Dear friends and neighbors,
We’re wrapping up the seventh week of this year’s legislative session and have reached the second big deadline for bills this year.
Today is fiscal cutoff, which means that any bill with a fiscal impact needs to pass out of a fiscal committee (like the House Appropriations Committee, on which I serve) or the Senate Ways & Means Committee by the end of the day to continue through the process. I’ve spent a lot of time this week working with my colleagues to closely consider each bill.
You may have heard about the budget deficit that we face in Washington this year. We’ve been working over the last couple months to identify places that we can reduce spending without hurting the people of our state. This week we rolled out a website to help show what would be at risk in an all-cuts budget. Some of these cuts are really painful, and very few are cuts that we would want to make. For example – $750 million in cuts to higher education; eliminating Medicaid coverage for kidney dialysis, pharmaceuticals, and family planning; cutting care for the elderly, people with developmental disabilities, and children; and reducing food assistance for low-income people.
That is why I believe we need a balanced approach to the state budget. We are focused on making the least harmful cuts possible and looking at asking certain wealthy people and businesses to pay their fair share. For example, there are no taxes collected on rental storage units in Washington or on gold bullion. Washington has one of the most regressive tax systems in the nation. As a percent of their income, the poorest Washingtonians pay significantly more than the billionaires in our state. We will seek to make budget choices that protect services Washingtonians rely on, like public education, public safety, and health care.
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I have heard from many of you about bills that are important to you. A few bills that I am cosponsoring and that I have heard from constituents about that are moving forward:
- HB 1296, protecting the privacy of students in our public schools.
- HB 1483, making it easier and cheaper for Washingtonians to repair digital electronic products like smartphones and computers by providing options other than paying the original manufacturer for the repair work.
- HB 1837, laying out a plan to improve Amtrak passenger rail service to Portland and Vancouver.
- HB 1923, helping connect more Puget Sound communities with passenger ferries by authorizing more local governments to provide passenger ferry service.
Please continue to let me know about bills you are excited to see moving through the process as well as bills that give you concern.
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I also want to invite you to join Sen. Alvarado, Rep. Thomas, and me for a telephone town hall on Monday, March 17 at 6:00 p.m. If you don’t automatically receive a call, you can join by calling 855-756-7520 and entering extension 120781#. We’ll be on to provide updates about the session so far and take your questions live. I’m looking forward to it!