Lyft emerges as fundraising heavyweight in Massachusetts ahead of vote on gig work ballot initiative

• By Katherine Huggins
• February 1, 2022 8:48 am

(Photo by Mario Tama via Getty Images)

Gig work-based companies such as food delivery apps and rideshare services are pouring millions into supporting a Massachusetts ballot initiative that would solidify their workers’ status as independent contractors instead of employees.

Rideshare company Lyft has already given a hefty $14 million in support of the Massachusetts measure, in hopes of being able to classify their drivers as independent contractors, which would allow Lyft to not provide drivers certain employee benefits such as health insurance and paid vacation.

The Massachusetts ballot initiative, which would classify app-based drivers as independent contractors and enact labor policies, could appear on the ballot during the state’s Nov. 8 election pending either legislature approval or further signature collection.

The issue of gig work classification was first raised statewide last year in California. 

A ballot measure that would allow gig workers to be classified as independent contractors in most cases — Prop. 22 — passed in 2020, handing a big win to gig work-based companies that put more than $200 million behind the measure, according to OpenSecrets data. Although the measure passed, a judge later ruled it unconstitutional and an appeal is pending.

Now, as Massachusetts considers a proposition similar to Prop. 22, companies are replicating their strategy from 2020 by throwing millions of dollars into the effort.

In addition to Lyft’s $14 million, Uber, DoorDash and Instacart have each injected more than $1 million into funding the Massachusetts measure.

According to the Boston Globe, Lyft’s donation is the largest political contribution the state has ever recorded — easily surpassing the previous record of General Motors’ $5.1 million contribution to fight a successful 2020 ballot measure that would allow auto shops to access more information about the cars they repair.

The majority of Lyft’s $14 million came in the form of a $13 million donation given on Dec. 30. Prior to the end-of-year contribution, Instacart had given the largest single sum of about $978,000.

The Massachusetts measure would classify gig workers as independent contractors instead of employees while providing some benefits, including establishing a pre-tips earning floor equivalent to 120% of the state’s minimum wage and health care stipends for those who work more than 15 hours per week. 

Opponents of the measure argue classifying gig workers as independent contractors instead of employees deprives workers of labor rights.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey filed a suit in July 2020 claiming that rideshare drivers are already considered employees under state law and that companies have misclassified them as independent contractors.

“Uber and Lyft have built their billion-dollar businesses while denying their drivers basic employee protections and benefits for years,” Healey said. “This business model is unfair and exploitative. We are seeking this determination from the court because these drivers have a right to be treated fairly.”

Other opponents of the measure are also seeking to block it from appearing on the ballot in November.

If passed, the ballot initiative would cement Uber and Lyft’s independent contractor classification — provided no judge later deems it unconstitutional as in California.

Aside from contributing to gig work-related ballot measures, Lyft and Uber are frequent donors in state and local elections, and leverage millions of dollars in lobbying.

Lyft has spent $63 million in contributions mostly to statewide candidates and committees since 2016 — $49 million of which went to the ballot measure committee on California’s Prop. 22. The company has also spent more than $12 million in state-level lobbying since 2013. 

Those figures are on par with Uber, which gave a total $61 million to statewide candidates and committees since 2016, with a larger percentage than Lyft going toward California’s Prop. 22 ($59 million). Uber, however, has spent considerably more on lobbying, spending $30 million since 2013.

Both parties have recently focused their lobbying heavily on the bipartisan Sami’s Law, which would require rideshare drivers to display lighted signs and a scannable QR code for passengers to verify their identity. The bill is named after a college student who was killed after getting into a fake Uber.

Aside from nonpartisan ballot measures, both companies’ political activity skews Democratic.

Excluding contributions to ballot measure committees, Lyft has given roughly 150% more to Democratic causes than Republican ones — a notably higher percentage than Uber’s rate of giving 63% more to Democratic causes.

In certain instances, Lyft was an equal opportunity donor, giving similar amounts to committees of both parties. For example, during the 2020 cycle, Lyft gave $20,000 to the Florida Republican Committee but also gave $9,000 to the Florida Democratic Party and $3,000 to the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. In the same cycle, Lyft gave $15,000 to the Texas Republican Legislative Caucus, but in 2016, it gave $5,000 to both the Texas Republican and Democratic parties.

Although Uber gives to candidates and committees less frequently than Lyft, a similar pattern can be seen.

In 2020, Uber gave $15,000 to the Florida Republican Senate Campaign Committee while also contributing $10,000 to the Florida Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. And in 2018, Uber contributed $45,000 to the California Democratic Party while also giving the state’s Republican Party $20,000.

Feb. 1, 2021 Correction: This story has been updated to show that AG Maura Healey is not seeking to block the ballot initiative appearing on the ballot in November and clarify other information about the ballot initiative process in Massachusetts.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit OpenSecrets.

FTC sues to block Lockheed Martin’s acquisition of Aerojet following companies’ lobbying push

• By William Gavin
• February 1, 2022 5:58 pm
• 
• (Photo by Richard Baker via Getty Images Images)

After Lockheed Martin Corp. announced plans to acquire Aerojet Rocketdyne Inc. in December 2020, the two companies aggressively lobbied the federal government for approval. But the Federal Trade Commission sued on Jan. 25 to block the $4.4 billion merger, marking the agency’s first litigated defense merger challenge in decades.

The proposed merger would see the only large independent U.S. producer of engines for rockets and missiles, Aerojet, merge with the largest defense contractor in the world, Lockheed Martin. The merger, if successful, would give Lockheed a significant advantage over competitors and obtain “sensitive, non-public information” about its rivals’ technology, the FTC report alleged. 

“If consummated, this deal would give Lockheed the ability to cut off other defense contractors from the critical components they need to build competing missiles,” said FTC Bureau of Competition Director Holly Vedova. “Without competitive pressure, Lockheed can jack up the price the U.S. government has to pay, while delivering lower quality and less innovation.”

Lockheed hired the Carmen Group, a veteran Washington lobbying firm, to lobby the FTC, Department of Defense, both chambers of Congress and other institutions, on its behalf on several issues, including the merger. The firm has experience with acquisitions — President David M. Carmen led Softbank’s Corp.’s acquisition of Sprint Nextel Corp. in 2012 and the merger of Sprint and T-Mobile in 2020.  

The Carmen Group’s three lobbyists made $100,000 from Lockheed for their work throughout 2021, beginning in April. The defense giant also paid the firm $30,000 for other issues earlier that year. 

Former President of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Marshall A. Brachman was paid $64,561 by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics for work on the merger, alongside other issues. Brachman received an additional $57,350 by the company for his other work on its behalf in 2021. 

Aerojet paid the Nickles Group LLC $140,000 for lobbying on issues including the merger and steered another $100,000 to FifeStrategies LLC for its work on the merger as well as  other issues.

Lockheed spent $14.4 million total in 2021, up from $12.9 million in 2020. Aerojet’s lobbying spending also increased, topping $1.6 million in 2021, up from $1.4 million the prior year.

Aerojet and Lockheed weren’t alone in advocating for the merger. The United Auto Workers labor union spent $366,000 on lobbying efforts, including the merger, in 2021 according to Lobbying Disclosure Act filings for the third and fourth quarters. Brian Rothenberg, director of public relations for UAW, told OpenSecrets in an email the union has enrolled members of both companies who, “after discussion,” support the merger. 

In an earnings call held the same day the FTC announced its lawsuit, Lockheed President and CEO Jim Taiclet said the company would review the lawsuit and evaluate their options. Later in the call Taiclet said the merger agreement allowed for a 30-day period post-filing of a lawsuit to decide whether or not they would defend or terminate the agreement. 

Industry analyst Bryron Callan, of Capital Alpha Partners, has seen the lawsuit as an indicator that President Joe Biden’s FTC is less tolerant of mergers than the FTC under former President Donald Trump. 

“The FTC during the Biden administration has taken a different view on market concentration and vertical integration than the last one, which approved the Northrop Grumman-Orbital ATK deal,” said Callan in a note to investors.

The FTC’s lawsuit also comes just a week before the Senate Commerce Committee votes on Biden’s nominees to fill positions at the FTC and the Federal Communications Committee. The FTC nominee, Alvaro Bedoya, said the agency should use its authority to crack down on unfair practices that hinder competition during a November congressional hearing. The FTC is led by five commissioners, currently two Democrats and two Republicans; if confirmed, Bedoya could be a critical vote for a new Democratic majority. 

The Senate Commerce Committee is slated to start voting on Biden’s FTC and FCC nominees Feb. 2. 

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit OpenSecrets.
For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact OpenSecrets: info@crp.org

Evictions in Arizona’s largest county on upswing after lull


PHOENIX (AP) — The Maricopa County Justice Courts released preliminary data showing that eviction filings in Arizona’s largest county last month reached their highest level in almost two years.

Court spokesman Scott Davis said Tuesday that January was the first time since February 2020 that more than 5,000 eviction filings had been recorded in one month in Maricopa County, which is home to Phoenix and sees the bulk of the lockouts statewide.

Davis said the 5,213 filings registered last month was about 85% of normal for January.

Eviction filings in Maricopa County slowed considerably during the coronavirus pandemic, but they have crept back up since a federal moratorium on lockouts ended in late August.

The temporary ban by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been imposed to protect tenants struggling to pay rent amid the economic disruption of the pandemic.

Emergency rental assistance funds from the federal government have been credited with preventing a tsunami of evictions since the ban ended.

The U.S. Treasury Department projected in late 2021 that approximately $25-30 billion of two tranches of the emergency aid would be spent or obligated across the country by year’s end

Rising Rents And Cheap Money Flowing: Apartment Prices Are Soaring – OpEd

 February 2, 2022  MISES  

By Doug French*

Fannie Mae announced last week that it provided nearly $70 billion in multifamily financing last year. The government lender crowed about $9.6 billion of the total being for affordable housing projects and $13.5 billion financing projects deemed “green and sustainable” units. This helped Fannie “grow its Multifamily Green MBS (mortgage backed securities) issuance to more than $100 billion last year,” according to the press release.

Fannie Mae apartment loan pricing and terms are attractive: the five-year fixed rate starts at 2.74 percent to the thirty-year fixed starting at 3.81 percent. Thirty-year amortizations are available and in some cases interest-only loans can be negotiated, as well as nonrecourse loans. The larger point is that with the Consumer Price Index at 7 percent in December, the real interest rate on these Fannie Mae loans is negative. 

According to Multi-Housing News, “On an annual basis through December, rents increased by double-digit percentages in 26 of the top 30 metros, six of which posted gains of 20 percent or more: Phoenix (25.3 percent), Tampa (24.6 percent), Miami (23.5 percent), Orlando (22.7 percent), Las Vegas (22.2 percent) and Austin (20.9 percent).” 

So with rents rising and cheap money flowing, the prices of apartment projects are soaring. The latest Las Vegas multifamily announced sale is Ideal Capital Group’s purchase of the 287-unit Jade project near the Rio hotel and casino for $124.5 million. That is a whopping $433,798 per unit.

The covid shutdown in 2020 slowed project sales as many renters lost their jobs. But “Las Vegas’ rental market has since heated up with fast-rising rents and shrunken availability, in part as people sought more space amid widespread work-from-home arrangements, and investor sales have rebounded,” reports Eli Segall for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Jade went for double 2021’s average sales price per unit, $215,151. Average apartment sales per unit have risen over 460 percent, from $38,219 in 2011 to last year’s price. 

Wolf Richter writes on his site, wolfstreet.com, that working people are harmed by inflation because their wages never catch up, while people with assets, inflated in value by low interest rates, reap the benefit. He writes, “[T]he wealth of the wealthiest 1% of households spiked, creating the biggest and worst wealth disparity ever to the bottom 50% and even to the bottom 99%, based on the Fed’s own wealth distribution data.”

Over lunch recently I expressed my astonishment over the $400,000-per-unit sales to a developer (and apartment project owner) I used to bank. He told me units would be selling for $500,000 by the end of this year. 

I said rents would have to jump even more or capitalization rates would have to go to virtually nil for that to happen. He said emphatically, “Rents are going up.” People moving in from California believe rents in Vegas are cheap. 

Not for long.

*About the author: Douglas French is President Emeritus of the Mises Institute, author of Early Speculative Bubbles & Increases in the Money Supply, and author of Walk Away: The Rise and Fall of the Home-Ownership Myth. He received his master’s degree in economics from UNLV, studying under both Professor Murray Rothbard and Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

Source: This article was published by the MISES Institute

Texas Butterfly Park To Close Indefinitely 

As Conspiracy Theorists Intensify Attacks
Trump-allied operatives have baselessly accused the National Butterfly Center of being involved with child trafficking.

By Josephine Harvey
02/01/2022 

A South Texas butterfly sanctuary will close indefinitely due to safety concerns after it was repeatedly targeted by right-wing conspiracy theorists who baselessly accused it of aiding human traffickers.

“[The] Board has decided to close the center, but continue to pay staff, for the immediate future,” National Butterfly Center Director Marianna Treviño-Wright told HuffPost Tuesday.

“The board’s paramount concern is the safety of staff, members and visitors,” she added. “So for that reason, they have made the decision to close the center for the immediate future while they seek expert advice and formulate a plan that will best serve our interests and public safety moving forward.”

The butterfly conservatory, which pushed back against Trump administration efforts to erect sections of a U.S.-Mexico border wall near its nature preserve in Mission, Texas, has been tied up in litigation for years with the former presidential administration and its allies at We Build The Wall, making it an ongoing target for harassment.

The sanctuary closed from Friday to Sunday for the duration of the We Stand America border security rally nearby, headlined by QAnon conspiracy theorists and supporters of former President Donald Trump. Treviño-Wright said she received a warning from an acquaintance involved with Republican politics to be “armed at all times or out of town” during the rally because she and the park would be a target for its attendees.

The park reopened on Monday and Tuesday to members only, but will now close to both members and the rest of the public amid ongoing fears for the safety of its staff and patrons.


The entrance to the National Butterfly Center on Jan. 15, 2019, in Mission, Texas.
SUZANNE CORDEIRO VIA GETTY IMAGES

On Monday, Treviño-Wright had told HuffPost that the board of the North American Butterfly Association, the National Butterfly Center’s parent organization, would have to “decide whether we’re going to stay open or not because of the stochastic terrorism that all of these political operatives are trying to stir up against us.”

A spokesperson for the Mission Police Department confirmed Treviño-Wright had been in touch with police about her concerns. He said police officers would continue to do standard community patrols. “Our response time is fast,” he said.

Following news reports about the butterfly center’s decision to shut down for the weekend, several attendees of the We Stand America event shot and posted footage near the National Butterfly Center’s sign.

A Republican congressional candidate from South Carolina, Lynz Piper-Loomis, posted a video of herself and Women Fighting for America founder Christie Hutcherson near the sign, saying they could see no evidence of a “threat” against the center.

And they seemed to suggest the perceived threat was against the butterflies, not the people at the park.

“We need to protect the butterflies. I agree with that. So Biden, why don’t you build the wall to protect the butterflies?” asked Hutcherson, who attended the Jan. 6, 2021 rally that preceded the Capitol riot and is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as “a far-right religious zealot” who participates in border vigilante activities.

“Why are you more concerned about butterflies, than you are [about] little children who are being trafficked?” she added, claiming that human traffickers “use the butterfly land.”

Another clip was posted over the weekend by Ben Bergquam, a correspondent for Real America Voice, a far-right news site that also hosts Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast.

In it, he is holding a child’s shoe with the butterfly center’s sign in the background, claiming the shoe is from “one of the children that was trafficked.”

Marianna Treviño-Wright said this doctored image of rafts at the butterfly center's dock was shared online in 2019, when she was repeatedly targeted with defamatory and malicious lies by former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon and We Build The Wall founder Brian Kolfage.
VIA NATIONAL BUTTERFLY CENTER

A spokesperson for the Mission Police Department said undocumented crossings take place at many junctions along the border and that he wasn’t aware of any reports that there is specific activity at the butterfly center’s premises.

U.S. Border Patrol did not return multiple requests for comment.

Attendees of the We Stand America rally were also pictured at a section of the border over the weekend, toting flags and singing “Amazing Grace.” At least one man was carrying an assault rifle. According to the event page, it included a “caravan” to the border.

A week prior to the rally, a right-wing congressional candidate from Virginia, Kimberly Lowe, had visited the center, shooting videos for social media and accusing staff of being “OK with children being trafficked and raped.”

The Mission Police Department was called to the premises. The department told HuffPost that its investigation into the matter is ongoing.

Lowe told HuffPost on Friday that following the publication of news reports about her, Hutcherson turned her away from the We Stand America rally. Lowe claimed she was told that she had endangered the event.

Oil companies, union to continue talks on worker contract

By Erwin Seba

Posted on February 1, 2022

FILE PHOTO: A Marathon Petroleum banner covers an Andeavor sign outside the El Paso refinery in El Paso

HOUSTON (Reuters) -Union and energy company negotiators met on Tuesday without reaching agreement on a new labor contract covering 30,000 U.S. workers at oil refineries, chemical plants and pipelines.

Marathon Petroleum and the United Steelworkers union (USW) on Monday averted a potential strike by agreeing to a 24-hour rolling extension of the existing contract a half-hour before a strike deadline.

Tuesday’s negotiations concluded with both sides agreeing to continue talks at a later date. The union on Monday rejected a 3-year deal that Marathon called its best and final offer.

The offer was a “comprehensive final settlement,” said Marathon spokesman Jamal Kheiry. Marathon is negotiating on behalf of itself, BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, Shell, and Valero. “We hope the union will reconsider our offer,” Kheiry said on Tuesday.

At least four offers were exchanged on Monday, with the last including a 9% pay raise over the 3-year contract, people familiar with the matter said. The first offer, made last week, called for 3% over three years, the USW told members in a message last week.

USW International President Tom Conway said on Tuesday he hoped company negotiators would recognize the risks taken by USW members who worked through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“USW members were on the front lines of the pandemic, ensuring that our nation could meet its energy needs while company executives were safely tucked away, working from home,” Conway said in a statement.

Under the extension terms, the existing labor contract remains in place with a 24-hour notice required by either side to end it. The existing 3-year contract, negotiated in 2019, provided an 11% pay increase over three years.

If a strike is called, it likely will follow the pattern of the 2015 work stoppage, which began on Feb. 1 of that year and expanded to 12 refineries, accounting for a fifth of U.S. crude oil processing capacity, and three chemical plants.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; editing by Nick Zieminski and Richard Pullin)

US Legislation To Address Issues For Veterans Exposed To Toxic Burn Pits


By Maritsa Georgiou
February 1, 2022
The bipartisan bill unveiled Tuesday would direct the VA to include more screening measures for symptoms associated with burn pit exposures.

A bipartisan bill unveiled Tuesday promises to help veterans suffering from toxic burn pit exposures in Afghanistan, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries, but some veterans' advocates say it doesn't go far enough.

The legislation is one part of a three-phase approach. Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Jon Tester unveiled the first piece with ranking member Sen. Jerry Moran. The initial bill would expand access and eligibility for veterans, including clinical screenings through the Department of Veterans Affairs and mandate toxic exposure education for VA health care personnel. It also would establish a one-year open enrollment period for veterans whose eligibility has expired.

"This landmark bill will allow us to connect a generation of burn pit veterans with the care they've earned, while moving the ball forward on addressing toxic exposure in the comprehensive way our veterans deserve," Tester said.

"I hadn't heard the word burn pit," said Cindy Aman, who was deployed to the Middle East in 2003 as a military police officer with missions in Kuwait, Iraq and Qatar. "I didn't even know what that meant. I knew that there was smoke everywhere and it smelled horrible."

It would be years before Aman understood what exposure to those pits would mean for her and the estimated 3.5 million other service members exposed to burn pits in post-9/11 overseas combat.

The pits were a primitive answer to get rid of heaps of garbage. The nonprofit Burn Pits 360 estimates the U.S. military burned around 227 metric tons of hazardous waste — including batteries, plastics, human waste, chemicals and more.

It's an issue personal to President Joe Biden, who has said he believes his late son Beau's terminal cancer was linked to toxic burn pit exposure while deployed to Iraq.

"I came back and I had some really weird symptoms," Aman said, saying she started coughing initially.

Fast forward years later, and Aman, who used to run every morning, noticed she had trouble breathing just walking up the stairs. She says nothing showed up on her tests.

"When you burn plastics, when you burn metals, when you do all these things and then you're inhaling them -- of course your body is not going to react like it's supposed to," Aman said.

Initially, the VA denied her request to get it checked out by a specialist in New York. After jumping through many hoops, Sen. Chris Coons' office helped her finally get the visit approved, where the doctor conducted a lung biopsy.

The results showed "constrictive bronchiolitis and all kinds of dust and metal particles embedded in my lung cells. It was all right there," Aman said.

The bipartisan bill unveiled Tuesday would direct the VA to include more screening measures for symptoms associated with exposures, which could have streamlined the process for Aman.

"There's a lot of veterans out there that need health care due to their exposure to toxins, in this case, burn pits. And we need to get their healthcare to them as soon as possible," Tester said.

John Feal, veterans' advocate, 9/11 first responder and president of the FealGood Foundation, doesn't think the legislation goes far enough.

"As you and I speak right now, somebody is dying from burn pits," Feal said. "You're putting a Band-Aid on an open sucking chest wound. That's a joke."

Feal joined the fight with comedian Jon Stewart, lobbying members of Congress to provide more coverage for exposed vets. Feal and other advocates want to see a full list of known conditions linked to burn pits covered, so veterans don't need to endure round after round of denials and appeals to get treatments taken care of.

"Don't put burden of proof on veteran or the widow to have to prove they're dying or died to exposure to toxic chemicals," said Burn Pits 360 co-founder and executive director Rosie Lopez Torres.

"While the story of 9/11 and the burn pit victims parallel each other, one was done by terrorists. The other one was done by our own federal government," Feal said. "No veteran should have to come home sick burning from the inside out and have to be his own doctor, advocate and lawyer."

Feal points to the PACT Act in the House, which he says is a much more comprehensive bill. Tester says they're in communication with House leaders on how to move forward.

"We're in contact with leadership over there and our staffs are in contact with their staffs," Tester said in a press conference. "They know what's going on. There are no surprises here on their side or ours. The goal here is to get this thing done by the end of this Congress."

Tester says he made a commitment to Sen. Moran that he wouldn't take the legislation to the Senate floor until they had bipartisan agreement, and this first step is part of that compromise, citing Republican concerns about the cost of the measure.

"I would have preferred personally to take the whole Cost of War Act and pass it through," Tester said in an interview with Newsy. "I get their frustration. But the bottom line is, we're going to work as hard and as fast as we can to get this bill done. We just had to break it up into three phases to get it done."

Tester says other lawmakers also have voiced concern about capacity at the VA.

"Getting presumptions in place that add significant numbers of new veterans to the list before the VA gets its act together in regard to its capability of dealing with those presumption cases disadvantages veterans who are already waiting in line for their for their benefit," Moran said.

For veterans like Aman, this is a first step to prevent others from going through what she did, but she hopes to see more.

"I wish it was moving faster," Aman said. "I wish it was more encompassing. And I'm grateful. I'm always grateful for every bill that's, you know, put together."

Wednesday afternoon, the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee will hold a markup on the proposal, when both Tester and Moran expect it to pass out of committee.

Tester says he hopes to get all three phases through the Senate this year.

Is a guaranteed income program right for Washington? Lawmakers are considering it
Washington State Capitol
CREDIT: NORTHWEST NEWS NETWORK
FEB 01, 2022 
BY
Kim Malcolm
Andy Hurst

Guaranteed Basic Income could become a reality in Washington state. State lawmakers have introduced a bill that would provide monthly cash payments to people who are low income, with no strings attached, that would last for up to 3 years.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

The prime sponsor is State Representative Liz Berry, of the 36th District in Seattle. She told KUOW’s Kim Malcolm the payments would apply to anyone making 50 percent or less than area median income:

Representative Liz Berry: To put that into context, if you live in Seattle in a single-person household, that would be if you make $40,000 a year. If you're in Yakima, it would be $24,750. Participants would receive monthly payments, for up to 36 months, equal to the cost of rent for a two-bedroom apartment unit in their area of residence. For Seattle, that would be a little under $2,000 a month. If you live in Yakima, it would be a little over $1,000 a month.

Kim Malcolm: Why is it so important to focus on rent, for instance, as being the core of this program?

Mostly because we learned that it depends on where you live, to know how much your expenses are. We all know how expensive the King County region is. Folks here just have more monthly expenses-- rent, food, transportation, childcare-- than in other parts of the state. We thought scaling it as we did made a lot of sense


Why do you think Washington needs a program like this?

So many Washington families are living in or on the brink of poverty, and we know that giving people cash with no strings attached as quickly as possible actually works really well. We saw that during the pandemic. The government gave people modest stimulus payments that lifted 11 million Americans out of poverty. In fact, in 2020, the number of people living in poverty was at its lowest rate in decades.

We live in the richest nation in the world, and yet millions of our families, friends and neighbors struggle to pay their bills. I just don't think that's right. That's what guaranteed basic income is all about.

How is this going to be paid for?

I think first it's talking about unrigging the rules of Washington's upside-down tax codes. Working families, folks who qualify for this program, are currently paying seven times more of their income in taxes than the wealthiest among us. It doesn't really have to be this way.


There are also other proposals out there, including a wealth tax on billionaires, that could help fund a program like this. Also, the state is currently flush with cash, and I think that we should put it back in the pockets of people who are struggling.

What would you say to people who question or distrust just giving cash to somebody else, not sure that they're going to spend it in the best way?

I think that the pilot programs from around the country really speak for themselves. More people were able to afford food and housing, pay off debt, get full-time jobs, save for emergencies, preserve physical and mental health, and stay out of poverty. The data shows that this really works.

When you don't have to worry so much about taking care of your family's basic needs, you're in a much better position to focus at work and reimagine a different future for you and your family, whether that's going back to school, caring for young children during a difficult time like Covid, or looking for a new job. That's a privilege that you and I have, and I believe everyone should have this opportunity.

Job openings in U.S. rise to almost 11M as 4.3M workers quit; both figures near record highs

Construction workers perform maintenance on 44th Street near Times Square in New York City on December 29, 2021. 

Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Employers across the United States had nearly 11 million job openings by the start of January after more than 4 million workers left their positions in December, government figures from the Labor Department showed Tuesday.

The department's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, said that employers posted 10.9 million openings for the month of December -- well above prepandemic levels, but lower than the record of 11.1 million last July.

The new figure is a slight increase over November, when the JOLTS showed 10.6 million openings nationwide.

Tuesday's assessment also showed that 4.3 million U.S. workers left their jobs in December -- a slight decrease from the record 4.5 million in November.

According to the report, about 89,000 people quit jobs in healthcare and social assistance; 64,000 in accommodation and food service and 44,000 in construction.

The department said the Northeast, South and Midwest regions all saw increases in workers quitting their jobs.

"Hires and total separations decreased to 6.3 million and 5.9 million, respectively," the report said. "Within separations, the quits rate was little changed at 2.9%. The layoffs and discharges rate was little changed at 0.8%, a series low."

Last month, the department said that the U.S. economy added about 200,000 jobs for the month of December -- substantially fewer than most economists predicted. However, it also showed that the national unemployment rate at 3.9%, which was the sharpest 12-month decline in history.

"It's the first time the unemployment rate as been under 4% in the first year of the presidential term in 50 years. Years faster than experts said we would be able to do it," President Joe Biden said at the time, also noting that almost 6.5 million jobs have been added since he took office early last year.