In Washington state, the statistics for unemployment have stayed at the 8.9-percent level for three months, while it has been at least 8.9 percent or above for the previous 19 months. Additionally, there has been an average loss of 2,000 jobs every month.

The governor and legislature obviously have been unable to substantially improve the state economy for the past two years. The loss in private sector jobs stands at 316,000 jobs, and at the same time there has been less than a 1-percent job loss for government workers.

But the more serious damage is seen amongst the small business owners who have lost their businesses, as well as the economic burden created by a huge number of temporary and contract workers who do not qualify for unemployment insurance payments. That could make the number of unemployed closer to 330,000, or more like 20 percent.

What has the state done to help these small businesses and contract workers? While the state should have been relieving the tax burden on businesses so they could expand and hire more people, the state has, instead, increased B&O taxes and added a 42-percent increase in unemployment taxes for 2011, in addition to the ever-increasing L&I taxes imposed on businesses.

With this new burden, the state is actually causing businesses that were previously languishing to shut down rather than expand and hire.

The Democrats have had over a half-century in full control of the legislature. We can see the downhill landslide our economy is caught in. Given the treacherous state of the economy, it is high-time we elected all three of the Republican challengers in the 47th district.

Before the economy snowballs completely out of control, we need to give the Republicans the opportunity to demonstrate whether they can do a better job. I’m sure they couldn’t do any worse.

– Nancy Hall