by Jennifer Tran and Misha Werschkul, Washington State Budget & Policy Center
(This piece was originally published in longer form on the Washington State Budget & Policy Center blog.)
Since the first U.S. COVID-19 case was confirmed in Washington State in January, the public health crisis has rapidly evolved into an economic crisis. In recent weeks, we have spoken with many nonprofit and community leaders in our region to find out more about the specific economic needs emerging from this crisis. And we’ve heard the same sentiment over and over: We can’t make the same mistakes of the Great Recession. At that time, lawmakers made deep cuts to public services and community investments, and they increased our state’s reliance on regressive sources of tax revenue. This created continued hardship and growing inequalities for countless people in our communities.
In Washington State, we like to think we’re progressive, but I’m not convinced we know what that means. Washington State has some of the most backward, upside down systems in place that do an injustice to low-income folks and people of color: like our regressive tax code, over-policing students of colors in our schools, the ever-growing homeless population, and child hunger, to name a few.
State lawmakers in Olympia are debating House Bill 1394 (and its companion bill, Senate Bill 5431), an expensive proposal to build more hospitals with inpatient beds for people suffering from mental health or substance use challenges. This bill has gained wide appeal, and yet it takes a very awkward and giant step backward in terms of reforming what has been called, “a broken system.” We don’t believe our system is “broken” but we do believe Washington State policy makers are on the wrong path, thinking that more inpatient beds are the answer.
I remember growing up in a housing project in Seattle and my mother having to make choices. Choices like which of my siblings got to go on the field trip or which store to shop at to get the cheapest groceries to stretch her teacher’s paycheck just a little bit further.
(This article originally appeared on budgetandpolicy.org and has been republished with permission.)
by Liz Olson
As the Washington State Budget & Policy Center has previously written, Washington has made deep cuts to its WorkFirst program, our state version of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), in the last decade. New data reveal that these cuts have disproportionately harmed Black and American Indian families, who — under the harsh, inflexible time limit policy — are more likely to be cut off WorkFirst/TANF than their white counterparts. So although the WorkFirst program is intended to provide critical support to families who are excluded from opportunity, punitive policy decisions have instead further marginalized people of color from basic resources — threatening to deepen racial income and wealth disparity.
Last year my son, Willie Nobles, got the chance I want for every family in Washington state. Having served 22 years in prison of a 96-year-sentence, a compassionate judge reviewed Willie’s case and said he couldn’t, in good conscience, keep him in prison.
Ensuring mother and child thrive in childbirth and beyond are among the highest on our list of American values. However, the United States remains only one of eight nations in the world with a rising maternal mortality rate — and black mothers are dying at 1.5 to two times the rate of white mothers in childbirth.
Washington State: We’re known for our natural beauty, tech innovations, agriculture, and bold spirit. But we’ve fallen behind in one place: our upside-down, regressive tax code. In a state with so much spirit and potential, no one should be in last place. But our terrible tax code stands in the way of that.
The 2017 Washington State Legislative Session will likely be one of the most momentous in recent history. The reason for this is the imperative to finally, fully address McCleary. And addressing McCleary will entail tax reform. Thus, the session holds promise for much-needed change in two critical areas — educational finance and tax policy. In the next two months, several critical events will define the political landscape for the upcoming session. This article previews the 2017 Legislative Session. There are four sections: political context, central issues, legislative topics and themes.Continue reading A Preview of the 2017 Washington State Legislative Session→
For those interested in a State Legislature that effectively handles the peoples’ business, the 2016 Legislative Session will be a severe disappointment. For those who have followed the past several Legislative Sessions, this disappointment will be nothing new. The Washington State Legislature has become highly adept at taking a long time (six of the last seven years have gone into special session) to accomplish very little. There are, of course, powerful reasons for this ineffectuality, and these will be explored below. Continue reading 2016 State Legislature: Short Session Blues→
Amplifying the Authentic Narratives of South Seattle
