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.