Legislative Action Committee
45th LD Democrats:
2012 Legislative Action Agenda Update (1/31/2012)
***ACTION ITEM****
As you all have likely heard by now, we now have the 25 votes necessary to pass Marriage Equality legislation out of the Senate! However, we still need to press Senator Hill for his support--the more Senators we have on board the better. The support of Senator Hill is especially important to us--the more Republicans we can convince to vote in favor of marriage equality, the more robust the legislation becomes as it moves closer to becoming an issue that voters will see on the ballot in November. Now more than ever, we need you to contact Senator Hill to press him for support of this issue!
2012 Legislative Priorities
- Protect State Programs From Further Budget Cuts by Passing a New Revenue Package
- Extend the Right to Marry to All Washington Citizens, Regardless of Sexual Orientation
- Promote Same-day and Motor-Voter Opt-out Registration (HB 2203, HB 2204, HB 2205)
2203: Expands on the success of “Motor Voter” opt-in system by registering every person who gets a driver’s license unless they choose to opt-out. Washington would be the first state to adopt this.
2204: Allow for election day in-person voter registration and online registration up to eight days in advance of the election (Currently, the cutoff period is 29 days if registering online, or eight days if a person is registering in person) Nine states currently use this to enhance voter turnout.
2205: Allows 16 and 17 year olds to pre-register to vote so that upon their 18th birthday, they would get their voter card. Eight other states have adopted this option.
- Eliminate tax and wage theft—prohibit misclassification of workers as independent contractors (SB 5599, HB 1701)
Summary: Legislation would eliminate and penalize tax and wage theft by contractors who misclassify their workers as independent contractors. The states loses over $100 million a year in taxes to underground construction activity via contracts that should go to legitimate contractors who play by the rules and abide by state laws.
- Toxic-Free Kids Act—Protect children’s health from products with harmful chemicals (HB 1319 and SB 5231)
Summary: A few years ago, the Legislature passed legislation that stopped manufacturers from using PBDEs, harmful toxic flame retardants. In response, many industries bypassed safer options and instead switched to cancer-causing “Tris” flame retardants, without fully considering the health and environmental impacts to those decisions. Now our children are exposed to these flame retardants in nursing pillows, car seats, changing pads, and other items. This Act will stop Toxic Tris Flame Retardants and help businesses switch to safer chemicals that won't harm health, the environment or their bottom line.
Resources
State Legislative Bill Search at the legislature’s site. There are a lot of ways to search.You can use the ”find your legislator” link on the left sidebar to find out more about our legislators’ bills/committees.
Washington State Budget Information This is a cool, very interactive budget website.
The Olympian has regular legislative updates during the session.
Check out these budget primers. Look at the bottom of the page to find the “Citizen’s Guide to the Budget” There’s a lot here.
Washington Votes - look up your legislators' votes.
Eric Laliberte is chair of the Legislative Action Committee. The Legislative Action Committee (LAC) tracks issues important to the 45th LD throughout the legislative session, rallies members to advocate for the issues when needed and maintains a good working relationship with our legislators and their issues.
