The state of Washington is currently governed by a Democratic trifecta. Democrats control the governorship, 59 percent of the state senate, and 58 percent of the state house of representatives. This is not a recent development. Democrats have controlled the legislative and executive branches of the state for the last 6 years and almost all of the last 20 years.
The dominance of the Democrats in Washington state makes it a good case study for understanding state-level Democratic policymaking in the US. When Democrats control a state government for long periods of time, unencumbered by conservative opposition and anti-majoritarian filibuster norms, what do they actually do with that power? And what could they do better?
Across the next couple of months, I aim to answer this question by applying the same kind of scrutiny I normally apply to federal policy to the policies of Washington. Through this process, I hope to shed light on where state-level Democratic policymaking is falling short and how it could be changed to achieve the policy goals that Democrats often claim they are aspiring towards.
In this first piece of that series, I take aim at Washington’s Paid Family & Medical Leave (WA PFML) program, with a focus specifically on the parental leave element of the program.
The WA PFML program was passed into law in 2017 but did not begin paying out benefits until January of 2020. The program has now been in full operation for three years and, in that time,...
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