Task force fleshing out new family-leave law

OLYMPIA — Washington's new law giving parents five weeks of paid time off to be with a new child is second only to California.

Now a task force is working to figure out how to run the system, and more importantly, how to pay for it.

The 13-member committee is meeting once a month through December.

Under the law that the Legislature passed earlier this year, starting in October 2009, workers would get $250 a week for up to five weeks to care for a newborn or a newly adopted child.

"The policy of having paid family leave is extremely popular," said state Rep. Steve Conway, D-Tacoma, a member of the committee. "The challenge here is to reach a greater consensus around the two issues that were probably the most contentious, the administration and the funding."

Supporters had been trying to pass a paid-family-leave measure since 2001 and succeeded this year only after lawmakers gutted the original bill. The first version would have covered care for a seriously ill parent and would have paid for the program with a 2-cents-an-hour tax on employees' pay. The original bill also would have allowed the weekly payment of $250 to rise yearly with inflation.

But opposition from the business community was fierce, and lawmakers ultimately had to scale back the proposal. They authorized a loan of at least $18 million to set up the program over the next two years.

Task-force members are to decide who will run the program at their next meeting, Sept. 26. Subsequent meetings will address the costs of the program and how to pay for it. Under the law, the task force must have a report to the Legislature by Jan. 1.

"We shouldn't have passed this bill without having these questions answered first," said Sen. Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake and member of the committee. "We're doing this backward, and I do have serious concerns about whether we'll be able to fulfill our part of the deal."

Meeting in August, committee members heard from four state departments being considered to run the program: Labor and Industries, Employment Security, Health and Community, and Trade and Economic Development.

Among concerns cited by some were the undetermined administrative costs, as well as additional paperwork and challenges with getting the program up and running.

For example, Labor and Industries, which already oversees the state's workers' compensation program, said that if it were chosen to start the family-leave program, it would take two years to provide benefits. The Legislature must approve any task-force decisions, and that time frame is at odds with the law's requirement that benefits begin in October 2009.

"I think eyes are getting opened that this thing may not be feasible," said Rep. Cary Condotta, R-East Wenatchee, a task-force member who opposed the law. "This is the Rubik's cube that can't be solved."

Conway disagreed, saying there's plenty of time to "work in a good-faith effort here to find some common ground."

A recent analysis of costs by the Department of Labor and Industries has 21,600 claims receiving $19.7 million in the first year. That cost rises to $28.9 million, with 31,700 claimants, by 2015. The analysis does not include the cost of administering the program.

"In the big picture of the budget that we work with, that's not a huge item," said Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent and co-chair of the task force. "I'm very aware that we have to make it fair, we have to make it equitable, and we have to make it stand on its own. I am confident we can do that."

Under federal law, paid leave is not required, but businesses with 50 or more employees must give workers up to 12 weeks of medical leave per year for themselves or to take care of a new child or ailing relative. Washington's program requires paid state leave to be taken at the same time as any unpaid federal leave.