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Only 56% of low-income kids get enough well-child visits
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation in Washington almost all (95%) of children have medical insurance. ALL low-income (below 300% of the federal poverty level) children have access as part of Apple Health for Kids. This chart shows the performance of all the Apple Health plans at actually getting low-income kids to visit the doctor…
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Post-Session Notes, Operating Budget Comments
Thank you again for letting me represent you in Olympia. It’s an honor and a privilege, though I feel much less privileged when the session runs into July. We finished our work Friday morning June 10th, passing a transportation spending bill and bills that allow the state to take out bonds based on the revenue.…
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Compelling Speech from New Rep. Tom Dent (R-13) on Mental Health
We passed our first two bills today. It’s always fun on the first day – lots of people feel moved to speak and there’s always been some minor change to the voting software that is weird to figure out. The first bill typically tries to make a statement about priorities, but is usually pretty simple…
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Joel’s Law and dealing with lawsuits, disasters, and an increase in child abuse reports
The House Appropriations committee is planning to hear two bills Today, (Jan. 26, 2015): HB 1258 – Concerning court review of detention decisions under the involuntary treatment act. This is “Joel’s Law,” a bill creating the ability for parents and other family members to provide information to the court in involuntary treatment act cases. The…
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Mental Health, Child Abuse, Disasters, Lawsuits…
OLYMPIA – The House Appropriations committee will have a public hearing on Monday, January 26 to discuss an early action supplemental operating budget proposal. The bill deals with a small handful of items that need immediate attention. The committee expects to adopt a more typical supplemental budget later in the session. Issues addressed in the…
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Lawmakers seek community input on state budget
Posted on January 5, 2015 Rep. Ross Hunter How would you solve Washington state’s $4.4 billion budget problem? That’s the central question Senator-elect Cyrus Habib (D-Kirkland) and Representative Ross Hunter (D-Medina) will be asking their constituents at a town hall meeting this Saturday, 10 a.m. at Redmond City Hall. Representative-elect Joan McBride (D-Kirkland) will also…
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Dire Future for State Budgets?
The Washington Post has an article today (or some recent day – I only read online) about the long-term pressures faced by state and local governments. The article compares growth in key revenue sources with growth in costs and projects a dire future. The title is “GAO: Without draconian cuts, states face decades-long fiscal crisis“.…
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WA Budget 2015-17: High Degree of Difficulty
When writing about the budget it’s important to share good news as well as bad. First the good: (it’s short) the revenue forecast picked up a little bit. The bad is that we face one of the most difficult budget cycles of my time in the Legislature, and perhaps worse than we’ve seen in many…
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Teen Births Decline!
I got email from one of our regular contributors yesterday that wanted us to follow Colorado’s example in reducing teenage births in Washington. Since 2008 teenage births (to women age 15-19) have declined almost 40% in Colorado, an amazing statistic. The website this is from (www.popconnect.org) claims this has saved Colorado $41 million in that…
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No More Boarding the Mentally Ill in Emergency Rooms
The WA State Supreme Court released a decision this morning on psychiatric boarding in hospitals that basically prohibits the state from doing this. Judge Gonzales’ summary is quite pithy. GONZALEZ, I.-Washington State’s involuntary treatment act (ITA), chapter 71.05 RCW, authorizes counties to briefly detain those who, “as the result of a mental disorder,” present an imminent…