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OLYMPIA -- Senate Democrats on Tuesday laid out a legislative strategy they say will boost job creation and give Washington a competitive edge as the economy changes.
The plan zeroes in on five elements: Helping small businesses, putting people to work on infrastructure projects, retraining an additional 6,000 workers for high-demand jobs, green jobs and attracting investment in research.
"Our strategy is like a bull's-eye, putting the existing jobs and businesses that are essential to our recovery at the center, and rippling steadily outward toward the jobs of the future that are the key to our competitiveness over the long term," said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane.
Brown said while Washington's business climate has fared well in rankings in U.S. News & World Report and Forbes magazines, more work can be done to help businesses that provide family wage jobs to stay open and start hiring again.
"We can't afford to rest on our laurels," Brown said. "This is a dynamic, ongoing process."
A week ago, Washington's Employment Security Department reported the state's unemployment rate had risen from 9 percent to 9.5 percent from November to December 2009, although job losses seemed to be slowing in the second half of the year compared with the first half.
Democrats and Republicans alike have said their focus for the 60-day legislative session is enacting policies that will create jobs that will pull the state out of recession.
The Legislature finds itself with the sizable task of plugging a $2.6 billion hole in the supplemental budget as revenues have fallen during the lengthy economic downturn.
The latest deficit comes on the heels of a $9 billion shortfall when lawmakers met in 2009.
Democrats in 2009 introduced a jobs package that they claimed at the time would lead to 25,000 new jobs by funding worker retraining and energy efficiency projects, as well as providing tax credits for small businesses.
They didn't have data Tuesday to show whether those programs had created the estimated number of jobs.
"The unemployment rate right now has ticked up slightly," said Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, chairman of the Senate Economic Development, Trade & Innovation Committee. "We don't have numbers how last year's package played into the unemployment rate."
Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island, chairman of the Senate Environment, Water and Energy Committee, said it would take time for people to be hired and trained for projects.
"We will see an acceleration of numbers," Rockefeller said. "I am encouraged that at the end of the process ... we will see very substantial numbers. I'd rather tell you what the numbers are after you've done it than try to forecast right now."
Democrats also didn't want to put any estimate on the number of jobs the 2010 package might create.
"Recovery is going to come one job at a time, one business at a time," Kastama said.
Among the package's highlights are:
-- Senate Bill 5899 creating tax credit for businesses with fewer than 10 employees when they create new jobs paying more than $40,000 per year;
-- Funding in the supplemental budget for community and technical colleges to retrain 6,000 workers for high-demand jobs in fields such as clean technology and health care;
-- Funding for construction projects in the supplemental transportation budget;
-- Weatherizing and repairing more homes and businesses to make them energy efficient and put people to work;
-- Continuing the Entrepreneurial Stars Program by hiring two more star researchers who will help commercialize research at state universities.
The program helped fund the hiring of Birgitte Ahring to head the Center for Bioproducts and Bioenergy at Washington State University Tri-Cities.
Kastama cited Ahring's work, particularly in attracting $16 million in federal research grants and finding commercial applications for her biofuels research, as a success story that could be repeated.
"The stars program isn't just a good investment ... it will help us in the new economy," Kastama said.
Senate and House Republicans joined together a week ago to unveil their own jobs proposals.
Those included reforming the workers compensation system and saving costs by getting injured workers back on the job sooner, smoothing out a projected spike in unemployment insurance taxes without cutting benefits to workers, and giving a business and occupation tax break to new businesses.
-- Michelle Dupler: 360-753-0862; mdupler@tricityherald.com
