Our State Budget Presents a Huge Challenge

In a short, sixty day session, anything is possible. But erasing the need for drastic cuts to health and human services may very well be a lost cause.

So much is at stake for low-income people and community agencies like Jewish Family Service and the Kline Galland. Lend your voice to solutions to keep our Jewish community, and Washington State, safe and strong. Join the Washington State Jewish Action Center to stay up-to-date and take action on legislative and policy happenings in Olympia, WA and Washington, DC.

The 2010 legislative session presents challenges for the Jewish community and our legislative priorities. To balance Washington’s budget and erase an almost $3.0 billion deficit, Governor Chris Gregoire’s proposed budget made deep cuts into critical programs

which help low-income women with child care services and the temporarily disabled, families and individuals without health coverage. These cuts were necessitated by our budget system, which protects roughly 70% of the state’s budget, leaving only 30% available for deep reductions.

The solution to this year’s budget crisis will likely involve a combination of program reforms and new revenues to ease the burden on the vulnerable people who depend on the affected services.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle works tirelessly to protect the partnership between government, our partner agencies and the clients they serve as an important component of tzedakah, or justice. This includes legislative advocacy, grassroots organizing, community education and coalition building. Because of budget uncertainties, the Jewish Federation will focus the majority of its advocacy energy on preserving the social service safety net that low- and moderate-income families depend on in Washington.

In addition, the Jewish Federation will be working to tighten the definition of “threat” in Washington’s malicious harassment, or hate crimes, statute and to pass legislation that clamps down on violent gun crimes.

We will also monitor other possible issues, such as changes to Washington’s humane slaughter provisions affecting kashrut and measures that would roll back gains made this past fall for special needs children attending religious school.