State's paid family leave program closer to reality

Washington moved closer Thursday to implementing the nation's second state law guaranteeing paid family leave for parents when a task force recommended initially paying for the benefit by tapping the state's general fund.

Earlier this year, state lawmakers created a family leave benefit for new parents, but they didn't decide how to pay for a program, which is expected to cost $40 million a year when it's running in 2009.

Instead, a task force made the funding decision Thursday, though lawmakers must approve its recommendations in the next legislative session.

While the program is not finished, parent activists welcomed Thursday's step.

"We need time with our newborns, and many of us cannot afford to simply take unpaid time off," Colleen Butler, a loan officer and member of the national group Moms Rising, wrote in an e-mail.

The new Washington state benefit eventually would offer up to five weeks of paid leave, up to $250 a week, to parents with a new baby or adopted child.