FRIENDS COMMITTEE ON
WASHINGTON STATE PUBLIC POLICY (FCWPP) |
PROPOSED SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGETS RELEASED ACTION: The budgets contain many items of concern to Friends. Please look through this alert and choose the topics of interest to you, then contact your legislators to share your thoughts on the matter. You can call the legislative hotline at (800)562-6000 to leave messages for all three of your legislators, or see below for how to get specific contact information for them. BACKGROUND: The operating budget was passed last year with hundreds of millions of dollars of cuts to social services. This past Monday, February 23, the state House and Senate each released their version of the proposed supplemental operating budget. These bills will move very quickly to a floor vote, and then will go into conference committee, where legislators from both houses will try and work out the differences between the two bills. If a bill passes but is stripped of funding, it can sometimes be worse than not passing at all. If the priorities we have worked for this session are to succeed, most must be funded in the budget. On the other hand, legislators often use the budgeting process to slip through provisions of bills that had died earlier in the session, meaning that bill we opposed may have been "resurrected." What follows is FCWPP's summary, by category, of important provisions in the two budget proposals. SERVICES FOR THE NEEDY Both budget proposals contain funding for the Act for Hungry Families - each body provided funding for its own version of the bill. Though it is not certain which of the two bills will be the one to pass, both are good and it is likely that at least one will make it into law. The House bill is E2SHB 2769, and the Senate bill is SSB 6411. FCWPP supports both bills. The Senate budget provides $333,000 to expand the farmers market nutrition program for women, infants and children. FCWPP supports. The House budget eliminates all premiums charged to children on Medicaid up to 200% of the poverty line. The Senate proposal would charge premiums of $5-10 per month for children between 100% and 200% of the poverty line. Even these small premiums will cause many children to lose health coverage. FCWPP supports the House proposal. The Senate budget would cut 4,100 people off the General Assistance Unemployable (GAU) program, which provides a modest cash benefit (up to $339 per month) to people temporarily unable to work due to an illness or disability. The Senate budget cuts off anyone who has been disabled for more than 6 months in any 24 month time period. FCWPP opposes. The House budget provides $80,000 to develop a state plan to substantially reduce homelessness. It also provides $2 million to provide increase civil legal services for the indigent, and $3 million to implement 2SHB 2818, creating a homeless families services fund. FCWPP supports all three provisions. CRIMINAL JUSTICE The Senate budget has resurrected the "eco-terrorism" issue. It provides $50,000 to create a database of organizations and individuals believed to have participated in "eco-terrorism," defined as "environmentally or politically motivated crimes against animal or natural resource facilities." FCWPP opposes. The Senate budget provides for a study of the Special Sex Offender Sentencing Alternative (SSOSA). As we had hoped for, the study will include input from all stakeholders, and it appears that no sentence enhancements will be put into place until the study has been completed (on November 1, 2004). FCWPP supports. TAX FAIRNESS The House budget provides funding for ESHB 1869, which calls for performance audits of tax preferences. The House budget also funds HB 2436, increasing the income threshold for retired persons seeking property tax relief; HB 2500, which implements the streamlined sales and use tax; and HB 2693, allowing counties to impose a 4% excise tax on timber harvested from public lands. FCWPP supports all 4 bills. Please drop me a line to let me know if you have responded to this alert. Thanks to everyone who has responded to previous alerts. Sincerely, Eve Rickert FCWPP Lobbyist If you can, identify yourself as a Friend (Quaker) when contacting legislators in response to these Alerts. It helps us in our work in Olympia. Contact your FCWPP Lobbying Team, Eve Rickert and Alan Mountjoy- Venning by calling 360 754-3290, or emailing stellamom"at"pobox.com and mountjoyv"at"comcast.net (please insert the @ symbol - publishing e-mail addresses in public websites exacerbates spam problems). Contact information for your senators can be found at http://www.leg.wa.gov/senate/members/default.htm. Contact information for representatives is at http://www.leg.wa.gov/house/default.htm |