Budget Woes & Economic Bright Spot

Budget Woes & Economic Bright Spot. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.

As many people here in the northwest know, the state of Washington is struggling under a mountain of debt. Yesterday it was released that L&I paid out some $3.8 million dollars for clients mandatory doctor’s appointments that never happened. All the appointments were supposed to take place with independent medical examiners as part of the state’s workers’ compensation program. A report identified several deficiencies that led to the overpayments, including the lack of the two agencies, L&I and DSHS, to share information in a timely manner. The lack of communication led to double billing providers.

At a time when the American economy is struggling, American agriculture is performing well. In fact, the Director of Global Policy Analysis for the Foreign Agricultural Service Michael Dwyer says it’s one of the best performing sectors of the American economy. He points out the current prosperity in American agriculture is not coming at the expense of taxpayers

DWYER: Cash payments from Washington to producers is at a 20-year low, roughly $10-billion dollars. Back in ’05 it was $25-billion dollars. These are what a lot of the press say are excessive payments from Washington to producers. Well they need new talking points because it’s the lowest it’s been in 20 years.

Now here’s today’s Washington Grange report.

(Grange)

That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.