3/10/10

    This is the Federation Hotline for late Tuesday and Wednesday.


KEEP UP CALLS ON HEALTH CARE

    The legislative session ends Thursday. There is talk legislators won’t get their business done in time, so will go into special session. But we can’t assume anything. We have to view the finish line as 11:59 p.m. Thursday.

So remember—

Legislators want to triple your health care costs!

The House heard you and on March 5 added $65 million to your health plan. But the Senate has not agreed to that. The Senate officially still wants to balance the budget on your backs with higher health insurance costs—triple what you pay now for deductibles, co-pays and other out-of-pocket costs.

And remember, on top of that, some legislators want you to pay even more—more than the current 12 percent share you now pay for your health insurance premiums that is deducted from your paycheck.

FINAL 48 HOURS HEALTH CARE CALL TO ACTION:

STOP THE HEALTH CUTS! Call 1-800-562-6000. Tell legislators to fund state worker health insurance at the level in the House supplemental budget (ESSB 6444) – with no mandate to bargain over premiums!

Call now—the session ends Thursday!


CALL TO ACTION ON THE OTHER PIECE OF THE PUZZLE: REVENUE

    The House on Monday night on a vote of 52-45 passed a $680 million revenue bill (ESSB 6143) that will help prevent devastating cuts to core services by closing tax loopholes and raising some targeted sin taxes. 

While this funding package is a step in the right direction it is $150 million too small to fund the House budget that was passed a few days ago.

The House budget already has over $650 million in cuts and to prevent deeper cuts we need legislators to find enough funding to fully fund the House budget.

Fortunately there are two proposals that would raise over $130 million.  They are:

The Clean Water Act of 2010 is a bill (ESHB 3181) that would make big polluters pay their fair share for the pollution they cause in our communities.  This bill would create green jobs and raise over $100 million for clean water programs and give legislators additional flexibility to fund other programs.

The Nursing Facility Quality Assurance Fee (HB 3021). ?The second proposal is a fee on some nursing homes that would actually return more money to nursing homes through federal matching dollars than they are charged and free up millions to prevent cuts to other key services for seniors and people with disabilities.

 CALL TO ACTION ON REVENUE:

Please call your legislators at 1-800-562-6000 today and urge them to support common sense proposals to raise the $150 million in additional revenue not in ESSB 6143.

Keep the message simple: Please prevent deep cuts to services and create jobs by supporting HB 3181 and HB 3021.


QUICK UPDATE NO. 1: SENATE CONCURS WITH HOUSE, SENDS INTERPRETERS COLLECTIVE BILL TO GOVERNOR

    The Senate Tuesday afternoon concurred with the House’s changes to the Federation-initiated state interpreters collective bargaining bill.

    The Senate vote was 29-19 with one excused. ESSB 6726 now goes to the governor for her signature into law.

    Senate supporters said the bill was about reforming a system where middlemen suck up most of the program’s money before it ever reaches the interpreters themselves. The interpreters help patients from a wide range of language backgrounds communicate with their doctors on Medicaid-covered issues.

    “We have learned that under the current system we’re paying more than $50 an hour for medical interpreter services but the interpreter is getting about $20 of that $50 an hour,” said Sen. Karen Keiser of the 33rd District. “The rest is being spent on third-party brokers and agency fees—middlemen—and it’s an inefficient, time-wasting and money-wasting approach….”

    “When we are underpaying our interpreters, we are undercutting the whole system. This approach will resolve that problem.”


QUICK UPDATE NO. 2: SPONATANEOUS JOB ACTIONS CONTINUE IN SPOKANE, BREMERTON

    We have reports that Spokane and Medical Lake-area members swarmed the governor’s Spokane office at noontime Tuesday, where some 40 marchers hoisted signs against cuts in services, to save Pine Lodge Corrections Center for Women and Lakeland Village and against other institutions closures.

    Meanwhile, Frances Haddon Morgan Center members gathered in Bremerton Tuesday morning to make hotline phone calls to save their residential habilitation center. It’s targeted for closure in the Senate supplemental budget.


At Frances Haddon Morgan Center March 9.


RHC WIPEOUT BILL MOVED TO SENATE FLOOR??   

The Senate Rules Committee Monday afternoon voted to send SB 6182 to the Senate floor for a possible vote.??   

This is the bill the Senate Ways and Means Committee resurrected from 2009 that would wipe out all RHCs and passed it out of committee March 3.??   

The motivation is to authorize Senate budget language to close Frances Haddon Morgan Center.??   

SB 6182 is bad. It would wipe out the statutory authority for all RHCs: Rainier School, Frances Haddon Morgan Center, Yakima Valley School, Fircrest School and Lakeland Village.??

CALL TO ACTION:??

Call 1-800-562-6000 and urge your legislators to oppose SB 6182. RHCs are quality campuses that care for some of our state’s most profoundly disabled citizens when there are no resources for the kind of community care they need.


KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING WITH CALLS ON OTHER KEY ISSUES:

Call 1-800-562-6000. Tell your legislators:

• OPPOSE FURLOUGHS! OPPOSE SSB 6503, the state employee furlough bill. Its unintended consequences will cost more, not less. Several proposed but unadopted floor amendments also await action in the House. The House version of the budget (ESSB 6444) passed March 5 does not mandate furloughs but directs agencies to reduce compensation costs.

• OPPOSE INSTITUTIONS CLOSURES in the supplemental budget (ESSB 6444)!


BY THE WAY, ECONOMIST SAYS REVENUE, NOT BUDGET CUTS, IS THE SOLUTION

    University of Washington economics professor Katie Baird wrote in Tuesday’s Tacoma News Tribune that given the choice between revenue increases and program cuts, the Legislature should choose tax hikes.

    “Tax increases are not likely to slow economic growth and employment as much as cuts,” Baird said.

    She said cuts lead to layoffs that “directly take money out of citizens’ hands and thus affect employment levels and the state’s economy.”

    With tax increases, on the other hand, “some reduction will occur to savings, which plays a smaller role in stimulating the economy than does consumption.”

    “In the end,” she adds, “raising revenue is the right tactic, particularly if it is done in a way that shifts the burden of new taxes to those among us best able to afford it.”

    You can read the full piece at: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/03/09/1102022/in-economic-terms-raising-taxes.html


    That’s it for now. Call Thursday for the next message, but this may be updated sooner as events warrant.