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Washington
Association of Churches Legislative Alert February 20, 2004 |
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Friday,
February 27th is the last day for bills to be heard in the
policy committee of the opposite house and be voted out to still be
viable. 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
House
Bill 2769 was referred to Senate Children, Family Services and Corrections
and is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday, Feb. 25th at 8 am.
It has been changed to include all of the food stamp components but only
require lunch in the 14 elementary schools that don't currently have
lunch. The language to add money to encourage schools to start a breakfast
program was removed from this bill. The Senate bill has died despite great
work by the bill sponsor Senator Brandland. Senator Brandland will add
some of the language from his bill to the House version when it reaches
the Senate. ACTION
NEEDED: CALL
OR EMAIL YOUR SENATOR (especially
if he or she is on the Children, Family Services and Corrections
committee) and ask him or her to vote in favor of HB 2769. Access
to Health Care
Children's
Health Insurance Premiums
The
potential effect of the imposition of premiums has been exacerbated by
administrative changes that require more paperwork and more frequent
Medicaid renewals for recipients. These
changes have already led to 18,000 children dropping off the Medicaid
rolls. 10,000 children left
Medicaid in November alone, and it is expected that thousands more fell
off the rolls in December and January. As
a result of this greater than expected caseload reduction, premiums are no
longer necessary to achieve the caseload savings that premiums were
expected to achieve in the 2003-05 budget.
In fact, current estimates are that only $1.2 million in state
dollars would be needed to eliminate premiums for all children whose
family incomes are at or below 200% of FPL. ACTION
NEEDED:
Call or Email your legislators (ESPECIALLY YOUR SENATOR) and
tell them that you care about this issue and want them to speak up about
the need to eliminate premiums up to 200% of the FPL. General Assistance - UnemployableThrough
a forecasting error when preparing for the budget last year, a decrease in
the GA-U caseload was anticipated and budgeted for. In actuality, the
caseload has stayed at about the same level. The Governor included the
money needed to cover the current caseload in his supplemental budget. THE
HOUSE BUDGET IS EXPECTED TO COME OUT EARLY NEXT WEEK.
ACTION
NEEDED:
Call
your legislators (especially your Representatives) and insist that they
fully fund GA-U at the level called for in the Governor's Supplemental
Budget.
Adult
Dental Services
Last
year coverage for adult dental services for Medicaid patients was cut by
25%. This cut means that people cannot get crowns or root canals on back
teeth. They cannot get mouth guards to prevent more serious dental
problems, and it does not allow for surgeries to treat a disorder in which
a person's gums grow over their teeth (often a side effect of medication).
These changes are unacceptable and it will only cost about $4.5 million to
restore these cuts. THIS ISSUE IS NOT BEING LOUDLY CHAMPIONED IN EITHER
HOUSE.
ACTION
NEEDED:
CALL YOUR LEGISLATORS AND TELL THEM TO RESTORE THE CUTS MADE TO ADULT DENTAL SERVICES FOR MEDICAID PATIENTS LAST YEAR. The revenue forecast just came out and it showed we have about $78 million more than anticipated. $4.5 million of that ought to be used to restore these cuts! Fair
and Equitable Tax System
Research and Development Tax Exemptions HB
2546 reauthorizing the hi-tech tax incentives WAS SIGNED BY THE GOVERNOR
YESTERDAY. The current form of this bill does not require enough
accountability or disclosure. It also is promising $75 million to
corporations before our budget is finalized and it is clear that we can
pay for essential services. THIS BILL. ACTION
NEEDED: CALL
OR EMAIL YOUR LEGISLATORS and
tell them that if there is money to extend tax cuts to corporations, there
is money to eliminate children's health insurance premiums, protect GAU
and restore the cuts to the adult dental program for Medicaid patients. Review
of and Reporting of Tax Credits HB
1869 which requires all tax credits to be reviewed routinely by the
legislature to ensure that they are still necessary and HB 2654 which
requires the Governor to release a list of all of the tax credits given
and their effectiveness with his biennial budget, are both sitting in
Senate Ways and Means. These bills will provide some accountability and
disclosure for the public about what tax credits are being given, how much
money the credits are worth and whether they are doing what they were
intended to do. ACTION
NEEDED: CALL
OR EMAIL YOUR SENATOR and
ask them to ensure that HB 1869 and HB
2654 have hearings in Senate Ways and Means and ask them to support
these accountability measures. We scrutinize every dollar that we spend on
Health and Human Services in the state budget, why shouldn't we subject
the dollars that we give away to corporations to the same high standard of
analysis? OTHER: Changes
to TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) SSB
6559 would make two major changes to current WorkFirst regulations.
It would deny TANF applicants any benefits for 30 days unless they
could demonstrate that they had been actively seeking employment previous
to their application or had a significant barrier that would prevent them
from actively seeking work. Advocates
are concerned that few applicants would be able to meet this requirement
and that the 30-day wait for benefits would be greatly detrimental to
families in need. In
addition, the bill would put into statute an extension to 12 weeks that
persons who have been sanctioned would receive a reduced grant.
While the Department is planning to implement this change in April,
legislative action would make it more difficult to change this policy if
it proves to have adverse effects. This
is a bad bill! ACTION
NEEDED:
Please contact your Representative and ask them to oppose SSB 6659. REMEMBER:
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