What Washington’s economic recovery could look like
How can Washington state best rebuild its economy after COVID-19?
Help people at immediate risk of crises related to housing, food, childcare, or employment. Offer small businesses relief — and help the hospitality and leisure industries, particularly. Support the aerospace and manufacturing industries. Ensure healthcare security. Expand Internet access.
Those are the primary ideas a bipartisan committee in the state Senate recommends in a report released late last week. Dozens of more specific recommendations are nested within those broad categories. They range from offering school districts support to re-open as soon as safely possible to investing in minority-, female-, or veteran-owned businesses that haven’t been able to secure other relief.
In separate phone interviews, Sen. David Frockt, a Seattle Democrat who chaired the committee, and Sen. Shelly Short, an Addy Republican on the committee, championed the report as an example of bipartisanship. While it’s a blueprint at this point, not legislation, Frockt said he hopes it’s a good sign for when policy is written.
The seven-member COVID-19 recovery committee assembled in mid-2020 and based its report on more than 20 hours of testimony from more than 40 people, according to a press release. Among those who weighed in are economists and policy makers with national and local expertise, as well as business owners in industries impacted by the pandemic.
At the group’s initial meeting in June, economists made it clear recovery can’t start until the coronavirus ebbs and people can resume their regular lives safely, according to the report.
There were 186,000 fewer jobs in Washington in November 2020 compared to November 2019, the Washington state Department of Commerce Economic Recovery Dashboard shows. That’s a 5 percent drop — and it’s still a rosier situation than the state saw with the initial COVID-19 economic shutdown last spring.
The unemployment rate was 4.2 percent in February 2020, according to the dashboard, it skyrocketed to 16.1 percent in April and was at just under 6 percent in November. The leisure and hospitality industry has been especially hard-hit, the data show.
Frockt said he would describe the economy as “wildly uneven” in terms of how the pandemic has affected people. He sees the report as a guidepost for policy direction this year and years to come.
In the immediate future, one recommendation he predicts will see action is an effort to mitigate the burden of unemployment insurance rate increases struggling businesses face, which has been much-discussed as a priority.
Short agreed, and predicted action on expanding broadband. She said she’s also working on a bill that would relax some licensing regulations for child care providers, while maintaining quality, so parents in all areas of the state might have more options than they do now.
Leaders in the state legislature and Gov. Jay Inslee have universally named economic recovery as a priority this session. Inslee has specifically pushed for lawmakers to provide $100 million in business grants and $100 million in rental assistance early in the session.
The federal CARES Act allocated nearly $2 billion in COVID-19 relief funding directly to the state last March. Congress stalled in approving a second relief package, as pressure mounted on the state near the year’s end.
In December, though, Congress approved a second, $900 billion stimulus package. This week, state Speaker of the House Rep. Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, said she hopes to see more federal relief after President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Wednesday.
Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, D-Spokane, said the goal is still to move quickly on COVID-19 relief bills this session. The new federal money — while a good thing — has slowed that process a bit as the state tries to understand rules that surround spending it, he said.
Among the Senate’s priority efforts for COVID-19 relief are a bill to ease unemployment insurance premiums and to allocate the federal money, Billig said.
Jinkins said lawmakers believe they’ll be able to allocate federal money to vaccine distribution, contact tracing, and testing; food assistance; rental and utility assistance; childcare grants; and business assistance grants.
This story was originally published January 19, 2021 at 5:45 AM with the headline "What Washington’s economic recovery could look like."
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