Legislative Information

The LWVWA says Vote NO on These Three Initiatives—Here's Why.

The League of Women Voters of Washington is asking voters to vote NO on three Initiatives that will be on the ballot in November. These Initiatives include:

• I-2109—Repeal the capital gains excise tax;

• I-2117—Prohibit carbon tax credit trading and repeal provisions of the 2021 Washington Climate Commitment Act; and

• I-2124—Allow all employees and self-employed individuals to opt out of paying for and receiving benefits from the WA Cares Long-Term Care program.

By voting NO on these three Initiatives, you are voting to retain the programs these initiatives would affect.

The LWVWA is asking voters to vote NO on I-2109, I2117, and I-2124.

Further information about these programs can be found below:

The Capital Gains Tax
This measure applies only to long-term capital assets with capital gains over $250,000. There are very few people in Washington State to whom this applies. The tax generates millions of dollars for education. The first $500 million supports the State's public education system; the remaining balance helps to fund school construction and maintenance. WA State is obligated, by the State's Constitution, to provide ample funding for education—this capital gains tax, collected from a very small number of people, helps to ensure the state can meet this obligation.

The League's position on this capital gains tax stems from its support for public education and for creating a more equitable tax structure. For more information, or to identify a speaker on this topic, contact Cynthia Stewart, LWVWA Revenue Issue Chair.

The Climate Commitment Act (CCA)
The CCA is a very complex law that helps Washington State respond to the climate crisis. It enables WA to generate funding for increasing energy efficiency, reducing pollution, restoring the environment, creating programs that provide environmental justice in marginalized communities, and repairing certain transportation infrastructures. It generates this funding through a system of auctioning allowances for carbon emissions while reducing the level of allowable emissions over time.

The League's position on this comes from extensive climate-related policies, including consistency with the best available climate science, reducing emissions, addressing the long-term impacts of climate change on public health, accelerating the shift to cleaner, more energy-efficient sources, and more. For more information or to identify a speaker on this topic, contact Martin Gibbons, LWVWA Climate Crisis Issue Chair.

The WA Cares Act
This program allows employees to receive long-term care services through deposits of employee payroll taxes over a period of time, which are then invested for future use. The program was initiated because so many people cannot afford private long-term care services, even though over 70% of the population eventually needs them. If many people drop out of this program, it could not accrue enough future funds through investment gains to provide the long-term care services when they are needed. This would cost taxpayers more in the future through increased personal and Medicaid expenses.

The League's support for this program comes from its position that total health care system expenditures should be controlled, and universal access to affordable health services—with seamless coverage regardless of one's health status—should be provided. For more information or to identify a speaker on this topic, contact Cynthia Stewart, LWVWA Revenue Chair or Karen Tvedt, LWVWA Elder Care Study Leader.

(PSARA)
Puget
Sound  
Advocates for
Retirement 
Action 

Working across generations for social justice, economic security, dignity, and a healthy planet for all of us.

**Vote NO To Protect our future and the future of our children and grandchildren**

Vote No on three harmful initiatives on the November ballot: 

Vote No I-2117 would annihilate Washington’s efforts to fight pollution by removing the requirement that corporate polluters pay.

Vote No I-2109 repeals the Capital Gains tax that would result in defunding public education, childcare, and school construction.

 Vote No I-2124 Will take away Long Term Care Benefits from Millions of Washingtonians.  Come to the Kick-off Rally Monday July 15th 12 pm @ Harborview Park 779 Alder St. Seattle. Click here for more information Click here to watch PSARA’s Webinar on why you should vote no on the three initiatives

New Bill Makes Everyone a Spy

Rather than heed bipartisan calls to reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which has been used to spy on Americans without a warrant, Congress passed a bill that significantly expands the government’s power to snoop on its citizens. The new legislation could force virtually any business that provides customers with Wi-Fi, from commercial landlords to laundromats, to give the NSA access to the public’s communications. Fortunately, there is still an opportunity to correct Congress’s failure — the fight to protect Americans’ privacy rights will continue.

Noncitizens Aren’t Voting

House Speaker Mike Johnson said earlier this month that he will push new legislation to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting in U.S. elections. However, as a new Brennan Center analysis explains, numerous deterrents against noncitizen voting already exist, and it is illegal under federal law and every state’s laws. Instead of cracking down on a phenomenon that’s vanishingly rare, Congress should focus on guaranteeing the freedom to vote for eligible voters.

How AI Threatens Voting Rights

Disinformation has long been used to suppress votes, especially from people of color. Now artificial intelligence tools may supercharge these efforts, allowing bad actors to deceive and disenfranchise voters more easily and swiftly than ever before. The final installment in our AI and Democracy series warns of the dangers for the 2024 election and puts forth solutions to protect voters from improper purges and AI-assisted disinformation campaigns.

Accountability Is Essential to Democracy

This week marked the start of former President Trump's criminal trial in New York — a historic first in the United States. Investigating and prosecuting sitting and former leaders for wrongdoing has long been common in other countries, however. While criminal proceedings against top officials come with risks to democracy and should not be undertaken lightly, when pursued fairly and transparently, they help sustain the rule of law.

Loopholes Undermine New AI Rules

Last month, the White House published new rules for how the federal government can use AI. These include sensible protections for the public’s safety and civil rights, but they also give agencies too much leeway to opt out of some of the most important safeguards. As agencies race to adopt AI, raising the risk that these systems could amplify discrimination and abusive surveillance, the Biden administration must make changes to ensure that loopholes are the exception, not the rule.

The HEAL Act requires seven state agencies to create and adopt community engagement plans by July 1, 2022. HEAL also states that the Environmental Justice Council will provide guidance on community engagement plans as agencies create and update them.

What is the HEAL Act Washington State?

The passage of the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) Act in 2021 is a historic step toward eliminating environmental and health disparities among communities of color and low income households. It is the first statewide law in Washington to create a coordinated state agency approach to environmental justice.

To learn more click on this link:HEAL Act

A More Diverse Ballot

On Wednesday, the Federal Election Commission will hold a public hearing on proposed updates to its rules for how and when candidates can use campaign funds to support themselves. The changes could make the rules more equitable by easing the heavy financial burden of running for office, giving non-wealthy candidates a fairer shot at a successful campaign. “Ultimately, if we are to have elected candidates that fully reflect America’s diversity, we need rules that help candidates of all backgrounds to run for and win office,” Mira Ortegon writes. READ MORE

The Right to Be Rude in Town Meetings

Citing the freedom of assembly, the highest court in Massachusetts recently struck down a town’s rules for making comments at public meetings. In the case, a resident had been ordered to leave after hurling insults and accusing the board of selectmen of spending like “drunken sailors.” But the court ruled that “rude, personal, and disrespectful” conduct is protected by the state constitution. In the latest State Court Report newsletter, Alicia Bannon explains the case and the fascinating history of this fundamental right in the United States. READ MORE

The Cost of Expanding Victims’ Rights

Since 2008, a dozen states have adopted state constitutional amendments known as “Marsy’s Law,” promoted as giving crime victims important new legal rights. But two pending cases in Wisconsin and Florida argue that these protections infringe on defendants’ rights and government transparency. Writing for State Court Report, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Walter Olson examines how Marsy’s Law “generates outcomes that are hard to defend in principle.” READ MORE

No one should have to worry about encountering a gun while voting, but only 12 states and Washington, DC, prohibit open and concealed carry of firearms at poll sites.

Banning guns wherever votes are cast shouldn’t be controversial. Think about it — the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision was the most sweeping expansion of gun rights in the history of the country. It wiped out vital public safety laws in six states and invited dozens of lawsuits challenging others across the nation. And yet Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged that Americans have always agreed there are certain places where guns simply do not belong. He specifically named three of them: legislative assemblies, courthouses, and polling places.

It is, in short, constitutionally sound to ban guns where Americans vote. But states have not kept up with the profusion of guns and their new constitutional protection.

In a report published this week, my colleagues Sean Morales-Doyle and Robyn Sanders, along with Allison Anderman and Jessica Ojeda of Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, issue a call to prohibit guns wherever election administration occurs: at or near polling places, ballot drop boxes, election offices, and ballot-counting facilities.

The report comes at a critical moment. For more than 20 years, lobbyists have pushed to loosen restrictions on firearms in legislatures and in the courts. Twenty-seven states now allow people to carry a gun in public without a permit or background check, up from just two in 2010. States that have tried to hold the line against the proliferation of guns have run into a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions striking down restrictions on who can carry a weapon, and where. As a result, there are now more guns than people in the United States.

The spread of guns has coincided — perhaps not entirely coincidentally — with the rise of extreme political polarization and political violence. You know the facts. Election officials have been forced into hiding. Domestic terrorists have threatened actors at nearly every level of government. Police foiled a plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan. And an armed mob attempted on January 6, 2021, to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power after a lawful election.

Tamping down the rising tensions about political disagreements so that violence is never on the table will be the work of generations. It will require a cultural shift and a degree of political bravery and will that many of our leaders can’t seem to muster. But getting guns away from voting sites is something we can and should do right now. It’s common sense, it’s constitutional, and it’s absolutely necessary.

Bolstering Voting Rights for All

Today, members of Congress reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a bill that would restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to full strength. Damaging Supreme Court rulings, the growing racial turnout gap, and a wave of restrictive state voting laws underscore the urgent need for this essential civil rights legislation. Our new resource details the voting rights challenges the bill would address and how it would help solve them. READ MORE

A Chance to Correct Campaign Finance Failures

The Federal Election Commission has long failed to enforce campaign finance laws, allowing dark money and foreign spending to flood U.S. elections unchecked. Tomorrow, a House committee will question the agency for the first time in more than a decade, presenting an opportunity to push the FEC to do a better job of improving regulations and upholding the laws already on the books. As Daniel Weiner notes, “Any system of rules is only as good as the body that enforces them.” READ MORE

ABA President on Courtroom Bias

Public trust in the courts depends on widespread belief in judges’ impartiality. But studies show that judges are just as susceptible to unconscious racial, gender, and other types of biases as the rest of us. There needs to be a renewed commitment to well-developed, sustained, mandatory training for judges to reduce bias and ensure their decisions are truly impartial, according to a new State Court Report essay by American Bar Association President Mary Smith, Illinois First Appellate District Justice Michael B. Hyman, and University of New Hampshire Professor Sarah E. Redfield. READ MORE

The Fight for Fair Maps Reaches Another State Supreme Court

Today, the Kentucky Supreme Court became the latest state court to consider whether legal challenges to gerrymandered voting maps are justiciable under its state constitution. While many state courts have delivered wins against partisan gerrymandering in recent years, few of these have been in the South. A positive ruling for the plaintiffs in Kentucky “would offer hope — and a potential model — for voters across the highly gerrymandered region,” Michael Li writes in State Court Report. READ MORE

A Promising Anti-Gerrymandering Tool

The United States has struggled to eradicate gerrymandering, in part because almost all American state and congressional elections use single-member districts. As such, districts that a party wins by extremely narrow margins can produce comfortable legislative majorities, creating an incentive for partisan map drawers to manipulate district lines in their favor. One way this problem might be blunted is by switching to a multimember district model in which seats are proportionally allocated to parties based on the votes won. In Democracy Journal, Michael Li and Peter Miller explore the potential benefits of this model and highlight the additional research needed to assess whether it’s a solution worth pursuing. READ MORE

MEANINGFUL MOVIES TACOMA

. Films + Discussion every 4th Friday of the month, open to the public, admission by donation (no one refused entry).  We meet from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM.

Meaningful Movies Tacoma was started in order to gather, educate, inspire, connect and commit our community to the environment, peace, justice, and to build an educated, informed citizenry. We show a documentary film monthly— on the fourth Friday – followed by a facilitated discussion.  We oftentimes involve local groups within our community as part of our discussion to further build community.

SCREENING LOCATION: Center for Spiritual Living 206 North J Street, Tacoma, WA, 98403

CONTACT EMAIL:mdtilstra@aol.com

Know Your Rights: Northwest Fair Housing Alliance Library

New brochures are available in multiple languages to understand and express your rights when facing discrimination.

Northwest Fair Housing Alliance

Mark your calendars for the 2024 Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day (HHAD) which will be held in person in Olympia on January 30! We look forward to advocating in person and alongside you once again!

The 2024 legislative session is set to begin on January 8, and you can help position our priorities for success in the new year. 

These four main priorities together address critical issues for the people in our state who are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. And these priorities will provide our state with the protections and investments needed to prevent and end homelessness once and for all, and build a more equitable and brighter future.

• Prevent excessive rent increases with reasonable, statewide rent stabilization
  
  Last year, we championed SB 5435/Trudeau and HB 1389/Ramel, and HB 1388/Macri which all addressed excessive rent increases. This year, there will be one bill (with a House and Senate version) led by Senator Trudeau and Representative Alvarado. This bill will prevent the excessive rent increases that are driving so many out of their homes and into evictions and homelessness.

• Create a permanent fund source for the Housing Trust Fund and for housing for people with disabilities
  
  Last year, we championed HB 1628/Chopp. A new version of the bill will be introduced and led by Representative Berg and Senator Frame. It will reduce real estate taxes for most properties sold in Washington and add a 1% increase to any portion of a property sold for over $3 million. This will increase funding and fast-track the development of new, deeply affordable homes, create and fund a new housing program for people with disabilities, and support the operations of permanent supportive housing for disabled people with experiences of long-term unsheltered homelessness.

• Backfill a gap in funding for homeless services to prevent cuts to shelter, rental assistance, and more
  
  $49 million was appropriated last session (2023) to backfill the shortfall at the state level and $18 million for the local portion. Still, unfortunately, it has turned out that more funds are needed to prevent cuts to homeless services. This is because interest rates remain high, driving down real estate activity that funds homelessness services. The state can address this with operating budget funding to backfill the remaining gap.

• Invest in the front-line workers and nonprofits that make ending homelessness possible
  
  Our frontline workers are struggling with difficult working conditions and low pay that fails to keep up with their own high housing costs. We depend on these workers and they deserve better. Last year we secured a $45.06 million increase in funding to homeless and housing grantees for a 6.5% contract increase. Although this was an improvement, it didn’t match the rise in inflation. More needs to be done, and we will be back this year asking for an additional budget increase in the supplemental budget.
  

These are bold priorities that will make a significant difference in people's lives. But none of them are easy, and a strong statewide coalition will be needed to move them forward.