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Report gives Paid Family Leave Task Force a
failing grade
Republicans on task force release minority report
For interviews,
contact:
Sen. Linda Evans Parlette (360) 786-7622
Sen. Janéa Holmquist (360) 786-7624
Rep. Bruce Chandler (360) 786-7960
Rep. Cary Condotta (360) 786-7954
OLYMPIA… Senators
Linda Evans
Parlette and
Janéa Holmquist,
along with their House counterparts, Representatives
Bruce Chandler
and Cary
Condotta, today released their
Paid
Family Leave Task Force minority report. The failure of the majority
party to follow their own law requiring the final report of the task
force to be available by Jan. 1, 2008 for public review prompted
Republican members of the task force to provide their own analysis of
the entitlement program.
The minority report outlines their many concerns with the paid family
leave legislation passed in 2007, and points out the task force’s
failure to address many of the issues it was charged with finding
solutions to, including funding and administration.
Senate Bill 5659 allows Washington workers to receive up to five
weeks of paid leave for the birth or adoption of a child beginning in
October 2009. The final legislation was stripped of language from
earlier proposals that defined payroll contributions by employees and
how the program will be administered. Subsequently, a 13-member task
force made up of interest groups, businesses and legislators was
appointed and charged with finding solutions to the finance and
administration problems.
“The entire experience of working on this task force was a frustrating
one,” said Parlette, R-Wenatchee. “The bill left us with more questions
than answers, and the task force just didn’t deliver on those
much-needed solutions. We don’t have the information and solutions in
place to implement the program, yet we continue to move forward. We’ve
even heard discussions about expanding paid family leave before we have
answers to any of the major questions surrounding its implementation.”
Parlette also pointed out that while many have described paid family
leave as an insurance program, that characterization is a false one.
“It’s also a concern that this is called an ‘insurance’ program, yet it
has no insurance component to it,” she said. “There are no ratings, no
premium payments, or anything to equate it to insurance. It’s an
entitlement program, and we should be honest about that.”
Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, expressed her concern over the program and the
lack of solutions.
"The administrative costs for this program are outrageous when compared
with the benefit to be paid out, and I see no way to make this program
sustainable," Holmquist said.
"Recently reported in The Seattle Times, Senate Democrats admitted their
caucus still supports the 1-cent-per-hour, employee-paid payroll tax,"
Holmquist said. "Ironically, the Democrat-proposed, 1-cent-per-hour
payroll tax will not come close to covering the exorbitant costs of the
program.
"The majority party has put political expediency and sound bites ahead
of true leadership and sound policy," observed Holmquist
Chandler and Condotta echoed the comments of their Senate colleagues.
They also stressed that the patchwork quilt of proposals the task force
presented to the governor to make the paid leave program viable in the
short term is bad policy.
“Every one of the numerous state agencies asked to consider running the
program has concluded the administrative costs will be very high in
relation to the total benefits paid out,” Chandler, R-Granger, said. “My
answer to high administration costs is to consider contracting a
third-party administrator. This would save employees and employers time,
and save taxpayers millions of dollars – leaving more dollars for
benefits.”
Chandler added that he thinks the program should be paid from the state
general fund.
“If our goal with this program is stronger families, then every citizen
has a vested interest in supporting the program’s success,” he said.
“Funding family leave through the state general fund would also require
greater government accountability through the budget-making process.”
Condotta, R-Wenatchee, said that, like his colleagues in the Senate,
he’s frustrated over the failure of the task force to come up with
workable and sensible solutions to the glaring defects in the paid leave
legislation.
“Neither the Legislature nor the task force was able to resolve the
problems of finance and administration of the program. There’s only one
way to sum up the legislation – it’s a complete failure,” said Condotta,
ranking Republican on the House Commerce and Labor Committee. “The
agency in which the majority party wanted to house the administration of
the program can’t do it due to federal issues and conflicts, leaving the
need to create an entirely new sub-agency, which is costly and creates
another large bureaucracy. As far as the financing of the program, no
long-term solution was decided. Punting the tax issue is irresponsible
at best. This bill created more problems than solutions.”
Condotta said another major flaw in the program is that lower-income
families could be faced with paying taxes to subsidize families with
higher incomes.
“What doesn’t make any sense at all is that the program has absolutely
no ‘means testing’ to determine who is eligible for the benefit,”
Condotta said. “Perhaps an alternative could be designed around an
existing program that takes care of families in need, who have special
circumstances that require assistance. Instead we have a
blanket-entitlement program that treats our most needy and low-income
families the same as those who don’t need government help.”
The final report of the Paid Family Leave Task Force, along with the
minority report, is slated to be released today at 1:30 p.m. in the
House Commerce and Labor Committee. The proposals set forth in the
report will be used to craft legislation this session in an effort to
make sure the program is financed and administered with the goal of
making the benefit available to families by October 2009.
# # #
Editor’s note:
Please find attached a copy of the minority report submitted as part of
the Paid Family Leave Task Force final report.
For more information, contact:
Rebecca Japhet, (360)
786-7516
Booker Stallworth,
(360) 786-7536
Bobbi Cussins, (360)
786-7252
Sarah Lamb,
(360) 786-7720
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