Carbon tax bill update (HB 304)
Happy Monday morning everyone! Rep Briscoe has introduced an updated bill with the tweaks mentioned last week (e.g., changes to the effective date) and we should get an official fiscal note by Wednesday afternoon if not sooner. If you want to see the details of the new bill then go to the webpage for HB 304 and click on the right-hand-side where it says "Other versions: HB 304 1st Substitute". When you click on that you will see links to the text of HB 304 S1as well as a comparison document that shows the changes from the original bill. (Also potentially helpful are my notes describing the original bill. I'm working on an update for this.) And if you want less technical overview documents then here's the fact sheet and talking points one-pagers.
Carbon tax calculator tool (feedback please!)
Please [email yoram@standupeconomist.com to download] an Excel spreadsheet that is a very drafty draft of a carbon tax calculator tool that you can use to see how the bill will affect your household! Eventually it would be great to put a more user-friendly version online (see this Washington State I-732 calculator for an example, and holler if you or someone you know does web programming!) but for now it would be terrific for folks to play around with the Excel calculator and provide feedback. Please let me know (yoram@standupeconomist.com) if anything doesn't work or looks wrong or could be better, etc. Note that this is a very first draft so there could well be major problems, so please don't publicize or emphasize! PS. Thanks to fellow economist Dan Marcin for help with this!
Next meeting Th Feb 28 at 9am
Rep Briscoe is busy during our regular W 9am meeting time, so this week we'll be meeting on Thursday from 9-10am in the usual location (Room 400 in the Capitol Building, top floor, north side). All are welcome! If you have any troubles then call or text me 206-351-5719.
And thanks to everyone who came to our meeting last week: Dona D, Kathy vD, Melanie H, Carole S, Bryan D, yours truly, Christa M, Mary K, Ann O, Kaden M, Ronan C, and Rep Briscoe!
Cheers,
Yoram