Sen. Michael Baumgartner has a bill to lower the minimum wage for teens. Because of course he does.

To combat Washington’s high teen unemployment rate and generate more opportunities for teen employment, Sen. Michael Baumgartner has proposed Senate Bill 6471. Baumgartner’s “Teen Summer Jobs Act” will provide employers the latitude to pay seasonal teen workers the federal minimum wage of $7.25 from June to the end of August.

Is there any evidence that our teen unemployment rate is particularly high? I couldn’t find recent stats. He’ll mention them later on in the press release, but not have any link or much context. I mean, our unemployment rate is about the middle of the pack, and probably worse the further East you go. It also wouldn’t surprise me if the teen unemployment rate is higher. But is it higher than in states that have lower minimum wages? In any event this press release certainly doesn’t provide any evidence to support this claim.

“Right now, too many teens are losing the chance to develop a strong work ethic because they can’t find summer jobs,” Baumgartner said. “We need a change that can give today’s teens the same chance at the American dream that I had.”

There was a minimum wage in the early 1990’s when Baumgartner was a teen. It was less than it is now — that’s why we had that initiative to raise it — but as far as I can tell it was the same for teen and adults. So, when he was a teen he had the same opportunity as when it’s now, more or less at least regarding the minimum wage.

Baumgartner, who represents the 6th Legislative District, notes that teen employment has been dropping in recent years, creating what can be described as an “experience gap.” The Department of Employment Security has published data expressing if someone is unable to find a job during their teen years they are much less likely to find satisfying work later in life. Baumgartner says while it may seem counterintuitive, requiring employers to pay a lower wage to workers until their 20th birthday will actually entice employers to hire more teens and summer help.

Don’t worry, he doesn’t link to the DOE findings.

Also, now is as good a time as any to mention that Spokane County went 79224 to 48180 in favor of Washington’s minimum wage initiative. I don’t know how his district went, but I’d guess it was pro the minimum wage. Of course, a lot can happen in over a decade, but I doubt slowly dismantling the minimum wage is the reason his constituents voted for him.

Also, too, holy shit, his bill applies to 18 and 19 year-olds? Good thing nobody ever had to raise a family at 18 or 19. God.

“Statistics for 2013 were just released, showing Washington’s teen unemployment rate at thirty percent,” said Baumgartner, who serves as vice chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “If we don’t make a move to provide more of these kids with job opportunities, we’ll really be doing them a disservice later in life when the time comes to begin their careers and become fully-functioning members of society.”

Again, I still don’t know what that means. I don’t know if it includes every child who is looking for work, or if it includes teens who aren’t looking for work. We still don’t know how it compares to the national average, or if his policy would take jobs away from people being paid higher wages, and give them to lower wage children.

I don’t know if he just made it up.

Anyway, there’s a bit more press release, but I’m done. And look I did a metacommentary piece without any swearing; I must be losing my touch.

– Dear bigots, please feel free to leave Washington. Sorry people in states without marriage equality.

– December numbers for Washington’s exchange.

– I still love it when national media mention lil’ ol’ Washington. But maybe not when they make fun of our stuck tunnel machine.

– Oh hey Texas, enjoy the next however many months of this garbage.

– I agree with Oliver that marriage equality is hurting the religious right. But I don’t think they’re on the run, as evidenced by all the anti-choice (for example) legislation.

– Pie Fest is coming to Olympia in February.

– I know I goof on Seahawks fandom here, but I am pro it. I’m more against early or annoying fandom. What I’m saying is I for one look forward to all of the green and blue vomit we’ll get next Sunday.

Thank you for opposing a sanctions bill against Iran at this time. While we don’t know the future, it’s important to give negotiations a chance to work, if we want to find a long-term fix to Iran’s nuclear problem. While most of the hard work remains, it would have been hard to imagine getting this far, even a year ago.

If future negotiations fail, there will be time to impose new sanctions. If we have to go back to more belligerent actions and rhetoric, at least let us say we did what we could to have real peace.

And hopefully these sorts of negotiations will lead to advances on human rights and other issues where we differ with Iran. Being able to sit at the table and make real progress can often lead to more sitting around the table and making more progress.

Thank You Once Again,

Carl Ballard

You can write Senator Murray here if you want on this or any other issue.

That’s the proposal from Representative Jessyn Farrell for the entire state. Goldy has the details and some speculation about what it could mean for Seattle’s efforts.

Washington’s current inflation-indexed minimum wage of $9.32 an hour is already on pace to exceed $10 an hour by 2017, so the actual net increase on final phase-in would be less than $2 an hour. But that’s not nothing to the half-million or so Washingtonians who see their wages go up. It’s also arguably good for the economy and good for taxpayers.

“If families have more money in their pocket, it lessens the demand for government assistance,” Farrell explained in a press release. “That saves all of us money.”

True. Although it’s first and foremost a moral issue. People ought to be able to survive and raise a family in this state. And a minimum wage ought to be reflective of that. I’d still prefer a $15 minimum wage statewide, but this is an obvious improvement.

The news broke today that Cathy McMorris Rodgers is going to do the rebuttal to the State Of the Union. I think it’s actually a decent choice to not have it be someone who is running for president. The linked piece makes it sound like she’s going to talk about her personal story. The only policy stuff they mention is:

She said through Boehner’s office that she was “honored” to be sharing the Republican vision for the future: “one that trusts the American people and doesn’t limit where you finish because of where you started.”

So it leaves us guessing exactly what she’ll be talking about. Maybe how the Democrats’ support of strengthening the Violence Against Women Act, The Affordable Care Act and talking about immigration reform, are against American Values. Maybe she’ll talk about made up fetal pain and her party’s plan to force women to stay pregnent. Perhaps she’ll complain about how high taxes are even though Federal taxes are lower for most Americans than they’ve been in a long time. Maybe she’ll talk about her brave opposition to Sandy relief. Perhaps she’ll finally be able to name some of the specific spending cuts she’s for. She’ll probably try to turn the rhetoric of the war on women on its head. Maybe she’ll just make stuff up about marijuana.

Sorry this is abbreviated today. The web interface is being funny so this is from my phone.

I’m glad that Oregon’s death penalty moratorium was upheld, but this is one of the strangest cases I’ve ever heard of.

Oregon death-row inmate Gary Haugen’s legal quest to force his own execution ended Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider his case.

Without comment, the court denied his petition for writ of certiorari. The court turns down the vast majority of requests it receives each year to review a case.

[…]

But two weeks before Haugen’s planned execution date, Kitzhaber issued a reprieve and declared he would not allow any executions as long as he is governor. Kitzhaber criticized capital punishment as “morally wrong” and argued that Oregon’s system “fails to meet basic standards of justice.”

Haugen sued Kitzhaber. The late Senior Judge Timothy Alexander in 2012 agreed with Haugen’s arguments that the inmate had to accept Kitzhaber’s reprieve in order for it to be effective. But on appeal, the Oregon Supreme Court overturned that decision, finding that the governor’s action needed no such acceptance.

Here’s hoping Oregon can end their death penalty on a more permanent basis than who is governor. Still, even though it’s not an ideal way to do it, it would be a good example to Governor Inslee.

In yesterday’s Open Thread, I linked to a piece about two Senators who are trying to preempt SeaTac’s $15 an hour minimum wage initiative. The state minimum wage ought to be a floor. If localities want to do better, there’s no moral reason to preempt them.

It’s a shitty enough idea on its own, of course, but it’s also an attempt to preempt Seattle’s $15 process. And thinking about this piece of legislation rattling around in my mind hit loose this from last session: It seems rather similar to the attempt to preempt the Seattle Sick Leave/ Safe Leave law. And I also thought of this Rodney Tom piece of work from a week or so ago. Again, Rodney Tom thinks that the sick leave/safe leave law (I assume that’s at least part of the shorthand for McGinn) was a boon for the Eastside because it harmed Seattle. He also thinks that it’s his job to harm Seattle if it helps the East Side.

It seems like only two of those three things can be true. If the Rodney Toms and John Brauns of the legislature thought their job was to have “filled up our office towers” at the expense of Seattle and that liberal laws at the local level were doing that, they wouldn’t propose legislation to preempt those laws. So at least one of those things is a lie. Since they’re proposing — and in the last session passing through the Senate — these laws we can assume that they want these laws passed. That leaves either Seattle and SeaTac’s laws aren’t as harmful to business as they say, or those legislators aren’t as anti-Seattle as they say. Given their willingness to fuck with Seattle on a whole host of issues from the cost overrun provision* of a state highway to treating Seattle like a piggy bank to not letting Metro fund itself, they clearly have issues with urban King County, and Seattle specifically.

So that leaves the Sick Leave/Safe Leave law and the $15 minimum wage being bad for business. Given their other two positions, it seems like this is the weak point. As I said in that previous post last week, Seattle is doing OK with our employment regulations. Maybe those legislators are more worried that their constituents will be see what Seattle and SeaTac are doing and want it for themselves.

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– This was published in the Seattle Argus in April 12, 1968. Martin Luther King had literally just been assassinated the week before. I have no idea about the weekly Argus’ news cycle, but it seems at least in bad taste to publish something like this a week after the civil right’s leaders death.

– I know at this point Sarah Palin is just hoping for links to her horrible screeds, but she really has to stop.

– Ever since Roe, and only since Roe, women and men have been able to plan their lives with the assumption that they won’t become parents until or unless they want to.

– You know, if the legislature shuts down the local option for a $15 minimum wage, there probably could be a statewide initiative.

– There’s never been an easy solution to any problems in the Middle East, and the days ahead will once again test the mettle of everyone involved. But in a strange twist of fate, business as usual on Capitol Hill just might be the very thing that paves the road to peace.

– I’m also a sucker for good Samaritan stories.

– Happy MLK Day.

– Hell of a game last night. Still, the celebration was maybe a bit much for the NFC Championship (It wasn’t, you know, winning the Super Bowl, or V-J Day).

– Postgame interviews are probably unhelpful. Also, Richard Sherman is everything one could want in a professional athlete. He is a walking example of the difference sports can make, of how one man can channel fierce intelligence and an almost frightening competitive fire into something productive and riveting. He is precisely the type of person you should cheer for.

– Couple healing up after struck by car while walking across Stone Way

– 10 Questions Bill Simmons And ESPN Should Answer About ‘Dr. V’s Magical Putter’

“I have to show my love of the Seahawks somehow. I think we can all agree the most logical thing would be if I get some window decals and a flag for my car. OK, but then to really make sure I’m helping the team out — really 12th manning it up — I’m going to have to drive through downtown honking at 10:30 or so. You know for the team.”

– Someone, apparently.

I don’t know anything about the Spokane County Sheriff’s race but it looks like it might turn out to be an interesting one. And by interesting I mean hey Spokane County, enjoy this sort of nonsense from now until November!

Well, if anyone came prepared to answer questions, it was Ozzie Knezovitch. He took every opportunity to cite numbers, dollars, accomplishments, and highlight everything he’s done as sheriff since 2006. Mr Orr, on the other hand, kept bringing up that he doesn’t want to raise taxes like Knezovich does. He says he has a program that could save $20 million and pump either $6 million or $1.6 million, depending on when he said it, back into the department.

Knezovich stressed his leadership with concrete examples. Orr questioned his leadership with innuendo and insinuation. Concerning the 46 deputies who are eligible to retire he said, “I don’t know this for a fact but I heard that Sheriff Knezovich asked for a letter from each deputy who would leave the department stating why they would leave.” The fact that he doesn’t know something is true didn’t stop him from repeating it as fact. What kind of person does that?

[…]

Several times during the debate, Orr would finish his remarks and Knezovich would plainly state that what Orr said about a topic was false. Orr remained impassive and didn’t respond to any of the accusations. After stating Orr had just told yet another falsehood, Knezovich pointed out that “truth, fact, and integrity” is where he and Orr differ. Ouch.

[…]

There were no questions concerning Orr’s strange respectful acknowledgement of a theory that legalized abortion in 1973 contributed to the drop in crime that began in 1992. Orr, with a B.A. in Religious Education from Bob Jones University, thinks it’s important for voters to know that he’s a conservative Republican who is opposed to abortion. On a question about drug enforcement he mentioned, “There’s a 10th Amendment. Interesting.” But then he didn’t explain why he brought it up. I think this paragraph tells me all I need to know about Douglas Orr.

Obviously there are loose cannon candidates everywhere. I once told a pollster that I was for Goodspaceguy,* so I’m not claiming any moral superiority for the Wet Side. Still, there’s something about that happening at a Democratic Party event. I mean holy shit, what’s it going to be like when he goes in front of a Tea Party crowd?

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The GOP in the State House of Representatives isn’t going to pass any legislation any time soon. So it has freed them up to introduce crap and then writepress releases about said crap.

Washington House Republicans introduced legislation on the first day of the legislative session designed to help people who have lost their insurance keep some form of affordable health care.

In the wake of Washington being pretty successful, at signing people up for health care (Seattle Times Link) this is totally the thing to focus on.

Recently, President Obama and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius have responded to reports that millions of Americans have been kicked off their coverage due to Obamacare. To mitigate the cancellations, both have announced policies that allow people to either keep their existing health care plans or be exempted from the individual mandate tax penalty and buy typically cheaper catastrophic care plans. Washington state’s Democratic insurance commissioner has not been supportive of allowing individuals to keep their pre-Obamacare plans.

Right. Because coverage was bad. The GOP are going to pretend that insurance coverage was awesome before? Anyway, let’s skip ahead from criticizing Obama for being Obama and Mike Kreidler (although not say his name) for not being Obama.

To overcome the Obamacare obstacles Rep. Matt Manweller has introduced two bills. The first would allow Washington residents to buy catastrophic health care plans in other states. The second bill would instruct the Office of the Insurance Commissioner to enter into compacts with other states to facilitate the purchase of health care plans from other states. This bill is similar to legislation introduced by Sen. Linda Evans Parlette which passed the Senate last year and was passed by the House Health Care Committee, but died in the House Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government and Information Technology.

Damn you House Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government and Information Technology!!!!!!!! Damn you to hell.

Oh, actually, really? That sounds like a bad idea. Washington State has worked to make sure that insurance actually means something. But what about states where it hasn’t? Let’s get our insurance from there. And by the way, I’m sure that if your cut rate, out of state insurance doesn’t live up to its promises, the Missouri, or wherever, Insurance Commissioner will be thrilled to take up your case.

I should say, though, I normally criticize the GOP for not having a plan, but this is technically a plan. Not a very good one, doy, but it’s something. Anyway, pressing on.

“The Democrats who control our state leaped into Obamacare before they looked. They drove people off the health care plans they liked and eliminated all the low cost plans they could afford. Even President Obama has realized the mistakes of his plan and offered the American people an out,” said Manweller, R-Ellensburg. “Unfortunately, the plans President Obama said we can keep don’t exist in Washington anymore. Therefore, we need to let people buy them in other states. That will bring fairness back to our health care system.”

We’re doing a better job subsidizing coverage for people who need it now, but in exchange for that, you know, there are higher minimum standards. Therefore, get your insurance from another state, where they haven’t been as good at signing people up in the first place, obviously.

I don’t know enough about the specifics of the state constitution or state law to know if the AG’s office is right that localities can ban marijuana shops. The law is the law and if the office has come to that conclusion, then, they should say as much.

Nonetheless, I’m glad to see that this isn’t the last word, and that the ACLU is going to fight it. It won’t do as much to stem the illicit trade if you have to drive another county or two to purchase marijuana. Especially with the current setup where it’s legal to own marijuana but there’s nowhere to legally purchase it.*

Still, the politics is perplexing. I suspect given this, and given their history the Pierce County Council will try to ban marijuana shops once again. In a municipality that supported legalization and a market by 54%. The exec vetoed it last time, but her argument was that state law ought to be the driving force. Not that hey, we don’t want to encourage drug dealing on the street corners, so we should have a better place to go. Not, hey, we can best make sensible regulations if it’s legal. Not that localities should tax marijuana when budgets are still tight.

Now, in fairness, that’s a good deal of speculation on my part. I don’t know if the County Council will try again, and I don’t know if Executive McCarthy would veto it. But the argument she relied most heavily on is now gone, or at least weakened.

And I can’t help wondering if part of the reason is a fear by some politicians, especially outside of urban areas, of being labeled one of those damn hippies if they support this reasonable policy. I mean how can you possibly support a legalization policy if you aren’t lighting up yourself? How can you support a live and let live policy on these sorts of issues? Of course, it’s silly; It seems like people unwilling to support marriage equality for fear that people might think they were gay in the not too distant past. Still, I think the fear of the attack ads they’ve written in their minds is worse than the reality they would face, at least in municipalities that supported I-502.

I’m also worried about what this will do to medical marijuana patients if the law gets interpreted that way by the courts. It looks like the legislature is moving toward pushing medical users into the recreational market (Daily O link). If the state outlaws collective gardens, that could be problematic anyway. But if they outlaw collective gardens and they aren’t replaced by shops in some cities and counties, that would seem to be more problematic.

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– Don’t let the NRA have this one

– Wait, is Jesus the 12th Man?

– It’s not the biggest deal in the world, but it seems neat to let 16 and 17 year olds preregister to vote (TNT link)

– That really is the only conclusion to draw from opposition to hate crimes laws based on the fear that hate crimes will criminalize preaching

– 6 Shocking Realities of the Secret ‘Troubled Teen Industry’

– So, I don’t want to make a big deal about this, but I just realized that I’ve been blogging for more than a decade (although there was a break between blogs 1 and 2).