The Legislature is scheduled to conclude its regular legislative session this Sunday, April 28, but because it has been unable to complete all of its business to date, Governor Inslee is expected to call it back for one or more Special Sessions, most likely after a short break.  At this point, there is a $900 million divide between the Democratic House budget and the Majority Coalition Senate budget resulting from the House support for closing tax breaks and extending certain taxes in order to support K-12…

This was prepared by Amnon Shoenfeld, Director of King County Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services Division, DCHS

The House, Senate and Governor’s budgets all book savings from Medicaid expansion based upon numbers of new people enrolled in Medicaid and savings to the system resulting from integration of medical, mental health, prevention services resulting in less costly outpatient visits.  These savings assumptions, however, may prove inaccurate for several reasons.

Mental Health

The Governor’s budget and the House and Senate budgets assume that the…

Governor Inslee released his budget priorities for “Working Washington” on March 28, the state Senate released their biennial budget on April 3, and the House released its budget on April 11.  The budgets differ significantly in support for housing and human services but have overlap in education.  With all budgets formally released, active negotiation among the three parties now begins on the FY 2013-15 biennial budget.

All three budgets emphasize education including some early learning but deal with housing and basic needs differently.  The Governor proposes…

Welcome to Hunger Action Week Day 4!

Many of you have blogged, tweeted, or shared conversations about hunger this week, thanks! Today, we’ve asked our policy experts, Carol and Marlo, to introduce us to the state and federal programs critical to lifting millions of families out of extreme hunger, and how you can advocate for them. They give us the following.

Nationally, 50 million people struggle to put food on the table and 1 in 7 Americans benefit from the…

This blog was prepared by Mickie Newby, Public Policy intern at United Way and University of Washigton graduate student in the School of Social Work

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will significantly expand insurance coverage to all Americans through two major mechanisms: the Health Benefit Exchange (HBE) and Medicaid expansion. This much-needed step toward providing more equal access to health care through affordable coverage does not go without challenges.  Many individuals who become eligible for coverage through the ACA may not be aware of their…

United Ways of Washington’s Lobby Day on February 7 was a resounding success!  United Way of King County took a group of 27 people to Olympia, including 15 volunteers and 12 staff to meet with 24 state legislators representing districts throughout King County.  Volunteers were board members, former board members, impact council members, people from Workplace Giving campaigns and emerging leaders.

The main points emphasized during the day were:

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A great deal of attention has been paid to the Affordable Care Act requirement that most everyone must have insurance coverage beginning in January 2014.  While this overall goal refers in large part to linking people to affordable health care plans through the Health Benefit Exchange and enrolling them in Medicaid expansion, there have been a number of other insurance changes required under the Affordable Care Act that have already expanded health insurance coverage.

In King County alone, about 736,000 individuals no longer face lifetime…

There are a number of efforts underway in Washington State to improve access to health care benefits as well as implement the the Affordable Care Act:

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This article is taken directly from the National Alliance on Ending Homelessness online newsletter from December 18, 2012

Fiscal Cliff Negotiations Continue

Last Tuesday, December 11, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) revealed to the public that he had made a second counteroffer to avert the fiscal cliff to the White House, in response to a previously unreported second offer from President Obama. Following this announcement, last Friday, December 14, Speaker Boehner offered to allow a debt-ceiling increase as part of a deficit reduction…

On December 18, Governor Gregoire released one of her final documents while in office—the 2013-15 biennial budget for the state.  The Governor presented two budgets-one with existing revenue estimates (Book 1) and the other proposing new revenue sources (Book 2) that would make a $1 billion down payment on the McCleary decision (adequate funding of K-12).  See the governor’s budget letter here.

The revenue sources proposed in Book 2 include the following:

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