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Washington Association of
Churches
Legislative Alert
Week of January 12 - 16, 2004
Volume 7, Issue 2
Also attached:
Legislative Alert in Word Format & Legislative Advocacy Opportunities
Washington Association of Churches State Public Policy Principles
____________________________________________________________________________
The Washington Association of Churches has
nine State Public Policy Principles that all legislation that we work on
must fall under. This year we are supporting legislation that meets the
criteria of our policy principles, but we are actively pursuing a few
particular agenda items.
Those items fall under three of the Public Policy Agendas. We are focusing
on:
Reducing Barriers to Food Stamps and Expanding Access to Free and
Reduced-Price School Meal Programs, which falls under the priority of
Welfare Policies that Lift Families Out of Poverty Eliminating Children's
Medicaid Premiums, Protecting GA-U funding and Adult Dental Services,
which falls under the Access to Health Care priority.
Reviewing of Tax Exemptions and Credits and
Upholding the Estate Tax, which fall under the Fair and Equitable Tax
System priority The full list of priorities can be found at www.thewac.org
The 2004 session will go very quickly as it is only 60 days long. There
will be a supplemental budget, but no major increases or cuts are
anticipated. Legislators are anxious to get out of session on time so that
they can start campaigning as all of the Representatives and half of the
Senators are up for election this year. If you have any questions about
what is happening in the legislature or anything written in these alerts,
please contact me at: kristenrogers@palm.com
.
If you need to find out who your legislators are, you can go to www.leg.wa.gov
and click on the district finder. You can also leave a message for all
three of your legislators (even if you
don't know who they are!) and the Governor with one call to the
Legislative
Hotline at 1-800-562-6000.
Welfare Policies that Lift Families Out of Poverty Hunger
Representative Pettigrew is introducing a bill in the House of
Representatives that attempts to decrease some of the hunger in our state.
It is tentatively called "Act for Hungry Families" and does not
have a bill number yet. Washington is one of the five hungriest states in
the nation.
This hunger bill does three things. First, it makes an administrative
change at DSHS (referred to as Simplified Reporting), which requires
families to report changes in income that put them over 150% of the
Federal Poverty Level (and subsequently makes them ineligible for food
stamps). Currently, families have to report ANY change in income - even
five dollars. Second,
the bill will require that all elementary schools provide free and
reduced-price breakfast and lunch programs.
Finally, it will automatically extend food stamp benefits to families
leaving TANF for five months, which will help them transition. The bill
will be introduced early next week. Senator Brandland is the sponsor of a
similar bill, which also does not have a bill number. It does all of the
things the House bill does but it also allows people who have been
convicted of drug felonies and served their time to access Federal Food
Stamps (which all individuals with other types of
felonies already can access).
ACTION NEEDED:
Attend HUNGER ADVOCACY DAY on January 29, 2004. These bills will
probably be heard on that day, and we need people to come and support this
and other hunger-combating legislation.
Call or Email your Legislators, especially if he or she is on the
Children and Family Services Committee in the House or the Agriculture
Committee in the Senate and ask them to vote in favor of the Act for
Hungry Families.
Access to Health Care
Children's Health Insurance Premiums
In the 2003-05 biennial budget passed in the 2003 session, the Legislature
imposed monthly Medicaid premiums on children in families with incomes
between 100% and 200% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). These are
families who don't have enough money to cover even their most basic needs
and would be forced to choose between things like food and health
insurance. Making the situation worse, changes that require more paperwork
and more frequent Medicaid renewals already have pushed more than 12,000
children off the Medicaid rolls. In his proposed budget, the Governor used
some Federal SCHIP money to eliminate the premiums for families with
incomes between 100 -150% of the FPL, and reduce the premium amount for
families with incomes 150 - 200% of the FPL. An additional $10 million in
state dollars is all that is needed to offset premiums completely and
preserve health care coverage for these low-income children.
ACTION NEEDED:
Call or Email your legislators and ask them to support the elimination of
ALL premiums for children in families with incomes up to 200% of the
Federal Poverty Level. (There will not be a bill number for this It is
just done in the budget). Fair and Equitable Tax System Research and
Development Tax Exemptions There are two Research and Development Tax
Credits up for reauthorization this year. If extended they will cost state
and local governments $93.2 million dollars for the rest of 2004 and $257
million for the 2005-2007 biennium. These credits are not subject to any
kind of performance audits, accountability or disclosure (meaning who is
using them, how they are being used and if they are creating jobs is not
evaluated nor is that information available to the public).
The WAC is requesting that the choice to
reauthorize these tax expenditures be carefully considered given the cuts
that were made to health and human services last year. If we cannot afford
to take care of our most vulnerable citizens, perhaps we also cannot
afford to give money to corporations. If these exemptions are authorized,
there needs to be accountability and disclosure of information built into
the legislation.
REMEMBER: You can always leave a message for all three of your
legislators and the Governor at the toll free hotline (the operators can
even tell you who your legislators are!) 1-800-562-6000. You can always
get more information on bills at www.leg.wa.gov.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns at: kristenrogers@palm.com. |