Commentary and Opinion 2007

2007 Commentary

Wishing for a progressive turn of events in 2008

12.26.2007 | John Burbank | The day after Christmas … thank goodness we made it this far. Now we can actually relax a little. We can all take a big breath and look around us, enjoy our families and friends, be thankful for our lives, and contemplate our hopes for 2008. Here's my wish list. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Where's the evidence that property taxes are too high?

12.12.2007 | John Burbank | Our kids are falling behind in global standards, and education ends for the majority at 12th grade. This is not just about the need for our children to have the skills and the brains to compete globally. Public education is the foundation for democracy. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Lawmakers should repair state's entire tax system

11.28.2007 | John Burbank | Enacting Initiative 747, recently overturned by the Washington State Supreme Court, is the focus of the upcoming special legislative session. If the Legislature votes to put Initiative 747 back into law, and the governor signs that bill, they will be parties to handicapping public services. Under Initiative 747, total current property tax resources won't even be allowed to keep up with inflation, except by a vote of the people for each minor addition to that tax. Of course, at the same time, we want to improve our schools, build better roads. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Voters reject roads and transit, embrace red tape

11.14.2007 | John Burbank | Last week we voted down a multi-billion dollar proposal for roads and transit. It got me thinking back to 1968. That was the year we had a chance in King County to build rapid transit county-wide. The federal government would have matched every dollar nine-to-one. The bond issue got over 50 percent of the vote. So how come there was no mass transit? As a bond issue it needed 60 percent. What happened to the federal match? If you go to Atlanta, you can ride their fast and efficient rail system, built with money targeted for Seattle! Full Column | Everett Herald »

Finns show how prosperity, broad safety net can co-exist

10.31.2007 | John Burbank | Earlier this month I led a group of policy makers to Finland to study how early childhood care is practiced in that country. The robust Finnish private economy is embedded in a democracy that emphasizes work, entrepreneurship, economic security and opportunity, and educational advancement. What this means is that as a resident of Finland, you don't have to worry about health coverage, the cost of child care, higher education tuition, a good vacation or a decent pension. So many of the things we worry about are not even up for discussion at the kitchen table of a Finnish household. Full Column | Everett Herald »

A fair minimum wage stokes economic growth

10.17.2007 | John Burbank | One good thing about our state's minimum wage announcement is that it wasn't accompanied by the typical "woe-is-me" rhetoric from businesses about how this increase of 1.8 percent is going to wipe them out. Perhaps that's because with the best minimum wage in the country, employers are seeing less worker turnover. That means lower costs for recruitment and training, and more productivity from workers who stay on the job and are committed to their work. "You get what you pay for" makes as much common sense when paying wages as it does when shopping for office furniture. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Say yes to progress

10.04.2007 | Marilyn Watkins | Working families stand to gain the most from Proposition 1, the Roads and Transit measure on November's ballot. The proposition will improve access to jobs, schools and affordable housing, and help create a healthier environment. Roads and Transit will fund major new investment in light rail, buses, bridges and highways throughout King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. These are investments our region needs to ensure that economic growth benefits us all. Full Column | Seattle Post-Intelligencer »

Social Security fear mongers are at work; don't be misled

10.03.2007 | John Burbank | Henry Paulson, along with Chicken Little, would have us believe that the sky is falling. But here are some facts about Social Security. Right now it is holding up the federal budget. Every year since 1983 Social Security has generated a surplus. Last year it generated a surplus of $185 billion. This year it is projected to generate a surplus of $186 billion. In 2016 it is projected to generate a surplus of $269 billion. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Makah Tribe shouldn't be denied yet another treaty right

09.19.2007 | John Burbank | Land, culture, customs and livelihoods are intertwined in defining a people, and we still seem intent on undermining these foundations of native American existence. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Misguided law masks real progress schools have made

09.05.2007 | John Burbank | Reading the paper I noticed that Ballard is once again on the list of "academically struggling" schools. It didn't make a lot of sense, until I read the fine print of the Leave No Child Behind law. This law slices and dices the student body until one sub-group emerges of students who aren't doing well. Full Column| Everett Herald »

Thousands exercise their right to make a difference

08.22.2007 | John Burbank | Our family has been in three sports events in the past 10 days. The first was the Crohn's and Colitis Three Mile Run in Seattle. Seven hundred people showed up to run, walk and push baby strollers past Safeco Field two Sundays ago. Some were great athletes. Some were sick from Crohn's. Some showed the effects of medication. One was Mike McCready, the bassist from Pearl Jam. All were out exercising on a Sunday morning, thumbing their noses at these diseases and living their lives as healthfully as they could. Plus, altogether we raised $140,000 for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Modest investment will help get our roadways unclogged

08.08.2007 | John Burbank | Summertime. The fish may be jumping, but the driving is not easy. We spend a good portion of these few weeks of blue sky and fair weather stopping and going. It's going to get worse in the next week, with northbound I-5 in south Seattle being shrunk from five lanes to two lanes to replace worn-out metal expansion joints and repair the bridge deck. But that is a good thing, especially when you consider the bridge collapse in Minneapolis last week. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Privileged should invest more in public schools

07.26.2007 | John Burbank | In the fight for public education, we need all hands on deck, especially the most privileged among us. We need the parents of the 14,000 children in Seattle's private schools. We must all connect the dots between personal responsibility and the greater good. Full Column | Seattle Times »

State lays groundwork to share economic prosperity

07.25.2007 | John Burbank | The chickens are coming home to roost in our state and they are productive. All this construction and airplane putting-together adds up to jobs, spending, growth, net migration, and in short, a boom for our economy. This month Forbes magazine also announced that we are one of the best states in which to do business, ranked No. 5 in the country. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Law firm wants pay to resegregate schools

07.11.2007 | John Burbank | One crucial lesson that children learn in public school is that you can get along with different kids. Some may be richer, some poorer, some white, some black, some fast, some slow, some smart and some not so smart, all Americans. In Washington, we have embraced that notion. But last month, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, set in motion the means to unravel the social compact of integrated public schools. Full Column | Everett Herald»

Medicare's good coverage should be expanded to all

06.27.2007 | John Burbank | Our modern advances in health care enable people to live a lot longer than a generation before. What becomes a concern is not so much the medical advances, but the ability of social services to keep up with people's aging and health. That's the rub. We can keep people alive. Can we make sure they have a good quality of life? Full Column | Everett Herald »

1 percent state income tax could fix education system

06.13.2007 | John Burbank | We don't invest enough, but we expect students to meet rigorous standards. It is a good thing that students are expected to become engaged learners and competent in reading, writing and math. In fact, it is necessary. But it is hard to get the students there when we starve the system of support. Washington is in the bottom third of all the states when it comes to per pupil investments. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Three months is too long to wait for progress in Iraq

05.30.2007 | John Burbank | Who won in the congressional vote last week to authorize funding for the war? Certainly not the troops. The Democrats certainly were not winners. If they had refused to budge, the president would have had to. But the opposite occurred last week. You can't be for peace and vote for war. You can't wage a war without troops. So by funding the troops, we are funding the war. If we wanted to end this war, we would stop funding the troops in Iraq and fund their withdrawal. Period. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Costco understands its role as a good corporate citizen

05.16.2007 | John Burbank | This idea of treating workers with respect is threatened by globalization. Whenever politicians or businesses want to justify the next lay-off or drop in wages or cut in benefits, they always talk about global competition from Asia. The weird thing is, if they looked in the other direction, that is, to Europe, they would see a continent that is also faced with globalization, but which is figuring it out without stranding its workers without jobs, income or purpose. We don't need to look east or west. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Being there for each other isn't charity, it's solidarity

05.02.2007 | John Burbank | Rather than questioning the inequities of our society, public policy makers are apt to default to reinforcing social divides that cordon off government services for the poor, as in child-care subsidies, or the rich, as in government contracts for non-competitive bids for "disaster relief" services. Contrast charity to the idea of solidarity. Solidarity implies that we all are together in this society, sharing rights, responsibilities and opportunities. Full Column | Everett Herald »

If you cherish democracy, pay your taxes with a smile

04.18.2007 | John Burbank | On Tuesday, most of us paid off the taxes we owed and grumbled about it. It has become publicly permissible to figure out how to contribute as little as possible to our government through taxes. The conservative Tax Foundation has calculated a "tax freedom" day that purports to determine at what date people will have worked off their taxes. That's an odd way to put it - working off your taxes. We don't expect our police and firefighters to take a six-month leave from work. We don't expect the military to defend the country for just half a year. We don't expect that our public schools will shut down in June and open up in January. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Suburban moms rise up to back paid family leave

04.04.2007 | John Burbank | Last Thursday legislators and lobbyists in Olympia were greeted with a unique form of political performance art. Walking from one building to another, they all passed by a display of "onesies." For those of us who may have forgotten, these are infant undershirts that snap at the crotch for easy diaper changing. Now why would anyone want to decorate and hang up 250 "onesies" in the state capitol? The "onesie" exhibitors brought attention to the need for family leave insurance in our state. They are part of a new organization called MomsRising. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Full-day kindergarten too important to be phased in

03.21.2007 | John Burbank | When kids start kindergarten, are they ready to learn? Too often, according to a survey of kindergarten teachers, they aren't. In 2004, kindergarten teachers found that more than half of their new learners were not prepared for the academic and social challenges of kindergarten. This isn't just a low-income problem. For those schools with mostly students from middle-income families, fully two out of five kids were deemed not ready to learn. Full Column | Everett Herald »

A humane culture shouldn't discourage caring for family

03.07.2007 | John Burbank | I am lucky that my employer has a family leave policy, to provide partial pay if and when I have to take time away to care for my parents. Most workers in Washington don't have this benefit. Washington legislators have a chance to make family leave a reality not only for the well-off among us, but for all workers. Full Column | Everett Herald »

State can play valuable role in helping to build nest eggs

02.21.2007 | John Burbank | Recently, the Legislature's House Appropriations Committee grappled with the government's role in helping to get people to save for their own retirement. It is a big and growing problem. We are on the road to reversing all the progress we have made over the past 50 years in enabling retirees to avoid poverty. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Get Well Soon: Without paid leave, four in 10 workers don’t have any other choice

02.14.2007 | Marilyn Watkins | Last fall I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I’m lucky that this potentially fatal disease was caught early, and my prospects are good. But to get to that good outcome requires nine grueling months of treatment. I figure by next summer I’ll have missed 320 hours of work, the equivalent of eight weeks, for surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and doctor’s visits. For 112 of those hours, the equivalent of 14 work days, I’ll need someone with me. I’m particularly lucky to have health insurance, paid leave, and supportive family and friends who also have paid leave. Not everyone is so fortunate. Full Column | Real Change News »

State lawmakers can fight big oil's raid on our wallets

02.07.2007 | John Burbank | Aren't we supposed to give corporations a free hand and get out of the way? But what happens when those corporations suck money out of the local economy? Just in the past month, Washington businesses and citizens have handed over close to $1 billion to the oil and gas industries. It doesn't go to building our own renewable energy resources, it doesn't go to energy conservation, it doesn't go to better transit. It goes out of our state and out of our economy. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Public health agencies need ample funding to protect us

01.24.2007 | John Burbank | "What you don't see is what you get." That's a good motto for public health. When you drink tap water, go out to a restaurant or drop off your kids at school, you are assuming a level of safety and health that doesn't just happen. It is the result of public funding for public health. Full Column | Everett Herald »

When we have resources, government should invest

01.10.2007 | John Burbank | Gov. Chris Gregoire had a field day last month laying out her spending priorities for the next two-year budget. She did so with good reason - she wants to invest in education, health care and economic development. But then, with the legislative session starting, the Republicans figured out some sound bites to cast a shadow on her proposals. Full Column | Everett Herald »

Break Even: Three small steps toward fixing Washington’s unfair taxes

01.03.2007 | Marilyn Watkins | Bargaining for tax breaks has become a routine part of doing business. During every legislative session, business lobbyists line the hallways of the state capitol demanding their own special tax exemptions. And they get heard. In the past three years, Washington’s Legislature passed 61 tax break packages for businesses ranging from software giants, to car dealers, to soda pop distributors, giving away nearly half a billion dollars from the state’s 2007-09 budget. Full Column | Real Change News »