ing for a job (he wants a car), but I think this should be an area of concern for all of us.

The ages between 16 and 25 are formative years as people transition into adulthood. To have tens of thousands in our country struggle with employment during this time in their life will have far reaching consequences for our economy and society for decades to come.

The Washington Policy Center, a free market focused public policy organization we often partner with, is part of a study on this problem. Below you will find a link to a survey they would like you to complete. The survey includes a topic video featuring interviews with Attorney General Rob McKenna, former Congressman Jay Inslee, state senator Jim Kastama, and

state representative Cary Condotta. Please take 15 minutes to fill out this online survey. Grant funding for the Washington Policy Center will be awarded based upon the participation they can generate so, WHEN PROMPTED, DON’T FORGET TO SELECT WASHINGTON POLICY CENTER. I hope you can take the time to complete the survey.

By Don
C. Brunell

President

Association
of Washington Business

There are dams that should come d

own

and those that shouldn’t.

Demolishing the two dams on the Elwha River west of Port Angeles is a good thing and, hopefully the salmon and steelhead will return in record numbers. The dams were built in the early 1900s to bring electricity to the Olympic Peninsula at a time when salmon and steelhead were plentiful in other Pacific Northwest rivers.

On the Elwha River, the issue was clear: Two barriers were blocking salmon from moving upstream. The care with which the demolition was planned, studied and implemented is a credit to all involved, and now fish can swim up to the high mountain tributaries in the Olympics to spawn and start the lifecycle over again.

But breaching the four lower Snake River dams is an entirely different matter.
For one thing, the billions of dollars paid by Bonneville Power ratepayers to
improve fish passage and spawning habitat throughout the Columbia and Snake River system is now paying off — salmon are moving up the Columbia and Snake rivers in great numbers.

For example, in 1992, a single male sockeye salmon dubbed Lonesome Larry
managed to swim 900 miles from the mouth of the Columbia River to Redfish Lake in Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains to spawn. Last year, the Idaho Fish and Game Department reported that 1,070 sockeye returned to Redfish, and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission counted more than 27,000
adult fall Chinook above the Lower Granite dam, the uppermost dam on the
river.

Another major difference: While the Elwha dams produced very little
electricity, replacing the electricity generated by the Snake River dams would
take two nuclear plants, three coal-fired generators and six gas-fired power
plants. Hydropower is the most efficient way to generate electricity, capable
of converting 90 percent of the available energy into clean electricity. Wind
turbines, on the other hand, are only about 30 percent efficient at best.

Another difference between the Elwha and Snake River dams: Ice Harbor,
the westerly most of the lower Snake River dams, irrigates 36,000 acres of
farmland, vineyards and orchards.

Consider also the marine highway created by the Columbia and Snake rivers is
the most environmentally friendly way to move cargo from Lewiston to Astoria. Barging keeps 700,000 trucks off Northwest highways every year, and barges are extremely fuel-efficient, moving a ton of goods 576 miles on a gallon of fuel, compared with 413 miles for rail and 155 miles for trucks.

A plan exists to carefully manage the Columbia and Snake rivers for the benefit
of both fish and people. Years ago, fisheries scientists from tribes, federal
and state agencies and thousands of people whose lives depend on those two
rivers came together to develop a comprehensive

management plan which became known as the Biological Opinion or “Bi-Op.”

The Bi-Op was supposed to be implemented two years ago, but U.S. District Judge James Redden, who recently retired, blocked it saying that spilling water to allow young salmon to migrate to the ocean wasn’t good enough. He told Idaho Public TV reporter Aaron Kunz that there was no need to go the expense of demolishing the dams. “You just dig a ditch and let the river go around
them.”

All this nonsense about digging a ditch around those four massive structures is
just that — nonsense. We should thank our lucky stars the four lower Snake
River dams are there and get on with implementing the cooperative management plant that allows both fish and families to thrive.

About the Author

Don Brunell is the president of the Association of Washington
Business. Formed in 1904, the Association of Washington Business is Washington’s oldest and largest statewide business association, and includes more than 7,800 members representing 700,000 employees. AWB serves as both the state’s chamber of commerce and the manufacturing and technology association. While its membership includes major employers like Boeing, Microsoft

and Weyerhaeuser, 90 percent of AWB members employ fewer than 100 people. More than half of AWB’s members employ fewer than 10. For more about AWB, visit www.awb.org.

The Town Toyota Center is a very nice facility.  But the original plan sold to and by the City of Wenatchee was a financial disaster.  Clearly, mistakes and very bad decisions were made.   Once new leaders were put in place the City was able to realistically assess the situation and joined with other regional leaders to put together a plan to solve the construction debt fiscal crisis which was passed by the voters.  With the construction debt financing plan now in place, that issue should be behind our community.  Now it is time to look to the future for the Town Toyota Center.

Their has been a major change in who is the lead on this project.  Originally, this was a City of Wenatchee project.  The PFD was a mere shell, totally controlled by the City, existing solely to get the sales tax rebate from the state.  That has all been changed.  The City will have one of seven seats on the Board (instead of the majority they were originally given) and will have no liability going forward over and above their significant construction financing obligation.

This is now the PFD’s project and they have the responsibility to make it work operationally – annual income meets or exceeds annual expenses including a reserve for operational shortfalls and replacement and upgrades that will certainly be needed by the building in the decades to come.

The PFD Board needs to make good, sound decisions and get and keep the right people in place to run the TTC (for what it is worth, I think current manager Mark Miller is the right guy).  The management of the TTC needs to operate the facility well and continue to build the number and popularity of events.  Reaching out to some of the outlying communities that weren’t as supportive of the regional tax increase and highlight the benefits to them as well would be a good secondary goal.

We are blessed to live in a great region with generous people and communities.  They have agreed to shoulder the burden of the construction debt for the TTC, the focus now must be  grow the operational strength of the facility so they never have to ask for taxpayer help again.

Washington’s wine industry is aging just fine

Real estate has been a key industry in our nation and Valley for many years. As the national real

estate market cooled in 2006, we continued to see a boom here. As a matter of fact, the Wenatchee Valley led the nation in residential real estate appreciation from January 2007 through March 2008. The bursting of the real estate bubble was felt here but thankfully, we have avoided the worst of the declining values and foreclosure crisis. During all these years we have hosted a real estate outlook annually and 2012 is no exception.

Our sponsor, Pacific Appraisals, will provide the most current information on real estate activity in the region.

Randy Gold of Gold Construction will give us the outlook for builders. He has been a frequent member of our panel and it has been enlightening to follow the changes he has made in his business to navigate the challenging recent years in the industry.

Laura Mounter of Laura Mounter Real Estate, also a past panel member. will give us the real estate agent’s perspective on what lies ahead.

New to our panel will be Greg Peterson from Cashmere Valley Bank who will provide his outlook on the direction of interest rates in 2012 which has a huge impact on home affordability.

After prepared comments all will be available for a quetion and answer period. The City of Wenatchee will also bring some maps showing

their plans that will impact growth in the years to come.

The event is always one of our most popular, please contact the Chamber office at 662-2116 for more information or to reserve your seat.

ortly.

fiberthoughts@chelanpud.org.

Constitutional Lsw final may not have gone that well, but at least it is behind me. The same can be said for Proposition 1, t

he 1/10 of 1% regional sales tax increase which is on the ballots arriving in your mail box this week.

Is a regional sales tax increase plus a sales tax increase (already enacted) in the City of Wenatchee a good outcome? Probably not. Is

it the best available solution to a huge financial crisis that could devastate the City of Wenatchee and negatively impact the entire region? Absolutely.

The Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce Board has unanimously endorsed this local solution. The Chamber testified for it in Olympia. We supported the City of Wenatchee increasing their sales tax, We supported the other PFD jurisdictions placing it on the ballot. Now we are at the last step – a vote of the public. The Chamber endorses a “Yes” vote on Proposition 1.

The individual cost of the tax increase is minimal, 10 cents on a taxable $100 purchase, but the costs of a full on default would be large, hard to calculate, and result in years of uncertainty for the region. It is time to solve this issue regionally, on our own, before it spins out of our control so we can move forward as a region.

Done is better than good.

President

Association of Washington Business

There is finally a bit of good news from Olympia. The st

ate’s Revenue Forecast Council reports that tax revenues for this biennium will be $96 million higher than projected last November, and state tax collections for 2013-15 are projected to grow by 6.6 percent.

But we shouldn’t get too excited. Even with this additional revenue and the cuts the Legislature made in December’s special session, lawmakers still need to make up about a $1 billion deficit to balance the budget.

Even if they manage to close the gap this time, the basic problem remains: The state budget is unsustainable. Without systemic change, we face a future of ever larger deficits.

As Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, points out, “Even if we do pass more taxes or make the kind of cuts this

year, the long term projection on our state budget basically has to be dealt with or else we’ll be in deficits every single year for the next five years.”

Kastama explains that Washington takes in $15 billion a year, but the budget spends $16 billion. If we do nothing, annual revenues are expected to grow to almost $19 billion by 2017, but our state’s expenses will grow even faster — to $22 billion. Because the state budget is based on a two-year cycle, that means in 2017 our budget deficit will grow to $6.6 billion.

Raising taxes isn’t the solution. Even if legislators increase taxes by a billion dollars, the 2017 budget will still have a $4.4 billion deficit.

Unfortunately, elected officials have a history of kicking the can down the road, avoiding the tough choices that Kastama advocates in favor of temporary fixes. That’s like putting a Band-Aid on a severed artery. When the state budget is hemorrhaging red ink, it can’t get better until we fix the underlying problems.

So, what’s wrong with limping along with temporary fixes hoping the economy perks up on its own? Look at what’s happening in Illinois.

With billions of dollars of unpaid bills, Illinois is now known as “The Deadbeat State.” Even after passing a $7 billion tax increase last year, including a “temporary” state income tax, the situation remains dire because state lawmakers refuse to make needed pension, regulatory and budget reforms.

The Illinois governor’s suggestion? Borrow more money.

When politicians turn a blind eye to systemic problems, they fester and grow. It sends a powerful message to employers: “Stay away.”

For example, Caterpillar Inc., headquartered in Illinois, is the world’s largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines and industrial gas turbines. Caterpillar is to Illinois what Boeing is to Washington state.

But in a recent Chicago Tribune editorial, CEO Doug Oberhelman pointed out that, while Caterpillar announced plans for dozens of new factories over the last few years and its U.S. workforce increased by more than 14,500 in the last 10 years, none of that growth occurred in Illinois. In fact, the Caterpillar Illinois workforce is the same as it was 10 years ago. Oberhelman noted that, “…when Caterpillar and most other companies look to locate a new factory in the U.S., Illinois is not in the running.”

The reason: Illinois’ high cost of doing business and the legislature’s failure to pass a sustainable budget — the same problems employers face in Washington.

Our situation isn’t that bad yet, but it underscores the need to develop a budget that lives within the revenues the state collects. Instead of passing temporary fixes so they can adjourn and campaign for re-election, state legislators need to overhaul the budget. That’s a real solution that will foster economic growth and create jobs.

About the Author

Don Brunell is the president of the Association of Washington Business. Formed in 1904, the Association of Washington Business is Washington’s oldest and largest statewide business association, and includes more than 7,800 members representing 650,000 employees. AWB serves as both the state’s chamber of commerce and the manufacturing and technology association. While its membership includes major employers like Boeing, Microsoft and Weyerhaeuser, 90 percent of AWB members employ fewer than 100 people. More than half of AWB’s members employ fewer than 10. For more about AWB, visit www.awb.org.

cooperative effort

by WSDA, Export Finance Assistance Center of Washington and the Western U.S. Agricultural Trade Association (WUSATA), will be presented March 21st in Seattl

e.

Matt Tripodi, Government and Trade Relations Manager of Euromonitor International will keynote the event, discussing why agricultural exports will be a bright spot for 2012 and highlighting global trends for food and agricultural products. Companies will also learn more about introductory and financial services available to help them explore, enter and expand their business internationally.

Pre-registration for this free event is required and must be submitted by March 16, 2012. If you have questions or would like to participate, please contact Cameron Crump at ccrump@agr.wa.gov or 360-902-1940.