Update from Olympia #12
Monday, April 5
This is the beginning of the 4th week of special session. The 30-day special session started on March 15 and runs through April 13. If the legislature has not finished their work by Tuesday, April 13, the Governor will have to do one of the following:
-
Call the legislature back for another special session;
- Send the legislature home until they reach agreement and then call them back for a very short special session; or
- Start implementing an all-cuts budget by making reductions in programs
We’re pushing hard to help them get done on time and avoid any of these options. As long as the legislature is still in session, we’ll continue sending out Updates from Olympia. The updates may be a little less frequent than during the regular session, since things are moving slower.
IN THIS ISSUE
What’s the Holdup? * Timeline Moving Forward * Update on Nursing Homes * Governor Signs SB 6582 * Keep Up the Pressure
IN THIS ISSUE
What’s the Holdup?
Many people are asking, "What is taking the legislature so long? Why haven’t they finished the special session yet?" The big holdup is over a disagreement between the House and Senate on the revenue package. Both the House and Senate have passed revenue proposals that raise $800 million to prevent cuts to basic services, but the content of the revenue proposals are different. For example, the Senate wants to do a temporary increase in the sales tax while the House prefers a mix of tax loopholes and targeted sin taxes. Until they reach agreement on which taxes to raise, they can’t finalize the budget.
There are discussions going on almost every day between House and Senate leadership but there’s not much for the average rank-and-file legislator to do. Most legislators have been allowed to go home for parts of the special session. If you walk around the capitol in Olympia, it might not seem like there’s much going on, but there are heated negotiations going on behind closed doors. We’ve been working to try to help them think of alternative ways to raise revenue, like increasing the tax on soda, taxing big out-of-state banks, and closing other tax loopholes. They’ll have to find a tax proposal that can get 50 votes in the House and 25 votes in the Senate before they can finish.
Timeline Moving Forward
The House and the Senate both came onto the floor last week for a few days to pass bills related to the budget, but they are probably not going to be on the floor again until sometime mid-week, and possibly not until Friday. The big days for finalizing the revenue and budget proposals are expected to be Friday, April 9 through Sunday, April 11. The last day allowed for this special session is Tuesday, April 13, so they may be working right up until the end.
Update on Nursing Homes
Our campaign to prevent cuts to nursing homes is still going strong. We are asking legislators to support
SB 6751 /
HB 3021, the Nursing Home Quality Assurance Fee, or raise enough revenue through other sources to prevent cuts to nursing homes. We’re hearing rumors that we’ve defeated a proposal in the Senate to cut $60 million from nursing homes but we won’t know for sure until the final budget is released.
Governor Signs Career Pathway Bill
On Wednesday, March 24, Governor Gregoire signed
SB 6582 in front of over a dozen caregivers and the major force behind the bill in the legislature, Representative Eileen Cody. The legislation recognizes prior training in home care if a home care worker wants to become a Certified Nursing Assistant. Currently home care workers have to start over with training when trying to become a CNA – despite the fact that home care workers do similar work. Under the new law, if a caregiver has gone through the new 75-hour home care worker training and passed the certification test (which goes into effect in 2011), they would only need another 24 hours of training to also become a CNA.
Click here to read more and to watch a video from the signing.
Keep Up the Pressure
It’s really important that we keep up the pressure on our issues during this special session. Our work to protect home care, nursing homes, and adult day health services is not done yet. We need the legislature to approve a revenue proposal that avoids cuts to basic programs. Letters, emails, and phone calls from caregivers are still needed to let legislators know why these services are so important and shouldn’t be cut.
Update from Olympia 2010 Archives
Update from Olympia #11 (March 22, 2010)
Update from Olympia #10 (March 15, 2010)
Update from Olympia #9 (March 8, 2010)
Update from Olympia #8 (March 1, 2010)
Update from Olympia #7 (February 22, 2010)
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)