2025 Bad Bills in Washington - part 2 - taking our money

I've decided to group the bad bills together. This post's theme is taking our money. See my previous post for how to share your comments on a bill. 

The state is facing a $12 billion shortfall over the next few years. A "shortfall" is simply a difference between what the state is bringing in versus what it's on pace to spend. You might have noticed a Superbowl ad by Enterprise Washington about the simple math on this. You can read more here. As a result of all this, there's going to be several attempts at raising our taxes. I'm just posting a few of them here, because well, I have a full time job and a family who deserve my time. 

• House Bill 1334 - modifying the annual regular property tax revenue growth limit. AKA make it easier to raise your property taxes. If you own a house, or your grandma owns a house, this hits "home." 
• from the Bill Report, written by nonpartisan staff: "Changes the 101 percent revenue growth limit for state and local property taxes to 100 percent plus population change and inflation, with a capped limit of 103 percent."

What I'm telling my legislators: Washington state has a spending problem. You got drunk on COVID dollars, just as you did on federal stimulus awhile ago. Stop promising things on short-term dollars. Increasing property taxes hits the middle class the hardest, not to mention seniors on fixed incomes. You have enough of our money to cover what's important, do your job and get creative. When I get a bonus, I don't go out and buy a car and then act shocked when the money runs out. Please set a better example to students in this state on how budgeting and economics works. 

• House Bill 1356 - "concerning K-12 funding." This is a favorite of Democrats, make it "about the children" when it's really "get more money in the coffers." 
• Increases the threshold for levies that a school district can raise. So much for equitable funding across the state. A court case from awhile ago, called McCleary, forced the state to increase % of state spending on education. The idea was for school districts to not rely on tax levies, because it favors districts with more wealthy households. 
• Does the same thing as the bill above with the property tax limit! So they're really set on making that happen. 

What I'm telling my legislators: Did we learn nothing from the McCleary court case? Why are we punting the duty of the state to equally fund education across the state, to local levies, where we know this hurts poorer school districts. If you are for the middle class and helping poor students be successful, we must rightly fund education at the state level and not force districts to rely on local levies. Further, don't put property tax increases on me. Ask school districts to get better results first before we give them more funding. Our students deserve better. 

•  House Bill 1032 - "concerning school district elections." 
• Allows school districts to issue bonds for capital purposes (i.e. buildings, technology, etc), levy taxes on us to make payments on those bonds, and exceeds the current debt limit with a simple majority (50.1%) of voters. (Right now the requirement is a vote of 60%)
• Would require a constitutional amendment to Washington's constitution, so we would see this on our ballots if it passes the Legislature. Expect lots of sad ads about kids in moldy buildings who can't learn because their buildings are falling down around them.

What I'm telling my legislators: Vote no on this bill. This again punts the state's responsibility on to the school districts, and makes it easier to raise my taxes. We've paid enough, there's no need to put this on the ballot, because there is no appetite for it, even in this state. 

• House Bill 1921 - establishing new sources of transportation revenue based on motor vehicle use of public roadways. 
• Allows for a "road usage licensing fee" that imposes a fee based on how many miles you drive. At first, this might sound logical, and the bill's authors even call it more "fair and equitable." At face value, it may seem so. But it's not fair or equitable. First, think about families who can't afford to live in big cities nor can they find good work in the country - they commute. So if you're a commuter, you're carrying a bigger burden here. Want to go on a road trip with your family, make some memories and see our beautiful state? You might think twice. And no, electric vehicles aren't exempt, and in fact, they get charged first in the phased in approach.
• Definitely privacy concerns about the government collecting data on how many miles you traveled - cause we really trust the government to not track where we go and to not use this against us if we're accused of a crime? The bill says they'll protect privacy and civil liberties, but sorry, I've read enough news and have a healthy suspicion of how the government uses my information.
• This bill is long and sorry I just couldn't get through it all! 
• This is scheduled for public hearing on Feb. 13 at 4pm - if you read this before then, you can submit written testimony that goes on record and goes to all committee members, not just your legislators. 

What I'm telling my legislators: This is not fair or equitable for working families, especially the working poor who must commute to work every day, since they can't afford to live in a city and may have a hard time finding work where they live. No offense, but I don't trust the government with tracking where my vehicle goes. Come up with another way to fund transportation needs, don't hurt commuting families. 

 

2025 Bad Bills in Washington - part 1 - destroying parents' rights

There's so many bad bills being proposed in Washington State I can barely keep up. So I am spending some time catching up and sharing links and the thoughts I'm sharing with my legislators, so other people can learn too! This is part 1, aka what this working mom could get after kids' bedtime and before my own. 

Feel free to steal any of this if you want to also share your comments with your legislators! (Political friends: please correct me if I missed anything below! I'm not in the loop like I once was, just a concerned mama!)

Click on the bill links to see more about sponsors, the bill's current status (how a bill becomes a law) and more. Click on "what I'm telling my legislators" to go to the comment page for that bill. Note: You'll be asked for your street address for them to ensure your message goes to your own representatives and senator. Be sure to click "verify district" so your comment goes through - and be sure the "your comment has been submitted" message appears so you know it's been sent! 

• House Bill 1296 is titled as "promoting a safe and supportive education system." It does a lot of things, but most notably but it infringes on parents' rights. 
• It removes "immediate" notification of parents if a criminal action has been committed against their child on school grounds, and changes it to a 48 hour notification. 

• It removes ALL notification in medical matters related to children. 

• To add the cherry on top of this hot mess, it has an emergency clause. (When I worked at the House, we had a member who specialized in stripping emergency clauses from every bill out of principle) An emergency clause makes a bill immediately enacted, which makes sense for a true emergency, but in this case it's used so that Washington voters cannot repeal the bill through a referendum, and would need an initiative to change the law with a much higher threshold for signatures. 

What I'm telling my legislators:  I strongly oppose this bill as a parent of two school aged children. The intent of this section of the law states that parents are critical for students to be successful in their education. And yet the bill reduces notification on criminal actions involving their child, and eliminates parental notification for medical procedures. As parents, we are legally responsible for their children, as such should be immediately notified about anything that happens to them that involves the law or any medical matters. Meanwhile, parents must consent to most medical procedures in a hospital. But not in a school setting? Parents are tired of schools and Democrats deciding what is best for OUR children. Stop this bill, vote NO.  

• Similar to the above bill is Senate Bill 5181 - not a direct "companion" (copy) bill, but has the same smell. It's called "amending the parents rights initiative to bring it into alignment with existing law." That means they are overturning Initiative 2081, which was an initiative to the Legislature which passed in early 2024 and had hundreds of thousands of signatures from voters to put it before the Legislature.
  I'm sending the same note on this bill to my legislators as well. 

• House Bill 1128 - "establishing a child care workforce standards board." If you send your kids to private school, pay attention to this one. My kids' private school principal emailed us about this, and in 7 years of attending the school, I've never received a message from the principal about legislation. The Washington Federation of Independent Schools raised the following concerns about the bill: 
• Allowing unions to have influence over private schools: Forcing union and non-union schools to follow union-driven policies. This would undermine the unique staffing models and culture of independent schools.
• Curriculum control: Empowers the board to impose curriculum requirements, interfering with schools' ability to create programs that reflect their mission, values, and students' needs.
• Privacy concerns: Mandates that schools hand over employee contact information to unions, breaching privacy and giving unions unprecedented access to staff.

What I'm telling my legislators: I strongly oppose this legislation. My husband and I pay TWICE for our kids' education - to the broken public schools who are failing students, and to the private school that we love. We chose private school in order to practice our faith and raise our children in an environment that supports our faith. Our private schools have FREEDOMS to choose curriculum, and parents get to weigh in on that as well. We don't pay twice so that the government can take over our private schools and break them too. Our children are THRIVING because private schooling WORKS when government is not micromanaging them. Stay out of private schools, vote NO. 

Added 2/11: 

• Senate  

There are quick moving deadlines coming up for these bills, so it's important to submit your comments soon! 

I highly recommend subscribing to The Week Ahead, developed by House Republicans, that shares the latest on highlights and lowlights of the upcoming week in the Washington State Legislature. 

Also, Brandi Kruse is sharing hot takes on Facebook for bad bills! 

Campaigning after the election?!

So we have about three elections in our state House that are too close to call. One of them is about 80 votes apart, one is a little over 100, and another is just above 500. When two candidates are less than 0.5% apart, there is an automatic recount.
When county auditors' offices are counting votes, there are some (a lot in some places) they set aside. Some the machine doesn't count because there's something wrong with the filled-in bubble. Some people forget to sign their ballots, or the signature in the voter system doesn't match how they signed their name. So the auditor's office sends these voters a letter letting them know their vote hasn't been counted yet (this isn't nationally- just within our great state due to legislation). When people still don't respond, the Republican and Democrats can request the list of people whose vote hasn't counted and why. (By the way- if you live in Thurston County, you can go to http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/auditor/Elections/2008Elections/General/Ballots/Ballot_Rcvd.htm and look for your name to see if your ballot has been counted. Other counties may do this, but I haven't checked.)
So then, the parties go out and knock on doors and make calls to people who didn't have their vote counted. Of course, the parties are going to knock on doors or make calls to voters that typically vote for their party.
So today we went up to the 44th district, which includes Lake Stevens, Snohomish and parts of Everett. We had names, addresses and forms. The forms had a place for the voter to sign, stating that they hadn't voted more than once, that they are legal voters, etc. Then there's a place for us (witnesses) to sign.
So lesson for today: SIGN YOUR BALLOTS, PEOPLE!!

Reflections on the election

With me just starting to get my feet wet in politics, mostly as an observer, and me being currently 24, I thought I would share my learning experiences with you all.
I also have this thing about young people getting more involved in their government- in one way or another. Hopefully this blog will show you why and how you can get involved, or at least, observe.
As those of you who know me know (whoo, that would never pass in a press release!), I work for the House of Representatives as a public information officer (sounds scary but basically I do communications and writing). I love my job. I personally think it's the best ever. Always changing, never boring, room for thinking and new ideas. Plus I work with really great people who have supported my learning and mistakes.
So first, I just wanted to reflect a little on the election. You've probably heard the word "historic" a couple times. And it is, in many ways. Voter turnout, the first black person elected to be president, the second female to run for vice-president, etc. And while I'm excited that we'll have a change in administration (the writers of the Constitution were soo smart- we can always use a little "change" around here!), I'm not too excited about Obama as a policymaker and driver. That's probably the first time you've heard that, huh? First, he believes in socialized health care. Some people think this means I must not care about poor children without doctors checkups or old people without prescriptions, but that's not it at all. I just think socialized medicine will lead to bigger problems and not really solve the problem we had in the first place.
One thing you have to know about politics is that we all want the same thing. We just have different ideas and ways to achive the same goal. For example, on health care, Democrats (in general) believe the government should step up and answer the needs of people without health care. Republicans (in general) support the market and businesses answering the needs of people without health care. The thing is, the problem isn't really that not enough people have health care. A very small population does not have health care- most of them are our age and choose not to have it because they're healthy and want to spend their money elsewhere. The problem is that for families and older people who have health care, they can't afford deductibles and what's left of the bill after insurance picks up part if any of the bill.
Back to Obama. I could be wrong (we'll see come January), but I haven't seen much substance or leadership from him. His plans and ideas that he discussed throughout the campaign seemed to change with the time, the place and the people. Of course, this is true to some extent with any politician (of course you're going to prioritize health care with seniors and education with parents). I don't think he's really ever stood up to his party. He's been the golden child of the Democratic party since he was a state senator- I remember watching a special on him many years ago and them saying that he had so much potential. So he has done what the party has told him to do and not do to get where he's at. Again, this is true for many politicians. But when you're campaigning on change, that's not exactly a great record to prove you can bring change.
Speaking of change, anything would be a change from George Bush. McCain was much more moderate and disagreed with Bush and the Republicans on a wide variety of topics. So even he would have been a change. Plus changing from the Republicans in control of the White House to the Democrats in control of the White House is going to be a change. Not just because of the president, but because of the ideals that each party stands for.
With a huge majority in Congress and power in the White House, we'll see what the Democratic party changes and accomplishes. It's going to be ugly for a couple years- neither presidential candidate would have had much of a honeymoon. Both would be criticized because people aren't going to understand. Whether we raise taxes or cut programs, someone will be hurt.
The real test will be to see if Obama can unite our country on the challenges we must face -- or if he simply panders to his party and doesn't listen to the people and do what's in their best interest (which are sometimes at odds- a true leader will do what's best and still have the people on their side because they have their trust and respect). So for now I'll just be watching and listening. I hope you will be too. It's our job to be the bosses of our leaders- to criticize their job performance, hard work, follow through, and how they work with others. It's also our job to fire them if they are out of line, if someone more qualified or promising comes along, etc.