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Update from Olympia #7

Monday, February 22

Washington State LegislatureWelcome to the 6th week of session! It’s going to be a big week on budget issues – rumors are flying about what’s in and what’s out in terms of budget and what they will do on revenue. We won’t know for sure until the House and Senate budgets are released early this week.

IN THIS ISSUERevenue Rally and Town Halls  * House and Senate Take First Steps on Revenue  * Good/Bad News on Bills  * Caregivers Team Up with Senior Advocates for Purple Presence * Grassroots Legislative Organizer Blog

COMING UP THIS WEEK Monday/Tuesday: Public Hearing on New Budget Bills  * Tuesday: Bill to Create Dedicated Revenue for Home Care Up for Hearing  * Thursday: Purple Presence

REMINDER Legislative Conference Call  * Two More Weeks of Purple Presence


IN THIS ISSUE
Revenue Rally and Town Halls On Monday, nearly 5,500 people from all over the state, including a large number of members from our union gathered in Olympia to support efforts to raise revenue and avoid devastating cuts to long-term care and other human services. Just this last weekend, legislators came home and held town hall meetings across the state. We sent them our message loud and clear, “Save long-term care. Stop the cuts. Close tax loopholes instead.”

House and Senate Take First Steps on Revenue This week, the House and the Senate both passed out SB 6130, which a necessary first step to allow legislators to close loopholes and raise revenues. Without this bill, the legislature would be forced to close the budget deficit with billions more in cuts to education, health care, and environmental protections. Not a single Republican in either house voted for this bill.
Good/Bad News on Bills Last week was the ‘cutoff’ for bills to pass off the House or Senate floor and continue to move through the process. The good news is that both of the bills we are working on around career pathways for home care aides – SB 6582 and SB 6662 – made it past this deadline. The bad news is that other priorities, including the foreclosure prevention bill (SB 6648) and the bill to ban unfair insurance practices (SB 6252) did not make it in time.

Caregivers Team up with Senior Advocates for Purple Presence On Thursday, caregivers who were in town for Purple Presence and Executive Board members teamed up with advocates from other organizations – including AARP Washington, the State Council on Aging, and local Area Agencies on Aging – at Senior Lobby Day. After spending the morning hearing from staff from DSHS and the Governor’s office, caregivers headed over the Capitol to hand deliver thank you “valentines” to legislators who voted with us on SB 6130.

Grassroots Legislative Organizer (GLO) Blog Cathy just posted another update on her blog. Get the inside scoop on what it's like to be working full-time in Olympia.

Click here to read her blog.


Here's what's coming up this week:
Monday/Tuesday: Public Hearing on New Budget Bills It’s budget negotiation time, and there are rumors that the House and Senate will release initial budget proposals this week. The budget committees will likely hold public hearings this week to see what people think of the proposals – we’ll be there in force to make sure that the budget isn’t being balanced on seniors and people with disabilities and low-income caregivers!

Tuesday: Legislative Conference Call Join us every Tuesday for the rest of the 2010 legislative session for SEIU Healthcare 775NW conference calls. The calls will be led by Catherine Byrd, a member and this session's Grassroots Legislative Organizer. She'll help us understand what's happening in Olympia, and what we can do to help stop the cuts and increase revenue.

For more information on how to join the conference call, please call our Member Resource Center toll-free at 1 (866) 371-3200.

Tuesday: Bill to Create Dedicated Revenue for Home Care Up for Hearing House Bill 3186 – which would create a dedicated funding stream for home care services – is up for a public hearing this week. We’ve been working hard on this proposal to make sure that we are being part of the solution and helping find ways to prevent cuts to critical services.

Thursday: Purple Presence This Thursday, caregivers from Southwest Washington and the Peninsula will be gathering in Olympia to raise attention about the impact of cuts to long-term care services. As always, we’ll be talking with legislators about the need to raise revenue to prevent devastating cuts. The legislative districts coming to Olympia this week are 17, 18, 19, 26, 30, 35, 47 and 49.


REMINDER
Just Over Two More Weeks of Session; Two More Weeks of Purple Presence Click on this Web site or call our Member Resource Center toll-free at 1 (866) 371-3200 to find out when members from your legislative district are coming to the Capitol. If you don't know which district you live in, you can find out by entering your zip code here.



Update from Olympia 2010 Archives
Update from Olympia #6 (February 15, 2010)
Update from Olympia #5 (February 8 2010)
Update from Olympia #4 (February 1, 2010)
Update from Olympia #3 (January 25, 2010)
Update from Olympia #2 (January 18, 2010)
Update from Olympia #1 (January 11, 2010)