The Public Policy Council met last week to discuss two different issues, the Fair Chance Hiring movement in Spokane and Statewide Initiative 1464. Both issues have potential impacts on our business community.
Fair Chance Hiring Movement
The Fair Chance Hiring Movement is encouraging cities and counties to “ban the box” that asks job applicants if they have a criminal conviction. Many are advocating to “ban the box” due to the difficulty and obstacles faced by those that serve time when finding employment after incarceration. There are 77 million people today that have an arrest or conviction record in the United States. Most of these people have a difficult time finding a job and rates of recidivism range from 50-80% across the nation. If convicted felons can find work, the likelihood of them re-offending dramatically decreases. Many are interested in helping members of our community, but some are also concerned about the business liability aspect of this issue.
Initiative 1464
Signature’s are being gathered for Initiative 1464, which adds restrictions on state legislative campaigns. This initiative will include restrictions on the donations that lobbyists and private contractors make (restrictions from their family members as well), and restrictions against public employees gaining employment with firms in which they had lobbied previously. The initiative also includes democracy credits that will be given to each citizen to pledge in elections. GSI’s Public Policy department is currently monitoring this issue.
Your Voice Matters
How do you think these initiatives will impact your business? Your comments and thoughts are very important to us. If you have comments that you’d like to communicate to GSI about either of these issues, please send them to Sarah Dice at sdice@greaterspokane.org.
