From Lived Experience to Legislative Solutions

Housing as Human Right: Secure state funding for Permanent Supportive Housing. Use the Chief Seattle Club/Lavender Rights Project model as the blueprint for state programs. 

Progressive Revenue: Implement a tax system that ensures the wealthiest Washingtonians and large corporations pay their fair share. We cannot fix our housing crisis, displacement, and public safety with our regressive tax code. We are 49th in the country, which means we tax the working and middle class more than 48 other states in the US. The wealthy must pay their share to maintain the State we all deserve to enjoy. 

Cash-Basis Relief: Putting money directly in people's pockets prevents homelessness before it starts. We need to invest further in programs like the Washington Families Tax Credit, and other innovative solutions like reparations.

Hold the Line on Health Equity: We must aggressively oppose cuts to Medicaid (Apple Health) and the Washington Health Benefit Exchange. We will stand firm to protect public health funding and ensure unwavering access to reproductive care and gender-affirming care, regardless of federal hostility.

State-Funded Universal Healthcare: Pass legislation to establish a public health insurance system for every resident. This would provide comprehensive coverage including vision, dental, mental health, and reproductive care, making healthcare free at the point of service. We need to stop paying for insurance profits and start paying for actual care.

Universal Childcare & Preschool: Champion universal childcare. With forty-three states already offering some form of publicly funded preschool, Washington is falling behind. Free, quality early childhood education gives working parents, especially women of color, freedom in the workplace and gives every child a fair start.

Progressive Funding: These programs are not "too expensive"; they are an investment we can afford. We will fund universal care by implementing a progressive tax system that ensures corporations and the ultra-wealthy finally pay their fair share to support the workforce that makes them rich.

Statewide Crisis Response Alignment: We must align our state’s crisis response system to ensure that behavioral health professionals, not police, are the primary responders to mental health crises. We need legislation that stops police unions from blocking the non-violent, care-based alternatives that keep our communities safer.

Invest in Prevention: We can do this by fully funding community-based violence interruption programs. Proven prevention strategies are significantly cheaper and more effective at reducing crime than mass incarceration.

Data Privacy as Defense: Restrict the use of surveillance technologies like Flock Safety Cameras and strictly limit data sharing with federal agencies. Why? Because privacy is the firewall that protects our immigrant and Trans neighbors from federal targeting and ICE, and these intrusive systems violate the civil liberties of every Washingtonian.

Police Accountability: Pass robust accountability legislation to ensure no officer is above the law. We must remove barriers to justice and rebuild the community trust that is required to actually solve crimes.

Stronger Gun Laws: Pass common sense gun responsibility legislation that improve on community safety through community-led solutions.

Strengthening Environmental Accountability: Advocate for the passage of HB 1303 to mandate comprehensive environmental justice impact assessments for all government projects within pollution-burdened communities, ensuring state actions do not further marginalize vulnerable populations.

Infrastructure & Air Quality Restoration: Secure state funding and legislative support for highway lids on I-5 and I-90 in South Seattle to reconnect neighborhoods. Simultaneously, prioritize investments in advanced filtration and mitigation strategies to combat flight path pollutants and localized air toxins.

Protecting the Climate Commitment Act (CCA): * Defend the CCA against fund redirection, ensuring revenue stays dedicated to climate resilience.

• Expand the scope of regulated toxins to include all emissions.

• Increase dedicated air toxin reduction funding to $20 million (or a minimum of 1% to 2% of total CCA revenue).

A Bold & Just Transition: Champion a Green New Deal framework to achieve a net-zero greenhouse gas emission state through renewable energy. This transition must be a "Just Transition," centering working families and communities of color to ensure they lead the new green economy rather than being displaced by it.