POLICY PRIORITIES - MORE COMPREHENSIVE LIST
Introduction
In the “Policy Priorities” section, I note that the state faces five crises: public health, economic, social, budgetary and climate. In turn, I describe my four policy priorities for the 2021 State Legislative Session: (1) Restructuring the State’s Operations; (2) Focusing Scarce Resources on the Poor; (3) Implementing a New Progressive Tax; and (4) Addressing Climate Change. I encourage the reader to visit the “Policy Priorities” tab to see a discussion of these policy priorities.
This section provides a description of a broader range of my policy views, organized alphabetically by topic. Please note that this section describes my general philosophy toward each policy area. However, it is important to note that the upcoming 2021 Legislative Session will be characterized by the need to make budget cuts, not additions to current spending levels. Thus, it will not be feasible in the upcoming session to provide additional funding for most of the priorities listed below.
In the “Policy Priorities” section, I note that the state faces five crises: public health, economic, social, budgetary and climate. In turn, I describe my four policy priorities for the 2021 State Legislative Session: (1) Restructuring the State’s Operations; (2) Focusing Scarce Resources on the Poor; (3) Implementing a New Progressive Tax; and (4) Addressing Climate Change. I encourage the reader to visit the “Policy Priorities” tab to see a discussion of these policy priorities.
This section provides a description of a broader range of my policy views, organized alphabetically by topic. Please note that this section describes my general philosophy toward each policy area. However, it is important to note that the upcoming 2021 Legislative Session will be characterized by the need to make budget cuts, not additions to current spending levels. Thus, it will not be feasible in the upcoming session to provide additional funding for most of the priorities listed below.
POLICY AREAS
Affirmative Action
Arts
Campaign Finance
Climate Change
Crime
Criminal Justice
Data Privacy
Death Penalty
Early Learning Opportunities
Economic Development in South Seattle
Elections
Environmental Laws
Foster Care
Gun Control
Health Care
Higher Education
Homelessness
Housing
Immigrant Communities
Income Inequality
K-12 Education
Mental Health
Public Records Act
Sound Transit Funding
Surveillance
Tax Reform
Transparency
Unions
Vaccinations
Voter Registration Policy
- Support tightly-defined affirmative action programs in Washington State (supported Referendum 88 to enable implementation of I-1000 which repealed I-200 from 1998).
Arts
- Support public funding of the arts as an investment in community well-being and development.
Campaign Finance
- Support repeal of the Citizens United decision, which gives excessive political influence to corporations and interest groups, at the expense of the citizenry. This is, of course, a federal statute, but I support state efforts to repeal it and to mitigate its impact on elections.
- Support full transparency of campaign donations – both direct and indirect via political action committees (PACs) and nested PACs.
Climate Change
- Support the Clean Fuels Act, the Heal Act (Healthy Communities for All).
- Support mandatory K-12 climate change curriculum in Washington State.
- Support ban on new internal combustion vehicles starting in 2030.
- Support a Carbon Tax to place a tax on carbon emissions. Carbon taxes exist in the province of British Columbia and in California, and proposed carbon taxes in Oregon and Hawaii are soon to pass. Washington State must join this “West Coast” movement to implement a price on carbon. (The East Coast also has a multi-state carbon tax.) The tax must be designed to be progressive – to not burden lower-income communities.
- Support a wide-variety of other measures to address climate change: new building heating standards; building retrofits to ensure that existing buildings are energy-efficient; agricultural carbon sequestration programs; the use of the Growth Management Act to manage carbon emissions; etc.
- I have written on the challenge of Global Warming: Climate Change Policy: Our Collective Shame (September 2015).
Crime
- Support initiatives to provide structured channels of involvement to reduce crime – before school programs, after school programs, etc.
- Support community policing model.
Criminal Justice
- The U.S. has the highest incarceration rates in the world, and the laws that lead to incarceration are enforced in a racially biased manner.
- Support numerous reforms in this area, including: the use of drug courts to allow low-level drug crime violators to move into treatment programs rather than prison; the repeal of mandatory (“three strikes”) sentencing guidelines; the expanded use of prison education and rehabilitation programs; the use of parole and effective re-entry programs; “ban the box” to reduce discrimination against those with criminal records in the hiring process; banning the use of private contractors for the operation of both prisons and detention centers.
Data Privacy
- Support efforts to provide consumers with data protections (supported Washington Privacy Act).
Death Penalty
- Support full repeal of death penalty, for myriad reasons: unjust application that discriminates by minority community; low to no deterrent value; highly expensive process when characterized by protracted legal reviews.
Early Learning Opportunities
- Early Learning opportunities must be a priority. Support ongoing investments in universal kindergarten and pre-kindergarten.
Economic Development in South Seattle
- Support transit oriented development projects.
- Support subsidized housing.
- Support subsidized Day Care.
- Support longer term structural issues – increased investment in South Seattle Schools to address persistent achievement gaps.
- Support public programs to promote personal growth and development – e.g., Rainier Scholars, Home Visitation Programs, Head Start, etc.
Elections
- Strongly support Washington’s move to all-mail, postage paid elections statewide.
- Support non-partisan redistricting to reduce/eliminate gerrymandering.
- Support the move to district elections in municipalities statewide (supported the Washington State Voting Rights Act -- patterned off of the successful approach taken in Yakima), in order to improve electoral prospects for minority communities.
Environmental Laws
- Support full range of environmental protection laws.
Foster Care
- Support additional investment in state’s foster care programs – to reduce caseloads, child placement rotations, out-of-state placements, use of hotels, etc.
Gun Control
- The juxtaposition of the 2nd Amendment and Gun Control efforts represents a false choice. Support the individual right to own firearms; but this right must be regulated.
- Support full range of commonsense gun control measures.
- Two major bills need to be passed: ban on assault weapons and limit on magazine capacity.
Health Care
- Support a single-payer health care system at the state level (and eventually the federal level) to provide universal coverage, better outcomes and lower cost.
- Support Cascade Care -- the state’s somewhat scaled-down public option.
Higher Education
- Support ongoing financial provision for the Washington College Grant, which guarantees financial assistance for college to all families in need. This is a nation-leading program.
- Do not support universal free college. This represents a large expense and is a program that favors the use of public financial resources in support of more affluent citizens. Instead, support free community college tuition for lower-income individuals.
Homelessness
- Support multi-faceted strategy to addressing challenge of homelessness, which reflects the different segments of individuals and families that are homeless and their different needs (e.g., chronically homeless, temporarily homeless, veterans, youth, individuals with addictions, etc.).
- Support strategies with demonstrated success, including: Housing First, Navigation Teams, use of larger encampments with provision of public health services (e.g., Harbor Island?), self-governing homeless shelters, Micro-Housing, staged housing-transition model, etc.
Housing
- Support expanded use of developer fees (e.g., impact fees, mandatory inclusionary zoning, linkage fees, as called for in the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda -- HALA) to finance affordable housing.
- Support programs to allow increased density – e.g., ADUs and DADUs (accessory dwelling units and detached accessory dwelling units).
- Do not support elimination of single family zoning.
- Support housing programs – Section 8, Housing and Essential Needs, etc.
- During pandemic, support rental support and temporary eviction protection for no- and low-income communities. Also support financial recompense for landlords during this time, in two pronged approach (immediate financial compensation for landlords in need, and deferred financial compensation for those not in need).
- I have written on Seattle's Housing Crisis: Seattle's Housing Crisis and the City's Future (August 2015).
Immigrant Communities
- Support Seattle’s status as Sanctuary City. It is critical to protect immigrant communities in the era of the current administration.
- Support DACA and Dream Act.
Income Inequality
- Income inequalities are at an all-time high. In the run-up to the Great Depression, income inequalities were also at historic highs. After the Great Depression, they fell dramatically. In the run-up to the Great Recession, income inequalities returned to historic highs. Afterwards, however, they have continued to increase. There is nothing wrong with reasonable levels of inequality, but excessive inequalities represent a danger to society and our democracy. I support efforts to reduce inequalities (including ongoing increases to the minimum wage, progressive taxation, etc.).
- I have written on this subject: Income Inequalities and Their Societal Dangers (May 2014).
K-12 Education
- Increased spending for special education and “wraparound services” (e.g., mental health services, counselling, career planning, support services, etc.), two areas that did not receive sufficient resources during the McCleary reforms.
- More systematic incorporation of civics into curriculum.
- Expanded use of career and technical education to acknowledge different student career interests.
- Do not support Charter Schools.
- I have written on McCleary: The McCleary Debacle and the Upcoming Institutional Crisis (February 2016).
Mental Health
- Support the state’s recent decision to move from a mental health model based on the provision of care in two large institutions (Eastern State Hospital and Western State Hospital) to a model based on community mental health facilities.
Public Records Act
- Legislature should operate in compliance with Public Records Act.
Sound Transit Funding
- Support Sound Transit – increase public transportation and facilitate increased densities, both of which are important in era of climate change risk. Also provides low-cost commuting which is critical in the era of gentrification and the movement of previously urban populations into outlying areas.
- Opposed to I-976 (Eyman initiative to reduce car tab fees).
Surveillance
- Support limits on government surveillance and use of artificial intelligence to augment surveillance (supported facial recognition bill of 2020).
Tax Reform
- Support a new, progressive source of revenue in Washington State.
- The State’s B&O (Business and Occupancy) tax is a tax on business revenues, not profits. This should be changed to a tax on profits (as is the practice in most states).
- There are hundreds of tax breaks in the Washington State tax code, and this number increases almost every year. The strong majority of these should be repealed.
- Tax breaks should have a sunset provision and be formally evaluated on regular basis to assess benefits. This should apply to new tax breaks and retroactively to existing tax breaks.
- Oppose I-976, the Tim Eyman initiative to reduce car tab taxes.
- I have written on this topic: Washington State's Broken Tax System (September 2014).
Transparency
- Support full range of initiatives to support legislative transparency.
- Opposed to use of Title Only Bills (which allow blank placeholder bills to be introduced early in the legislative session and then re-invoked later, after applicable deadlines have passed, to enable delayed introduction of bills).
Unions
- Support increased membership and influence of private sector unions – in part to provide leverage in salary negotiations via collective bargaining in order to ameliorate income inequalities.
- Support public unions.
Vaccinations
- Support elimination of personal belief and religious exemptions for all vaccines (in effect, support the extension of the removal of the personal belief exemption for the MMR vaccine to other vaccines, and removing the religious exemption for all of them as well).
Voter Registration Policy
- Support all efforts to increase voter participation in our democracy: automatic voter registration, pre-registration, same day registration, voting rights for ex-felons, etc.