Washington State Democratic Chairs Organization

In response to an article in the Seattle Times, Dwight asked Susan Sheary from the King County Democrats to have a resolution drafted that could be considered at the January WSDCC meeting. She passed on the request to the LD Chairs in King County, and I passed it on to Sarajane Siegfriedt from our Legislative Action Committee.

The following resolution is what she originally drafted:

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RESOLUTION ON RAISING STATE REVENUES TO AVOID DEVASTATING CUTS TO ESSENTIAL SERVICES

WHEREAS a no-new-revenue state budget would gut core services to the poor and suspend programs such as all-day kindergarten as a way to close a projected $2.6 billion budget shortfall, and;

WHEREAS major cuts include a sharp reduction in financial aid for college students and eliminating state-subsidized Basic Health insurance for thousands of low-income workers, as well as $339 a month and Medicaid eligibility to people who can't work because of disabilities (GA-U), and;
WHEREAS many transitional housing programs depend on GA-U for a significant part of their budgets, and eliminating GA-U would threaten their continuing existence, and;

WHEREAS half of the GA-U recipients have a diagnosis of mental illness and removing them from Medicaid would cause thousands to become homeless, without medication, and;

WHEREAS Gov. Gregoire stated, “This document is not true to the values I believe in and which have guided me through a 30-year career in public service," and;

WHEREAS Democratic leaders in the House and Senate joined the Governor recently in calling for new taxes to help close the budget gap, and;
WHEREAS as our platform states Democrats value: health care for all, high-quality public education and fighting poverty and ending homelessness, and;
WHEREAS non-performing tax exemptions cost the state billions in lost revenue, and;

WHEREAS the State has the most regressive tax system in the country, where the lowest income people pay 17% of their income in federal, state and local taxes, while the highest income people pay only 2.9% of their income in federal, state and local taxes and this violates the principle of economic justice;

Therefore be it Resolved that Democrats urge the Legislature to repeal non-performing tax exemptions, beginning with the largest, and sunset all tax exemptions every 10 years, and;

Therefore be it Resolved that Democrats urge the Legislature to implement a state income tax on high-income earners, and

Therefore be it Resolved that Democrats urge the Legislature to raise at least two-thirds of the budget gap in revenues, balanced by one-third or less in cuts to services.

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Here's a note from Sarajane about the resolution:

Attached is a resolution I drafted on raising state revenues that is consistent with the three revenue points in the King County Legislative Action Committee legislative agenda:

1) eliminate non-performing tax exemptions

2) implement a high-income tax

3) raise at least 2/3 of the deficit in revenues, and less than 1/3 in cuts.

This last is very important, since the Governor says her "Book 2" budget will restore only 1/3 of the cuts. We need to make a strong case that, given last year's cuts, we cannot afford to go this far in eliminating vital (literally, life-saving) services.

You can download a Word version of this resolution here:

Resolution on Raising State Revenues.doc

We would love to have input on this resolution from around the state. Please feel free to comment below, on my Facebook page, or directly to me via email.