Urgent alert re WA budget
Dear Friends,
We have sent out only a few legislative alerts this past short session because the legislature was so immersed in working out the budget. After an extended session a budget proposal is ready to be approved, but it needs our citizen support. Please consider calling your Senator and House members to urge its passage, or you may want to use the form made available below to contact your representative.
A number of our partner organizations, including the Lutheran Public Policy office and the Washington Association of Churches, have sent out this urgent appeal originated by Fuse Washington:
After weeks of intense negotiations, the state House and the Senate leadership have agreed to a compromise budget proposal that will prevent devastating cuts to education, health care, and other essential services. Industry lobbyists are doing everything they can to undermine this compromise during the final days of the legislative session.
If passed the revised two year budget would include more than $4 billion in cuts, but also raises $800 million in desperately-needed funding for services our communities rely on. Unlike earlier proposals, the compromise does not include a general sales tax increase.
We have just a few days to pass this proposal. In the face of intense opposition, legislators need to hear from you that it’s time to move Washington forward.
Click on the link below to urge your legislators to support this critical compromise.
http://www.fusewashington.org/page/speakout/budgetspecial
This funding package is the minimum amount required to prevent ballooning class sizes, allow low-income students to afford college, and protect healthcare coverage for thousands of people in our communities.
This proposal would close tax loopholes and raises some targeted taxes on non-essential goods like cigarettes and temporary increases on soda and beer. We think it makes more sense to pay a few cents more for a can of beer than deny thousands of people access to affordable health care.
Tell your legislators to stand up to last-minute pressure from corporate lobbyists and support this compromise legislation. Click on the link to send a message.
http://www.fusewashington.org/page/speakout/budgetspecial
Tom Ewell,
Clerk, FCWPP