.com.

Legislature adjourns with record spending package, no structural tax relief

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 16:30:41 GMT

Legislature adjourns with record spe nding package, no structural tax relief

Article from AWB

Lawmakers had a unique opportunity this year to provide tax relief for families and small businesses — and they let it pass.

The 2022 session came to an end shortly bef ore midnight Thursday after passage of a supplemental budget that raises spending in the two-year budget by about $5 billion — and fails to include any significant tax relief. Instead, the operating budget would use 80.5% of the state’s surplus for new spending.

The budget boosts spending about 8% over what lawmakers approved 11 months ago. The 2021-23 budget is now more than 24% bigger than the previous two-year budget.

You won’t see an across-the-board cut of sales, property or business taxes this year, The Herald reports.

“It’s especially disappointing that our lawmakers, who had $14 billion in extra revenue, were so intensely focused on spending that they couldn’t find a way to provide tax relief to allow employers to reinvest in their businesses and create jobs,” AWB President Kris Johnson said in a press statement after legislative adjournment. “It’s hard to imagine there will be a better opportunity to give something back to taxpayers and to be champions for the economy.”

AWB’s Government Affairs team will provide a full session recap in the Legislative Session Review webinar this Wednesday.

WSDA Names New State Veterinarian

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 19:38:15 GMT

WSDA Names New State Veterinarian

Article from WSDA

Judge strikes down capital gains tax, calling it an unconstitutional income tax

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 17:29:36 GMT

Judge strikes down capital gains tax , calling it an unconstitutional income tax

Article from AWB

A superior court judge threw out Washington’s capital gains tax last week, saying the capital gains tax runs afoul of the state constitution’s requirements that taxes be uniform.

“It violates the uniformity requirement by imposing a 7% tax on an individual’s long-term capital gains exceeding $250,000,” Douglas County Superior Court Judge Brian Huber wrote , but imposes “zero tax on capital gains below that $250,000 threshold.”

He wrote that the state’s 2021 law “is properly characterized as an income tax… rather than as an excise tax as argued by the State.”

The case is expected to end up before the Washington Supreme Court.

Employers across the spectrum have opposed the tax which will “remove a meaningful attraction and retention mechanism” for startups and “harm our competitiveness,” according to a letter by the Washington Technology Industry Association, for example.

The Washington Research Council looks at the potential impact to state government if the tax is tossed out.

Contact Government Affairs Director Tommy Gantz to learn more and get involved.

Mask mandate now will end after March 11

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 17:28:16 GMT

Mask mandate now will end after Marc h 11

Article from AWB

Gov. Jay Inslee has accelerated his timetable for ending Washington’s mask mandate in businesses, schools and most public places. In concert with Oregon and California, mask mandates on the West Coast will end after March 11 . Inslee had earlier said the mask mandate would end March 21.

This follows last week's announcement by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that loosened public-health guidelines on face coverings in the 70% of American counties where Covid-19 posed a low or medium threat to hospital capacity.

Of Washington’s 39 counties, nine are considered high risk; 16 are medium risk; and 14 are low risk, including King County, the state’s most populous, The Seattle Times reports.

“We’ve continued to monitor data from our state Department of Health, and have determined we are able to adjust the timing of our statewide mask requirement,” Inslee said in the joint statement with leaders from California and Oregon. “While this represents another step forward for Washingtonians, we must still be mindful that many within our communities remain vulnerable. Many businesses and families will continue choosing to wear masks, because we’ve learned how effective they are at keeping one another safe.”

Action Alert: Ask senators to oppose move toward banning natural gas in homes and businesses

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 17:27:12 GMT

Action Alert: Ask senators to oppose move toward banning natural gas in homes and businesses

Article from AWB

AWB sent out an Action Alert this morning, urging employers to oppose House Bill 1770 .

This bill would allow the unelected members of the State Building Code Council to take steps to ban natural gas in private homes, apartments and commercial buildings. This bill will result in a steep increase in energy costs for employers and consumers. Such restrictions would also make it harder for families to stay warm during the winter months when the electrical grid is stressed or the power goes out.

If enacted, homeowners looking to renovate their houses or build a new one would be unable to use natural gas past 2030. The bill takes no direct action against natural gas but allows the governor-appointed State Building Code Council to create a code that effectively bans natural gas appliances in homes and businesses.

AWB urges employers to contact their senators and ask them to oppose HB 1770 . With more people moving to Washington and electricity becoming more expensive, natural gas is an important and affordable energy choice consumers can count on during inclement weather.

Contact AWB’s Peter Godlewski to learn more.

Fuel export tax to be stripped from transportation package

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 17:26:19 GMT

Fuel export tax to be stripped from transportation package

Article from AWB

State Rep. Jake Fey, chair of the House Transportation Committee, said Saturday that he would introduce an amendment removing a proposed 6 cent-per-gallon tax on fuel ex ported to other states, deleting a provision that had brought bipartisan criticism from across the Pacific Northwest to a $2 billion funding provision of the “Move Ahead Washington” transportation package.

“We’ve been hearing people and been hearing their concerns,” Fey said. “Everything from the price of oil as it’s been, to the concern about what might transpire with what’s going on in Ukraine, to the response from the elected officials in Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.”

Idaho lawmakers had voted unanimously to oppose the tax. Some Oregon legislators had said they would end cooperation on an I-5 replacement bridge over the Columbia River. And Alaska’s Legislature had begun considering an oil export tax targeted at Washington.

Fey said he would look to fill the $2 billion hole in the $16.8 billion package by transferring $100 million a year for the next 15 years from the state’s public works account. That plan would cut $500 million in projects from the overall package.

Rep. Andrew Barkis, R-Olympia, said the public works account is “very guarded” by local governments. He proposed dedicating sales tax paid on motor vehicles to transportation preservation and maintenance. Unfortunately, a bill he proposed to do that did not receive a hearing this year.

Contact Government Affairs Director Mike Ennis to learn more and get involved.

Export fuel tax proposal spurs bipartisan disapproval from Oregon, Idaho, Alaska

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 17:24:29 GMT

Export fuel tax proposal spurs bipar tisan disapproval from Oregon, Idaho, Alaska

Article from AWB

The $16 billion Moving Washington Forward package depends on several revenue sources, but a 6 cent fuel export tax is proving controversial across state lines. Leaders f rom both parties have come out strongly against the tax on fuel refined along Puget Sound and sold to neighboring states, with some observers calling it a trade or border war within the Pacific Northwest.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown , a Democrat, told Gov. Jay Inslee that “unilateral action to increase gas prices for Oregon families and businesses is unacceptable.” Two Republican members of the Oregon Legislature testified Thursday during a Washington House Transportation Committee hearing, calling the tax “ offensive ” and a hardship for struggling Oregonians.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, both Republicans, sent Inslee a letter calling the tax “dangerous” and saying “the Washington Legislature is venturing into new, uncertain territory.”

Alaska Rep. Kevin McCabe , R-Big Lake, calls Washington’s proposed fuel export tax “colonialism” and pledged to counter with a new tax on Alaskan fish caught by visitors and out-of-state boats moored in Alaska.

AWB has put together an issue brief with information about the Move Ahead Washington package, including pros and cons. From the start, AWBhas had numerous concerns about the proposal, including the $4.4 billion in new taxes and fees. Unless those concerns are adequately addressed, the AWB Government Affairs Council has voted to oppose the package in its current form.

The Seattle Times Editorial Board says the transportation package suffers an unsteady foundation due to its partisan creation , and urges Democratic leaders to involve the Republicans who represent the majority of Washington’s geographic areas to help craft a more balanced bill.

The spending portions of the package (SB 5975 and HB 2118 ) were up for hearings this afternoon in the House and Senate, along with hearings for the 2022 supplemental transportation budget (SB 5689 and HB 1786 ). Executive session committee votes could come this week.

Contact Government Affairs Director Mike Ennis to learn more and get involved.

Indoor mask mandate to end in Washington on March 21

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 17:22:45 GMT

Indoor mask mandate to end in Washin gton on March 21

Article from AWB

Gov. Jay Inslee last week announced he will lift Washington’s indoor mask mandate on March 21. The timeline is based on trend lines suggesting that a month is enough time for hospitalization rates to fall to relatively safe levels.

Masks will no longer be required in retail establishments and other businesses, including restaurants, bars and gyms. The mandate will also be lifted for schools, child care facilities and libraries. However, private businesses can still require masks if they wish, and local governments are still able to enact local mask requirements.

Masks will continue to be required in health care and medical facilities, long-term care settings, public transit and correctional facilities.

Meanwhile, King County will end its Covid vaccine requirements at restaurants, bars and gyms on March 1. Businesses will be free to impose their own vaccination requirements if they wish, but the countywide mandate to check vaccine status will disappear.

The Associated Press reports that many employers are reverting to more normal operations , including some large employers who will no longer require fully vaccinated workers to wear masks on the job unless required by state or local laws.

Democrats unveil $16 billion Move Ahead Washington transportation package

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 17:21:15 GMT

Democrats unveil $16 billion Move Ah ead Washington transportation package

Article from AWB

The Senate and House transportation committee leaders introduced a $16.8 billion transportation funding proposal on Tuesday that they call Move Ahead Washington .

AWB co ntinues to analyze the proposal and provide feedback to its sponsors. There are many positive aspects of the proposal, including important investments in capital projects, maintenance and preservation, ferries and fish passage barrier removal.

However, as AWB President Kris Johnson said in a press release , there are also areas of concern, including the $4.4 billion in new taxes and fees. With record state reserves (more than $11 billion and growing), the package should have a larger contribution from the general fund. AWB has always supported Washington’s history of bipartisan transportation packages, incorporating ideas from both sides, rather than seeing them written with only one party’s input and ideas.

AWB also is concerned about the proposed fuel export tax, which would be the first in the country and would face constitutional questions. Likewise, employers oppose the local option utility tax on natural gas and telecommunications, which would be the highest in the nation and does not have a direct connection to transportation.

Contact Mike Ennis , AWB government affairs director for transportation and infrastructure, to learn more.

AWB Amplified: It’s time to invest in transportation infrastructure

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 17:19:57 GMT

AWB Amplified: It’s time to invest i n transportation infrastructure

Article from AWB

Investments in transportation infrastructure are long overdue, and Washington has the resources to prioritize them, employers say in this week's edition of AWB Amplified . It’s a timely message, as a legislative transportation package could be released this week (see more in item below).

Washington's infrastructure has been given a C grade by the American Society of Civil Engineers . Roads earned a C-minus, bridges earned a C-plus, and the transit system scored a C-minus, for example.

These poor grades have real-world consequences: Delayed shipments, traffic jams, more emissions and increased costs for shipping and vehicle maintenance.

Both employers and the authors of the engineering report say investments have simply not kept up with population growth and a growing economy.

"Many of the bridges in our community are in desperate need of repair," says Kelly Fukai, public and external affairs manager at Spokane International Airport and a member of the Washington State Transportation Commission. "We have some significant failures -- Some bridges that we had to actually close this summer and winter due to some climate-related impacts. We have potholes, we have congestion."

Spokane's experience is not unique.

"Infrastructure investment benefits all corners of the state," says Dale Lemmons, president of Signature Transport and the Washington Trucking Associations .

Read more at AWB News or contact AWB’s Mike Ennis to learn more and get involved.

State-run long-term care insurance program paused, but further fixes needed

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 17:18:38 GMT

State-run long-term care insurance p rogram paused, but further fixes needed

Article from AWB

Washington’s long-term care program is officially paused after Gov. Jay Inslee signed two bills last week delaying and modifying the state-run insurance program and payr oll tax.

Approval of the bills means that employers officially do not have to withhold the tax from employee paychecks. The state Employment Security Department has issued an update stating that employers should stop withholding the WA Cares payroll tax and reimburse employees for withheld premiums within 120 days of when they were collected.

In a press release and a newspaper column , AWB President Kris Johnson said that these bills are a good start but there is a lot more work to be done.

“It’s critical that lawmakers now use this delay to address all of the issues with the program, including its solvency and the role of the private-sector insurance market,” Johnson said.

Rollout of the plan was troubled; last year, about 470,000 workers requested to be exempted from the plan. That’s nearly five times more people than the state had assumed in the baseline for the program. Long-term, the plan is insolvent.

Contact AWB’s Amy Anderson or Bob Battles to learn more and get involved.

Affordable, reliable energy: Washington employers speak out against proposed natural gas restrictions

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 17:17:26 GMT

Affordable, reliable energy: Washing ton employers speak out against proposed natural gas restrictions

Article from AWB

Reliable and affordable energy is one of Washington's main competitive advantages.

The state's diverse energy portfolio -- which includes hydro, wind, solar, nuclear an d natural gas — has helped Washington's economy grow into one of the strongest in the country.

But legislation under consideration in the Legislature would restrict the use of natural gas in Washington, raising concern among employers about their ability to compete. And efforts to restrict natural gas could drive up energy costs for consumers and businesses in a time of rising inflation.

“There would be significant, unintended consequences, and I think the first thing you’d find out of the gate is just this huge economic loss," Jim Seley, CEO of Feed Commodities, said in a new AWB Amplified report and video . "You’re going to have industries shutting down, and the reason I say that is because there’s just no infrastructure in the area to deliver an alternative type of fuel to supply these businesses with.”

The bills being considered include: HB 1766 /SB 5668 , HB 1767 /SB 5666 , HB 1770 /SB 5669 and HB 1774 /SB 5722 .

Contact Peter Godlewski , AWB government affairs director for energy and environmental policy, to learn more and get involved.

State flush with cash as legislative session begins today

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 17:15:34 GMT

State flush with cash as legislative session begins today

Article from AWB

Lawmakers kick off this year’s legislative session today in a mostly virtual format due to the surging Omicron variant.

State tax receipts are also surging, but the two parties have different visions on how to handle the unexpected $8.6 billion surplus .

“We have had strengthening economic well-being as one of our pillars of what we’re going to work on,” said House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma.

Republicans want to use the windfall in several ways, including cutting taxes and investing in Washington’s aging transportation system and unreliable state ferry system, using the new money to transition away from a dependence on the regressive gas tax to pay for transportation investments.

“There’s a tremendous opportunity for the Legislature to step up and change the future of transportation in Washington,” said Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia.

The Seattle Times and the Northwest News Network both dive into these and other issues facing the Legislature in the 60-day session that begins today. The Washington Research Council has a rundown of pre-filed bills involving changes to the state’s tax structure. One of the first issues lawmakers are expected to tackle is long-term care (read more below in Legislation of Note.)

AWB’s Government Affairs team reviewed all the issues during our pre-session webinar last week. A video recording is available online . In his monthly newspaper column, AWB President Kris Johnson calls on legislators to become champions for the economy .

AWB invites all our members to get involved by joining our robust set of issue-area committees or to come to Olympia and testify on how these proposals would affect your business and employees. Contact Dave Mastin , AWB vice president for government affairs, to learn more.

WA Long Term Care Tax put on hold

Sat, 18 Dec 2021 00:45:54 GMT

Inslee, Billig, Jinkins statement on delaying WA Cares Fund premium assessment

Gov. Jay Inslee, together with Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig and House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, released the following statements this morning on delaying the Washington Cares Fund premium assessment:

“I have been in ongoing discussions with legislators about the long-term care bill, which is set to begin collecting funds in January. This bill will help provide much-needed care and coverage for Washingtonians as they age. However, legislators have identified some areas that need adjustments and I agree. We need to give legislators the opportunity to make refinements to the bill. Therefore, I am taking measures within my authority and ordering the state Employment Security Department not to collect the premiums from this program from employers before they come due in April. My actions mean that the state will not collect those funds until the Legislature sorts through these issues. While legislation is under consideration to pause the withholding of LTC fees, employers will not be subject to penalties and interest for not withholding fees from employees' wages during this transition." - Gov. Jay Inslee

“The Legislature passed the Long-Term Services and Supports Act, now known as the Washington Cares Fund, in 2019 to ensure the people of Washington have a convenient, cost-effective long-term care option they can rely on without bankrupting them or denying them coverage for pre-existing conditions. The legislature has the opportunity to delay the Cares Fund premium assessment this year in order to make improvements to the Fund during the 2022 legislative session and we fully intend to do so. Pausing the program so that it can better serve disabled veterans, military spouses, non-residents, and near retirees will improve the program. A pause will also give the Long Term Care Commission the ability to study and make recommendations about residents who move out of Washington to retire and assure that those who have opted out of the program maintain their private insurance policies. These improvements will provide security and stability now and into the future for this critical safety net for our state’s seniors and people with disabilities.

“Delaying implementation of the Washington Cares Fund premium assessment through the 2023 legislative session allows the Legislature time to pass the policy reforms that are ready to go now and to consider further recommendations from the Long Term Care Commission.

“In addition to delaying the premium assessment, we also support employers pausing premium collections from employees in Washington so lawmakers can take necessary action. While we cannot direct employers not to collect, we strongly encourage them to pause on collecting premiums from employees, giving us time to pass legislation extending implementation dates until next year. We know that this extra time will allow us to find solutions and craft updates to the Fund that allows Washingtonians to age with dignity in their own homes.” - Sen. Andy Billig and Speaker Laurie Jinkins.

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Link to original press release

Democratic leaders call on Gov. Inslee to “delay” long-term care insurance tax

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 22:28:01 GMT

News from AWB

Democratic leaders call on Gov. Inslee to “delay” long-term care insurance tax

Three months after an AWB-led coalition made the request, Democratic leaders in the state Senate sent a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee last week, asking him to put a one-year delay on implementation of the tax for a new state-run long-term care insurance program. On Thursday, Inslee said he is looking at ways to pause the tax .

Inslee said he doesn’t have authority to take unilateral action, but he’s looking at how to pause collection of the tax to give legislators time to address issues that have been raised about the program.

In September AWB led an effort to bring together a diverse collation of labor unions, businesses, employer advocates and local governments – more than 200 signatories – to send Inslee a letter asking him to pause the program . AWB opposed changes made to the bill earlier this year, and asked for the pause so problems with those changes could be addressed.

As of Dec. 2, more than 430,000 workers in Washington had applied for an exemption – well above the 300,000 expected in the fiscal note for the bill. The program had only been fully funded through 2075 even at the original level of opt-outs; the higher rate of exemptions will further impact solvency, the Washington Research Council reports.

Contact Government Affairs Director Amy Anderson to learn more and get involved.

Spokane Airport Board and King Beverage,Inc. announce completion of land sale, that will allow for a new 200,000 SF distribution center

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 22:22:15 GMT

Spokane Airport Board and King Beverage, Inc. announce completion of land sale, that will allow for a new 200,000 SF distribution center

From Inland Northwest Business Watch

The Spokane Airport Board and King Beverage,Inc. have closed on the sale of 19.977 acres of Airport land located at the Northwest corner of the Geiger Blvd & Flight Line Blvd. intersection. The sale is to allow King Beverage, a locally owned Anheuser Busch distributor, to construct a large new distribution center at the site.

The agreed upon purchase price for the land was $1,957,923 and the transaction was brokered by Cory Barbieri of Goodale & Barbieri Company.

King Beverage has served the Spokane community for 41 years and currently operates out of a smaller warehouse in Spokane Valley. A previously filed public record shows they hope to build a 204,000 SF warehouse with a 10,000 SF 2 story office building out front and surface parking for 102 vehicles and semi truck wells for deliveries. Construction is shown as starting in the Summer of 2022.

Uptic Studios of Spokane did the architectural design work and no general contractor is listed on the project as of my writing this. For more information on King Beverage visit- http://kingbeverage.com

New hardware store planned in Airway Heights

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 22:19:07 GMT

New hardware store planned in Airway Heights

Kalispel Tribe envisions Builders Supply as first step in larger retail development

The Kalispel Tribe of Indians has partnered with Builders Supply Inc. to bring a planned new hardware, construction supply, and farm-and-ranch retail store to Airway Heights.

Construction on the 70,000-square-foot facility is expected to begin soon, with the store opening scheduled for late 2022, says Brandon Haugen, director of real estate for the Kalispel Development, an arm of the Kalispel Tribal Economic Authority.

The store project site, which is owned by the tribe, is north of the Kalispel Market and Chevron fuel station at the northwest corner of U.S. 2 and Hayford Road.

The retailer, which does business as Builders Supply & Home Center, also has stores in Colville, and Kettle Falls, Washington.

Haugen says he expects the new store to be the cornerstone to the tribe’s envisioned commercial retail shopping area, which will encompass more than 40 acres of land about a half-mile south of its Northern Quest Resort & Casino.

“We envision more than 200,000 square feet of retail development in that area in coming years,” Haugen says.

Plans for the new 8.5-acre Builders Supply store include a drive-thru lumber yard.

Kalispel Tribal Chairman Glen Nenema says in a press release, “As one of the fastest-growing areas in the state, having a large hardware and building supply presence nearby will be tremendously helpful for the surrounding community.”

Haugen says Aman Sood, who has leased the store site from the tribe, will construct and operate the new store.

Class action lawsuit filed against new WA long-term care tax

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 22:09:51 GMT

News from AWB

Class action lawsuit filed against new WA long-term care tax

A lawsuit filed in federal court last week challenges Washington’s new mandatory payroll tax and seeks to stop the January implementation of the 0.58% payroll premium.

The suit was filed by three businesses and six individuals. They list a variety of problems with the plan, including a federal law banning states from requiring workers to join a plan providing sickness or medical benefits. They also note the disparate treatment of people living outside Washington but working here, who pay into the program but won’t receive benefits. This also applies to people who move out of state after retirement. The filing also cites people working now but who will retire within 10 years, who also would not receive benefits.

“The state simply does not have the power to mandate an employee benefit,” said Richard Birmingham, a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.

Also last week, the state of Idaho sent a cease and desist letter , demanding Washington state not collect the tax from Idaho residents who work across the border.

There is also a citizen initiative aimed at overturning the law. Initiative 1436 would make the long-term care program and tax optional, rather than automatic and mandatory. KING 5 News has more.

How much will you pay into the WA Cares Fund? The Seattle Times has a new online calculator that estimates your lifetime contributions.

Contact AWB’s Amy Anderson or Bob Battles to learn more and get involved

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