February Meeting with Nancy Sapiro, Our Washington State Lobbyist

Nancy Sapiro, AAUW WA Lobbyist, reported on the State Legislature activities and issues currently in progress. It was very informative, especially regarding the many hurdles we face during this legislative session. One of the “elephants in the room” is the budget shortfall for the four-year state budget due by the end of April. The shortfall is huge, around $12 Billion over the next four years.

Governor Ferguson has ordered every State department to cut their budget by 6%, resulting in over $900 million in cuts to departments including health, child and family services and colleges. These are huge cuts. Education and public safety departments are exempt from these cuts. Additionally, our state budget receives about one third of it’s budget from the Federal Government. Losing that funding could be devastating.

Nancy also pointed out that there are newer and younger legislators who have not had to work through previous budget cuts. The state will have to consider new forms of income, such as wealth or B.O. taxes. State income tax is not on the table, according
to Nancy.

Due to the shortfall, it is not likely that bills requiring significant funding will be implemented this year. AAUW is advocating for a number bills. We have a robust state public policy committee giving us great information. Here’s a link to the bills we are supporting and ways that you can easily participate in supporting these bills. Nancy indicated that legislators definitely listen to and respond to phone calls and email from their constituents. Only a small percentage of constituents take advantage of this very important power.

Sign up for Nancy Sapiro’s free weekly newsletter – This Week in Olympia to stay up to date on this important legislative session.

In addition to supporting the AAUW WA legislative issues, we can find other ways to act through the local group Indivisible which offers events and ways to participate in Seattle, Wa-State, and Nationally. Lookup Indivisible in your browser. There is also a national group: Chop Wood, Carry Water which offers a weekly newsletter with federal action items.