Hi friend,

First off, you are AMAZING! People from across all walks of life, from Spokane to Forks, from Bellingham to Walla Walla, joined forces to push our lawmakers to do the right thing and avoid cuts by making the super-rich pay what they owe, just like the rest of us already do. 

Together, you sent 67,000 messages to WA state lawmakers and the Governor in support of funding education, childcare, health care, and housing through taxes on the super-rich and huge, profitable corporations. Combined, you generated more than 5,000 positive sign-ins during House and Senate hearings on these revenue bills.

So, you’ve asked, exactly what happened as the legislature adjourned late last weekend?

😀 The Good

Lawmakers avoided $9.4 billion in cuts to education, health care, housing and other services by raising revenue from a wide range of sources including:

• expanding capital gains tax on mega-millionaires and billionaires to fund education
• closing tax loopholes for special interests like gold bullion sellers
• adding a small (0.5%) business tax on big corporations with taxable income greater than $250 million/year

😣 The Bad

Washington State still has at least a $5 billion budget gap over the next four years, in part because lobbyists for big corporations and the super rich blocked: 

• funding schools through tax on our state’s wealthiest individuals (wealth tax)
• taxing the salaries of top executives at Washington’s biggest corporations (payroll tax)

❓The Unknown

We don’t know if special interests are going to try to repeal the good bills passed this year with initiatives on the ballot, but we will work hard to defeat them just like we defeated I-2109.

And we are not completely sure the Governor is going to sign these into law - he has left that an open question. 

So if you’re in it to win it like we are, please take one more action and send an email to Governor Ferguson urging him to sign the good bills into law and avoid cuts to schools, hospitals, and affordable housing by making sure the wealthiest pay their share.

Want to hear more? Join us Thursday (tomorrow!) for our Legislative Session Debrief with Senator Noel Frame to hear updates, wins, challenges, and what’s coming next.

Thank you for all you’ve done to help make Washington a great place to live!

Treasure