Washington Business Spring 2019 | Washington Business | Page 14
from the chair
Washington Employers are Stronger When We Work
Together for the Common Good
Tim Schauer
In my hometown of Vancouver, we’re fortunate to have a surge of new residents and a growing business
environment that’s boosted our community at a foundational level.
But this growth inevitably arrives with a greater demand for
city services, from scalable public safety and enhanced park
assets to a growing appetite for arts and culture investments.
Once the demand for these services was understood, our local
conversation quickly turned to the supply options for revenue to
make these new services a reality. Eventually, I was asked to co-
chair the Stronger Vancouver Executive Sponsors Council with
other community leaders to advise our city council on next steps.
It’s been an informative and challenging experience, with
much discussion focused on raising taxes to pay for these new
services. So far, we have managed to stay focused on how the
business community can partner with residents to fund these
capital and operational needs, not how one side or the other
can shift the burden to the other. We are trying hard not make
it an us-versus-them monologue, but a how we can solve prob-
lems together with a dialogue, even if it can at times become a
tense dialogue.
This experience helps me understand some of what we are
facing with the governor and in the state Legislature this year.
By now, plenty has been written about the 2019 legislative ses-
sion, where dozens of new and unprecedented challenges have
emerged for Washington’s broad range of employers.
There was a strong desire among many lawmakers to “increase
revenue” beyond the $5.6 billion in organic growth, thanks to all of you. That means raising taxes. And it has
appeared the general idea was, and is, that business should pay for it.
I firmly believe there are legitimate needs for our public schools, hospitals, roads and more that will benefit
everyone. But these new tax proposals come at employers from all angles, often without an obvious debate over
how we might make state government more efficient first. As businesses, we must constantly evaluate our expen-
diture priorities before we just add more expenses.
Longtime observers said they can’t recall a legislative session where employers — particularly small busi-
nesses — encountered so many bills targeting them. Our business climate in Washington, or our economic
ecosystem, is complex and multiple simultaneous environmental disturbances (taxes) can cause damage that is
extremely hard if not impossible to predict. Small employers are the foundation of our economy and the most
vulnerable to these disturbances.
Exercises like the one I participated in in Vancouver can lead to healthy discussions about what services we
want from government and how best to pay for them, if we also stay focused on the health of the ecosystem of
business. There are no easy answers, but it’s clear that Washington employers are stronger when we stand together
and seek solutions and ways to partner.
Let’s support each other in our effort to create a more prosperous state so we can sit at the table together, instead
of just being on the menu. And, let’s remind lawmakers and the public at large that the business community is not
a faceless, far-off corporation that chooses to ignore its community.
14 association of washington business