There has been a lot going on here at the WTIA these past months and no shortage of activity around the work we conduct in the area of advocacy on behalf of the Washington state tech sector and, specifically, our members.

Olympia Representation

After 13 years Lew McMurran has departed the WTIA to head up his own consulting firm. To replace him we have hired a crackerjack team of Marty Loesch and Jim Justin. Both Loesch and Justin have a long track record in Olympia working across the aisle on a range of issues to improve Washington state. I had the pleasure of working with them in the Gregoire administration when Marty was Chief of Staff and Jim Legislative Director. They now both have a portfolio of clients that reflect our agenda and relationships that the WTIA can leverage. In the short 10 days that they have been on board it is clear that we will all derive great value from their expertise.

Voice of the WTIA

An area in which we have made a great deal of progress in these last months is in the amplification of our message around the crying need for talent in our industry. To that end Michael has penned advocacy pieces for Crosscut and The Seattle Times. He has served on a variety of panels on these issues and we have met with numerous policy makers throughout the state to discuss. It is clear that we need to continue to champion the message that our industry needs to have access to a skilled workforce and without that thousands of jobs will remain unfilled and our own citizens will not have the skills to be qualified for high wage jobs.

WTIA PAC

Attached you can see our official PAC report, receipts and expenditures. We have raised $23,111 to date, largely from internal transfers. WBBA, on the other hand, has raised $36,347 to date which has largely been from $125-$500 contributions from their membership base. If you don’t see your name, or your company name on the list please take a few minutes to donate here or mail in a check, if that is easier.

Last month we partnered with Regence to host fundraisers for legislators that we considered champions this past session. The event space and food at the WAC was all lovely, the legislators were thrilled with the attention, Regence was a super partner. However, I have to say that in all my years of doing political fundraising I have never been so surprised at the lack of engagement from the invited attendees. I’m going to work to understand this more. I had hoped to build up some momentum to hold a large event to honor state legislators who “get tech” and value the economic impacts of our industry ala what Arizona, Utah and Minnesota do for their public service champions. I will continue to think about this and welcome your input.

In the meantime, as it is PAC giving season, Michael and I have been distributing PAC checks and have dispersed nearly $20,000 (In spite of what the attached reflects. Some campaigns seem very slow to cash checks).

Federal Grant Applications for Workforce Development

A primary area of activity for us this last month has been to scope out a partnership role with lead applicants to go after federal grants. The WTIA is a primary partner in applications that could bring upwards of $30M into Washington state. We are excited about the engagement level we have received from a range of our member companies, including AT&T, Tableau, Impinj, and F5. The grants are in two areas: 1) H-1B Ready to Work in which helps to develop accelerated training, employment and wrap-around services to employ the long-term unemployed IT workers and, 2) the TAACCCT (assistance to community colleges) grant application that is being submitted by Bellevue College. If funded, WTIA will build an “Internship in a Box” program.

It has been a great experience to partner with the various entities to attract federal dollars into Washington that can serve to enhance our workforce.

Olympia Happenings

As you all know the session ended with no passage of an extension of the R&D tax incentives and B&O credits for our industry. This was extremely disappointing in light of the focused efforts by a number of us to avoid that outcome. In the interim little has happened to correct this come January. The Governor’s team is meeting to discuss what they will propose. Industry needs to make it clear to legislators and the Governor that this is a priority activity for continued R&D investments in our state. We will continue to engage in the discussion.

Recently there was a working session on Crowdsourcing held by the House Labor and Workforce Development. You can find the materials here. I spoke briefly. L&I made it clear that they have not had any complaints come into their office but it seems that this will be an issue that is going to be one we’ll want to watch carefully as we head into bill drafting time.