By Joel Magalnick , Editor, JTNews
With another session in Olympia now behind us, JTNews asked the members of Washington State’s Jewish caucus to give us their insights into how things went for our state and our Jewish community.
How did this session benefit our Jewish community?
Sen. David Frockt (D—46th): We extended a crucial funding source for homelessness prevention, expanded the opportunity to access higher education to all children of immigrants through the DREAM Act, and I’m particularly proud of a little noticed but important provision in the state budget that I helped secure that funded the Bright Futures autism screening program for newborn infants. We have more to do, but this is a good start.
One bill I cosponsored for our community allows public employees two additional days off per year for observing religious beliefs and holidays, which often don’t fall regularly on the calendar [Senate Bill 5173]. Similarly, public school students could be excused from school with their parents’ approval for up to two days for similar reasons. This is obviously important for the Jewish community in Washington and it was to me personally having grown up Jewish in the South.
Rep. Gerry Pollet (D—46th): On many fronts, this was a disappointing legislative session with conflicting values of the House majority with the Senate majority, resulting in D.C. Tea Party-style obstructionism. One clear significant step for our community is the bill that provides two days of excused absence for religious reasons for schools and work places.
Sen. Andy Billig (D—3rd): I am most pleased that we were able to stop the cutting. This session, we were able to create a balanced budget that did not contain cuts to social services, and actually started to reinvest, particularly in the area of mental health funding.
Rep. Jessyn Farrell (D—46th): We stopped the cuts that have been made to our social safety net over the last several years — this includes important programs like TANF and state food assistance. We also took a small step on the gun safety issue by passing HB 1840, which will place limits on those who have used guns in domestic violence situations. We have a long way to go on common-sense gun safety as well as protecting the most vulnerable among us.
Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D—36th): Tikkun Olam was alive and well in protecting vital funding for homeless services, foster youth, developmental disabilities, elder care services and more. Education received a boost with $58 million more — quality-of-life priorities for us all.
Rep. Sherry Appleton (D—23rd): Exciting: Allowing employees to take two unpaid holidays for religious or conscience or organized religious activities and students to take the same without penalty (delivered to governor). Most exciting: $25 million for mental health and $58 million in new funding for schools for materials, supplies, technology and operating costs.
Rep. Tana Senn (D—41st): I was honored to speak on the floor in favor of legislation that will allow workers and students to receive two days off for religious holidays, without pay or penalty. This will have direct benefits for members of the Jewish and other religious communities.
We made significant progress in providing funding to mental health treatment and services for the developmentally disabled. These two areas have been woefully underfunded and the new dollars we are directing to them will make a marked difference in outcomes.
An additional $1 million will go directly into food assistance programs, with $800,000 going to food banks, $100,000 to the Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program and $100,000 for seniors.
What legislation do you feel should have come to a vote that didn’t?
Frockt: I continue to be disappointed in the legislature’s inability to take meaningful action to reduce gun violence. While we did pass a bill protecting victims of domestic violence by limiting the ability of DV offenders to possess firearms, I have heard loud and clear from leaders of all faiths that we need to take more action.
Carlyle: Responsible gun safety legislation continues to be impossible with strong opposition; lack of medical marijuana regulation is a major problem.
Pollet: The tea party-like obstructionism meant that we did not move forward on sensible gun background checks — leaving that issue to voters to decide at the ballot. We were blocked from adopting a transportation budget or help King County save Metro transit service from drastic cuts; and the Tea Party-like Senate Republicans even blocked a supplemental capital budget.
The lack of a capital budget hurts our values — health clinics needed for low income families, especially with expanded Medicaid access, will not be built or expanded; shelters for homeless families will not be built or renovated. The House repeatedly passed bills to make our tax system more fair, closing loopholes for education, while the Senate majority kept proposing new tax loopholes.
Senn: Without question, I would have liked to see legislation requiring background checks for all gun purchases come for a vote. However, I anticipate the citizens of Washington State will take action where the legislature did not and, in November, pass I-594.
Having lost both my parents in the past couple of years and having two children at home, I understand the value of paid sick and safe leave. Being able to care for yourself after a trauma or for a loved one at the end or beginning of their life is a basic tenet of a civilized society. I wish the Senate had taken up this important legislation.
One proposal I was proud to support would have provided $700 million in bonds, backed by state lottery funds, to help pay for K-3 classrooms, a key component in meeting our McCleary obligations. I hope this idea, combined with others to increase teacher pay and improve education funding, will receive a greater airing in the next legislative session.
Billig: We were not able to pass a Capital Budget or transportation revenue and investment package. These are jobs bills that create short-term construction jobs now and build long-term prosperity by creating the infrastructure necessary for a successful economy in the future.
Appleton: Breakfast After the Bell for students on free or reduced meals; closing the opportunity gap; [Cost of Living Allowances] for teachers who haven’t had a raise in five years; building schools for early learners (K-3); All voting and election bills (Open Democracy); no transportation revenue package; no supplemental capital budget — would have generated 1,660 new jobs.
Farrell: Regretfully, one of my top priorities this session, the Oil Transportation Act (HB 2347), after passing the House with bipartisan support, didn’t receive a hearing in the Senate. In the last two years the United States has seen more oil spilled because of train derailments than we saw over the previous 40 years. The bill would have required disclosure of information about oil shipments, and incentivized safer movement of oil over our waters.
What initiatives are you most proud of passing, or at least bringing attention to, this year?
Senn: I am thrilled that my first piece of legislation will help children involved in the child welfare system access quality early learning. These children are often seriously neglected and can benefit significantly from a stimulating and supportive environment.
We also passed legislation preventing someone with a protection or restraining order from possessing a gun. Not only is this common sense, it is a direct response to the alarming statistic that of those women killed with a gun, almost two-thirds were killed by their intimate partners.
Pollet: On education, I am proud of work we did to ensure that every child has a fair opportunity to graduate from high school with additional math, science and English courses, without punitive measures that would increase drop-out rates.
We did take a nice step forward for open government with a bill which Attorney General Bob Ferguson and I have worked on for three years to ensure that elected officials at all levels know that they are supposed to hold their meetings in the open, and that their emails and other official records have to be open to the public and news media.
Frockt: It was just reported by the Superintendent of Public Instruction that we have over 30,000 homeless students in our public school system. Passing legislation to better support and educate those students was a priority of mine this session.
Another bill, which didn’t pass, would have built upon a successful federal pilot program to help provide stable housing for families of homeless school children.
Billig: I was glad we were able to take a step forward to increase opportunity for young people in our state with the passage of the DREAM Act and a small additional investment in higher education and K-12 education.
Farrell: I was very proud to be the prime sponsor on House Bill 2672, which would have raised Washington’s minimum wage to $12 over the next three years. I firmly believe that if you work hard you should be able to make ends meet and cover the basics — rent, food, etc. Yet right now our minimum wage is a poverty wage. We can and must do better.
Carlyle: I was intimately involved in crafting the budget. Solid, responsible, modest, but sets the stage for next year’s major budget. It did not take a strong enough step forward on McCleary.
Appleton: Extending the documentation fee (Bill 2368) which finally passed as a Senate bill and the Veterans Tuition bill, which was my bill in the House, but we eventually passed the Senate bill in a legacy to Senator Paull Shin.
What does our Jewish community (and by extension, our state) need moving forward that you hope will get traction in the next legislative session?
Frockt: Our paramount duty is fully funding a basic education for all Washington students. We need to find $4 billion or more for K-12 education by 2018, and we need to make significant progress in the 2015 budget session. The Supreme Court is holding us accountable to this goal and I seriously worry about the possibility of a constitutional crisis if we don’t increase our rate of progress.
Pollet: A resounding message from across the state that our children’s future depends on us having the courage to provide the resources needed for our schools with lower class sizes, paying our teachers, and providing every classroom the resources needed for children to succeed.
Billig: SB 6098 was a campaign finance transparency bill that I worked on throughout the legislative interim leading up to this session. It would have provided that all organizations that participate in Washington State elections, regardless of their non-profit status, would have to report their donors. Currently, 501(c)(4) and certain other non-profits do not have to report donors, as is required of all other political committees. We have excellent campaign finance laws in this state, but this one glaring transparency loophole has to be closed.
Farrell: I am hopeful that we will continue to address gun violence. We made good progress this year, passing HB 1840, which makes it easier to remove guns from someone who is under a restraining order. The Jewish community was integral to getting this legislation pass. We still have a long way to go on this issue, but this was a good first step.