Could be that a lot of time in Olympia this legislative session will be spent on a program that Governor Jay Inslee paused a couple of years ago called “Washington Cares,” the state's long-term care benefit program that taxes every worker in the state five dollars 80 cents on every thousand dollars earned. It was about to take effect a couple of years ago, but was paused due to widespread criticism. Now the governor is unpausing the program, but 12th District State Senator Brad Hawkins says lawmakers will have to do a lot of work to make the numbers add up:
Hawkins says the program has problems:
Hawkins says if they make the program portable over state lines, or increase the benefit from 36-thousand dollars, the numbers won't work out, so he says it'll be interesting to see what lawmakers come up with.