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Paid leave bill fails to
address cost,
program administration, says Condotta
Citing the myriad of
questions left unanswered by proponents of a paid family leave bill,
Rep. Cary Condotta today voted against the measure. The amended
version of
Senate Bill 5659 passed the House today 61-36.
“There are a lot of opinions about the creation of a state-run paid
family leave program, but many of us have been concerned from the start.
The idea has serious flaws,” Condotta, R-Wenatchee, said. “The
fact is the bill went from bad to worse. Now the majority party passed a
‘study bill’ that says the state will create this new wage-replacement
benefit, yet there’s no solid plan on how it will be administered or
what it will cost.”
Senate Bill 5659, as amended in the House, would allow Washington
workers who meet qualifications to receive up to five weeks of paid
leave. The final proposal was stripped of both the defined payroll
contribution by the employee and how the program will be administered.
The bill sets up a 13-member task force made up of business, labor and
legislative leaders who will submit recommendations to the Legislature
in 2009.
“We’re back to square one,” Condotta said. “In order to pay out
these benefits the state would have to either charge a payroll tax or
utilize some existing fund. The bottom line is, this bill doesn’t make
sense – we’re going to do it, but we have no idea how?”
Condotta added that whether people think paid leave is a good
idea or not, there are too many issues that need to be ironed out before
any new wage-replacement program is established.
“With this bill, we have no options on the predetermined benefit
structure. The study only looks at finance and administration and takes
nothing else into account,” Condotta said. “What will this do to
our already-troubled business climate? Is this benefit even necessary?
Will this actually discourage the many businesses that already provide
this type of benefit?”
This new government program, he said, simply adds more confusion to the
unemployment insurance system and will likely create another expensive,
bogged-down bureaucracy.
“The bill should have been fine-tuned before it was even considered by
the Legislature. We’ve now created a program that has no boundaries,”
Condotta concluded.
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