State Unions Renogiating Contract

I wonder how this will affect the budget. After the governor scrapped the collective bargaining agreement, wisely, because it cost too much in these straitened times, the unions sued. The governor won. And now labor is back at the table.

Jerry Cornfield reports there are some hard feelings: They call her Gov. Union Buster.

But at labor's rally yesterday, legislative leaders were effusive. No hemming and hawing about if there will be tax hikes.

[Senate Majority Leader Lisa] Brown told the Labor Council, Washington's largest union advocacy group, that its members will have to help lawmakers sell a tax package to the public? a game plan that has become widely accepted in Olympia.

"We're going to need your help to put this thing forward in a productive and fair way," she said.

Rich Roesler does a nice job of sorting through the mechanics of a tax vote and some of the tactics to expect.

And in the PI story, Brown sets her sights on the state's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

"Washington state has a healthy unemployment trust fund. We can utilize these funds to expand benefits and training," she said.

Nationally, the unemployment benefit provisions of the federal stimulus plan have been controversial. For a good overview of who's taking what, read this Stateline.org piece.