Voters may settle family leave

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian, wire services • Published December 26, 2007

A state lawmaker says she is open to sending a tax package to voters that would create a long-term means to pay for the state's new paid-family leave program.

The program for families with newborns and newly adopted children is scheduled to give weekly benefits of up to $250 for five weeks in 2009, but it still has no funding source.

A task force that met last summer recommended using state general funds through June 2011, but Gov. Chris Gregoire rejects using general taxes for anything but program set-up costs in the first years. Gregoire also has spoken against having tax increases in 2008, an election year.

Passage of Initiative 960 in November is one factor that could drive the long-term funding question to the ballot, said state Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, who co-chaired the task force. That's because I-960 calls for a public vote of two-thirds majority to pass a tax increase.

"The issue is, with the initiative that passed last fall in the election, it raised to mind the possibility that anything that includes significant new revenue would end up on the ballot. Anything — because that's basically what the initiative said," Keiser said Wednesday. "Given the public's general attitude it would be wise to bounce it off them — maybe as an advisory referendum."

Backers of paid leave, including labor groups, objected this year to taking the issue to a statewide vote. But Keiser said the political landscape has changed: The leave program is now on the books, so a referendum would ask voters to embrace a funding mechanism for an established program, which is easier to get approval for than asking voters to create something new.

The leave program has been controversial with several state business groups that want to avoid new mandates from government around family leave.

Jan Teague, president and chief executive of the Washington Retail Association, said her trade group is concerned about administrative costs and hassles created by the program.

Representatives of several business groups expressed relief when the task force recommended using general-fund money for initial program costs. But if majority Democrats decided to enact a payroll tax, Teague predicted some business groups would fight that at the polls.

The program passed by the Legislature this year was scaled back in response to its early critics. It would cover those workers who took time off for births and new adoptions, but it would not cover leaves to care for a close relative's serious illness. Family or personal medical care is covered under federal and state laws that require employers to grant up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

Backers of paid leave include the Washington State Labor Council and advocacy group Mom's Rising.

Activists say childbirth can put low-income families on a path into poverty, but paid-leave can offer badly needed resources at a critical time while letting parents bond with their kids.

California has a paid-leave program, and Washington is the second state to adopt one.