Failed Bills to Watch Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. On a bright note, a couple of bills that would not have been ideal for agriculture failed to make it through the last legislative session in Olympia.
Bre Elsey, Governmental Affairs Director at the Washington Farm Bureau, says one of them dealt with offering unemployment insurance for striking workers …
ELSEY … “This was labor’s number one priority this year and they did not get it. This would have been incredibly expensive to offer unemployment insurance to striking workers.”
Our existing unemployment insurance system, Elsey says has been a good one for those workers who lost their jobs through no fault of their own …
ELSEY … “Because we’ve had this fundamental principle in Washington state, our unemployment insurance account has been quite solvent, actually one of the best in the nation as far as not being susceptible to radical changes such as the COVID pandemic. Our system remained in very good standing.”
Elsey says just look south to understand why it was a bad bill …
ELSEY … “This program would be so expensive that it was passed in California and even Governor Newsom vetoed that legislation. So, it just goes to show you that there’s even a point where California thinks there’s bad policy that’s so bad even, they won’t pass it.”
Tune in tomorrow for another bad bill and why we should prepare for their reemergence.
