Dear Neighbors,
I’m glad to now be serving as your state Senator! Here is a look at some of what has been going on in the Legislature these first weeks.
No more excuses. Fully and fairly fund education now
Fully and fairly funding education is the primary focus of Democrats for the 2017 legislative session.
For the past seven months, Democratic and Republican lawmakers on the Education Funding Task Force met to develop solutions to solve our education funding problems and help Washington’s 1.1 million schoolchildren learn.
Democrats answered the call and released a detailed plan. Republicans did not, and showed up with no plan. Democrats’ proposed solutions: ease the burden on taxpayers by ending the reliance on local levies to pay for basic education. Republicans attacked the media for asking them when they intended to develop a plan.
Democrats have offered solutions to fully fund every school in every district to provide stable, reliable and sufficient revenue needed to provide quality education for our children.
Funding education by slashing health care, public safety and other critical state services is unsustainable and dangerous.
Pass the levy cliff bill: Avoid the largest school funding cut in history
If schools are allowed to go over the “levy cliff” it would result in the largest cut to education in the history of the state.
Democrats have introduced legislation in both the Senate and House to prevent this massive cut to our schools, SB 5023 and HB 1059. With bipartisan support, the House passed HB 1059. The Senate can now take action on this bill and prevent a cut of $358 million to schools across the state.
On Monday, all 24 Democratic senators sent a letter to the Republican Majority Leader, urging him to immediately consider HB 1059 in the Senate.
With state schools currently writing their budgets for the 2018 school year, the Senate must act now to extend the levy lid one year and provide certainty to Washington’s 1.1 million school kids and their teachers. In lieu of legislative action, schools will have no choice but to layoff many teachers, an action that will jeopardize the quality of our children’s education.
If we don’t act, local school districts would face big budget cuts.
North Thurston – $7.3 million
Olympia – $3.4 million
Tumwater – $2 million
Washington, D.C. – Make Washington sick again
With congressional Republicans vowing to dismantle the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, hundreds-of-thousands of Washingtonians are in danger of losing their health care insurance. Here’s who would be left out in the cold should Republicans repeal the ACA:
- 600,000 people on Medicaid. That’s the number of Washingtonians who are newly insured thanks to the ACA. Repeal the ACA and they lose their coverage. Washington’s budget takes a hit, too, if Congress reverses the ACA’s Medicaid expansion which has saved Washington roughly $1.6 billion, or about $300 million per year since the ACA has been fully implemented.
- 123,000 people on the Health Benefit Exchange. That’s the number of people who receive substantial subsidies to buy coverage and who wouldn’t be able to afford it otherwise.
- 17,000 young people. That’s the number of young people in Washington between the ages of 19 and 25 who are allowed to stay on their parent’s insurance thanks to the ACA.
- 1 million people with pre-existing conditions. These are non-elderly people with pre-existing conditions whom insurers are now required to cover under the ACA.
- Seniors who take expensive medications. The ACA has provided financial relief to seniors who buy expensive pharmaceutical drugs. For example, in 2012, nearly 60,000 seniors received an average discount of $718 when making drug purchases.
- Hospitals. Before the ACA, hospitals in Washington had to treat people who had no insurance and showed up in emergency rooms. This month, the American Hospital Association warned that if the ACA is repealed, the nation’s hospitals will lose billions of dollars. This will adversely affect patients’ access to care, decimate hospitals’ ability to provide services, weaken local economies and result in massive job losses.
Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
On Jan. 16, in accordance with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, an MLK Day March and Rally were held on the state Capitol campus honoring the birth, life and vision of this great American.
Dr. King inspired others to engage in civic and social activism during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. His unwavering support for the principles of racial justice and social equality helped change America and end the legal segregation of African-Americans in the South. In 1963, during the March on Washington, D.C., Dr. King delivered his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a gathering of over 250,000 people.
King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, among other honors. Although he has been gone for nearly 50 years, Dr. King’s impact and legacy continue, as does the struggle to fulfill his dream.
Sincerely,
Sen. Sam Hunt
