December 29, 2006

Dear 1st District Residents,

Welcome to the latest edition of my legislative update. After a brief hiatus from the election year mailing restrictions, it time to gear up for the upcoming legislative session. I hope this newsletter finds all of you safe and well. In my e-memos, I’ll try to keep you current on issues affecting our community, as well as the action in the legislature. Over the next year, I encourage you to contact me with your thoughts and opinions, and I look forward to our conversations this session.

Election Year Mailing Restrictions Come to an End –

As I mentioned, it has been some time since I have been able to send you my legislative update, but we finally made it through the election year mailing restrictions, and I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts and concerns.  Additionally, please let me know if you no longer wish to receive these legislative updates, and we will remove your name from our list.   

In recent years, we’ve made extraordinary progress on issues important to our community – building a stronger economy, improving our schools, and increasing access to quality health care.

There is a lot of work to be done this session and many tough decisions to make, but with your involvement and willingness to tackle what lies before us, I believe we can continue to make Washington a state we are proud to call home.  As a preface to this upcoming legislative session, I would like to take some time now to share with you some of the things that are happening. 

Committee Assembly Days –
In early December, the members of the legislature meet in our policy committees to discuss work that has continued throughout the interim.  We have made progress on several key issues for our district including school construction funding, access to health care for kids, and economic development programs that create good jobs. But there is more to do.

My Committee Assignments –
The House has announced the names of the committees and who will serve on each committee.  My committee assignments are…

    Finance, Vice Chair

    Rules

    Appropriations

    Appropriations Subcommittee on General Government & Audit Review

Here is a link to all the committee assignments.

Education Update –
You may have heard that the Governor and the Superintendent of Public Instruction have suggested delaying the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) testing requirement for math.  As you probably know, students graduating in the 2008 school year are required to pass the WASL in reading, writing, and math in order to graduate. The proposal made by the Governor and Superintendent would postpone this requirement in order to give schools time to implement a comprehensive plan.

Under this scenario, students who have not passed the high school WASL would continue to take rigorous math classes until they graduate or pass the test. Taking the test or an approved alternative would be required annually. The option of allowing students to graduate without passing the math WASL would remain in place for three years – for the graduating classes of 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Last session, our budget provided additional funding to help students meet these rigorous standards. But we need to continue to find ways to give our students the tools and training they need to excel in math and to reach those high standards. The decision will be made in Olympia, but it is my hope that we will hear from parents, teachers, and students from all over the state this legislative session.  Let me know what you think. 

More Education News –
A task force led by Governor Gregoire and comprised of experts in early learning, education, and higher ed, met frequently throughout the summer to discuss ways to create a seamless learning system for pre-K to post-graduate students. The Washington Learns committee recently released its final report in which it makes several recommendations to the legislature on ways to improve our current system. Here is a link to the final report. I encourage you to take a look at it and send me your thoughts.  Washington Learns Final Report

Health Care Access –
Over the past several years, we have made a commitment to make sure that all of Washington’s kids have access to health care by 2010.  We are making progress towards this goal but we are not there yet. There are still about 70,000 uninsured children in this state. 50,000 of these kids are in families that are 250% above the federal poverty line. That is the equivalent of making $50,000 a year for a family of four.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care continues to discuss ways to increase access to affordable health care in Washington. They have outlined several key improvements regarding children’s health care.  Here are a few of their recommendations. 

• We should seek out children in families who are eligible for, but not enrolled in current health care programs for low income children. 
• Enrollment into the state’s programs for children’s coverage should be simple and efficient, with a standardized application form.
• Payment policies for state funded children’s health should be linked to improved outcomes for kids, such as increased immunization rates, well-child check-ups, reduced emergency room use and improved management of chronic illness.
• Encourage parental responsibility by cultivating an expectation that parents enroll children in affordable health coverage and ensure that they receive appropriate health services. 

Tax Cuts for Workers and Employers –
Last year a landmark deal was struck between lawmakers, business, and labor representatives, resulting in the Legislature passing major reforms to restore balance to the unemployment insurance system. Thanks to the progress and the forward-thinking cooperation between employers and employees that was created, Washington employers will save an estimated $89 million in business taxes next year because of lower premiums for unemployment and workers’ compensation insurance.

Governor Gregoire has also proposed a six-month suspension of a portion of workers’ compensation premiums that next year would save employers and workers another $315 million, bringing the total savings to more than $404 million.

We have worked hard to create an environment where businesses can develop and thrive. Washington was recently ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 12^th best state for business and The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council ranked the state as fifth best for small business and entrepreneurship. Stronger and growing businesses mean more family-wage jobs. 

Of the total savings of $404 million, at least $48 million will go specifically to small businesses. For example, approximately 67,000 small businesses in the lowest tax bracket will be paying less than half of what they would have paid in unemployment-insurance taxes in 2005. For more information you can visit the Governor’s website. 

Again, I appreciate your interest in our state legislature and I hope you find these updates useful.  I will try to send them out every other week until session starts at which time I will have more frequent updates for you. 

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