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Friends
Committee on Washington State |
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Summary In
2003, to help provide leadership and vision for our state, FCWPP launched
it�s Secure Society Campaign. The intent of the campaign was to remind
public officials and the general public of our social task, including
specific areas of interest to Friends which need particular attention:
criminal justice, health care, the environment, economic justice, and
civil rights and liberties. As
you know, traditional governmental functions are now seriously under
funded and are under siege.
It is our continued goal to help put the general task of government
in society in perspective, as the basis for a reformed revenue system that
will in turn support needed reforms in substantive programs. The
first year of the 58th session of the state legislature had a huge cloud
hanging over it-the dilemma of balancing the budget by June 30th (the end
of the state�s fiscal year) with a $2.7 billion deficit.
The budget is always set in the first year of our two-year
sessions, with the Governor�s proposed budget at the start of the
process.
There are basically three ways to balance the state budget:
1) raise revenue; 2) cut programs and services; and 3) financial
maneuverings.
The Governor and State Senate�s budget proposals were no new
tax/revenue proposals; instead they proposed cuts to a variety of health
and human services programs.
The cuts came primarily in the healthcare arena.
Successes
The
most important victories for FCWPP this past session were two bills that
are now state law:
HB1079 (introduced by Representative Phyllis Gutierrez-Kenney) and
SB5659 (introduced by Senator Shirley Winsley). Economic
Justice
Education
HB1079
was the In-State Tuition Bill, an economic justice priority for FCWPP. The
bill will allow undocumented immigrants (primarily Latino youth) who have
been residing in Washington State, graduated from a high school in this
state, and are in the process of becoming a citizen, to access the
in-state tuition college tuition rate.
Educational attainment is directly linked to earning potential, so
this bill is a significant step toward alleviating poverty and hunger in
WA, which has the 2nd highest rate of �nutritional�(?), or maybe
�food�(?) insecurity in the country. Local
Revenue Options
SB5659,
the local revenue options bill, will allow county commissions or councils
to propose increasing local sales tax or property tax rates; voters will
then approve or reject the proposals.
Every proposal must include specific plans for the use of revenue
generated, and revenue will be split 60-40 between the county treasury and
municipalities within the county.
The local revenue options bill gives counties and cities the tools
they need to preserve health and human services.
Preserving health and human services and reforming the state�s
tax structure were the first and second legislative priorities for FCWPP
this year. Healthcare
For
ten years Washington has been a leader in providing people, especially
children, with access to quality healthcare, understanding that preventive
care is always less expensive than emergency room care.
But as legislators have been desperate to reduce health care
spending, low-income adults, children and families have begun to suffer.
New children�s health premiums introduced in this year�s
legislative session will block access to healthcare for thousands of
children. Children�s
health premiums will be levied on families making as little As $18,401 for
a family of four. In
addition to cuts to children�s health care, funding for the Medically
Indigent Program, which helped hospitals providing medical care to people
who are uninsured and destitute, was eliminated.
The Basic Health Plan (BHP) was also restructured to provide fewer
benefits to recipients, and despite the fact that a majority of Environment
The
�victories� in the environmental arena consisted largely of avoiding
damage rather than moving forward.
FCWPP lobbied against the �dirty dozen� anti-Growth Management
Act bills, and the worst of them were defeated.
Unfortunately, we were not as effective when it came to HB1337 and
HB1338, two bills over-allocating the state�s waters, which were
combined and passed over widespread public opposition in the final days of
the special session. While
FCWWP�s efforts were not necessary to its passage, SHB1754, which allows
poultry farmers to slaughter up to a thousand of their own pastured
chickens per year for direct sale to the ultimate consumer, represented a
small but significant victory for organic farmers, environmentalists,
people concerned about the compassionate treatment of animals, and people
concerned about the availability of pure and wholesome food. Disappointments
It
goes without saying that there were many disappointments this session, if
not tragedies.
The main five are:
1)
The imprudent water bills discussed above; 2)The refusal (with the
exception of the State House of Representatives) of legislators and the
Governor to consider raising new revenue; 3)
significant tax exemptions for businesses (Boeing, Wafer Tech, and
bio-tech companies); 4) the Unemployment Insurance (UI) Bill (now state
law); and 5)
the rejection of the Home Care Worker contract.
FCWPP supported a proposed citizen commission to annually review
business tax exemptions, which would ensure that tax exemptions are
effectively contributing to the health of our state economy.
The Unemployment Insurance law will reduce unemployment benefits to
those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder-many of whom are people of
color, women and farm workers.
The contract negotiated with Home Care Workers, which would have
provided a modest wage increase of a little over a dollar an hour to these
severely underpaid public employees and provided them for the first time
with health care and other benefits, was rejected by the legislature,
which instead approved a small (50 cents per hour) raise and denied them
health care and other benefits altogether.
Disappointments
came from three other issues with which FCWPP was involved:
reform of the 3 Strikes Law didn�t make it out of the House; the
Food Stamp Fairness Bill-which would have allowed former drug felons, and
their children, access to food stamps-failed to pass; and funding for the
Small Farm and Direct Marketing program was cut by 75%. As
you can see, we need as many advocates as possible in our Meetings to be a
united voice for compassion and justice! |