Washington State Democrats, as citizens of the planet, place the well-being of the people as our highest priority. We believe in the values of community, empathy, equality, tolerance, opportunity, and the common good of the interdependent world we share. These are our 2018 Washington State legislative priorities.
Fiscal Responsibility & Revenue Reform
- Pass a capital budget to get essential school construction projects funded and greenlit
- Levy a capital gains tax on the wealthy to fund public education
- Reform property taxes by repealing the Republicans’ levy swipe scheme and Tim Eyman’s I-747
- Create the Washington State Investment Trust so we have our own publicly-owned state bank
- Abolish indefensible corporate tax loopholes and impose accountability measures for those that remain
Healthcare
- Create the Washington Health Security Trust to bring universal coverage to all Washingtonians
- Adopt legislation to address prescription drug cost transparency
- Obligate health plans to cover, with no cost sharing, all preventive services required to be covered under federal law as of December 31st, 2016
- Require reasonable accommodations in the workplace for pregnant women
- Protect and increase access to quality mental health services and ban LGBT “conversion therapy”
Climate Action & Environmental Protection
- Put a price on pollution that enables a just, inclusive transition to a clean energy economy
- Work with our Native American tribes to prudently respond to the Supreme Court’s Hirst decision
- Protect our native salmon by banning fish farming in Washington’s waters
- Restrict the use of neonicotinoids to save our pollinators from evisceration
- Pass the Oil Transportation Safety Act
Education
- Fully comply with the Supreme Court’s McCleary decision; fund teacher compensation now
- Amend the State Constitution to lower the threshold for passage of school bonds to a simple majority
- Pass the Student Loan Bill of Rights
- Promote student health and readiness through meal and nutrition programs with Breakfast After the Bell
- Increase the civics education requirement from a half credit to a full credit
Electoral Reform
- Pass the Washington Voting Rights Act
- Provide for automatic and same-day voter registration
- Repeal Tim Eyman’s push polls (erroneously called advisory votes)
- Provide postage-free ballot return envelopes to all Washington voters
- Increase funding for the PDC and expose dark money with tough new transparency laws
Public Safety
- Ban bump stocks, assault weapons, and high-capacity magazines; close loopholes in our gun safety laws
- Enact De-Escalate Washington’s I-940
- Grant DNR’s request for money to fund geologic hazards mapping and earthquake readiness
- Create a civilian review board to implement sentencing reforms
- Implement recommendations of the Use of Deadly Force in Community Policing task force, including the establishment of crisis intervention response team pilot projects
Economic Security
- Guarantee equal pay for equal work
- Increase monetary penalties for crimes committed by corporations
- Give local governments more authority to protect renters and tenants
- Strengthen penalties for wage theft
- Protect good jobs and voter-approved Sound Transit 3 projects by fully replacing any revenue lost due to vehicle fee formula changes
Technology
- Stand up for net neutrality in Washington State by authorizing public utility districts and rural and urban port districts to provide retail ISP and telecommunications services
- Prohibit government-owned ISP services, such as municipal broadband networks, from engaging in blocking, throttling, or priority pricing for Internet services
- Adopt the Washington Internet Privacy Protection Act
- Strengthen our state’s digital defenses to protect critical data like our voter rolls
- Secure public cyber resources and means of gathering public input against abuse by bots
