Visit our 2023 Legislative Agenda page to stay up-to-date on the bills we are supporting this session.
For a PDF, click here.
The COVID pandemic has left lasting scars on communities across Washington. Many of our state’s workers, families, and small businesses struggle every day to afford basic needs like housing, health care, and childcare amid rising costs and skyrocketing inflation brought on by corporate consolidation and greed. All the while, our state’s wealthiest individuals and corporations continue to reap record profits.
It is possible to reverse the economic effects of the COVID pandemic and build healthy and resilient communities here in Washington. Stimulus payments and the Child Tax Credit provided vital support to many and reduced child poverty on a national scale. Washington’s Paid Family & Medical Leave program, health care for childcare workers, and the Working Families Tax Credit are recent policy wins that help mitigate the growing gap between the rich and poor and address the racism and sexism that has been undermining economic stability for generations. However, this work is not over yet. Our government must continue to prioritize programs that invest in the public good because they work!
We can ensure Washington families have the supports and services they need to thrive. Work, health, family, and finances are inextricably linked in our society – we must invest now in critical programs and structures that will begin to right our course, and shrink income and wealth inequality.
EOI’s 2023 Legislative Priorities
- Fair taxes that provide ample funding – Washington is home to some of the wealthiest people in the world, and poverty is common in every country across the state. Despite this unacceptable inequality, our outdated and unfair tax code taxes everyday wealth and consumption while leaving the wealth of multi-millionaires and billionaires free to grow untaxed. A just tax system will raise revenue from those with the most wealth, fully fund programs and services that make a difference in our lives and create more opportunities for economic stability.
- Stable and dignified work for all people – Every worker deserves job security, living wages, predictable schedules, equitable treatment, and time to care for ourselves and our loved ones. We must strengthen Paid Family & Medical Leave and ensure that essential childcare and healthcare workers have good pay and safe and secure workplaces
- Affordable and accessible health care – Everyone deserves access to quality, affordable, and culturally responsive health care. Reeling in rapidly rising costs and ensuring broad access to quality care is possible – and is especially needed for immigrants, people with lower incomes, and others in marginalized groups.
- Economic stability through meaningful investment – Black, Indigenous, and People of Color have been systematically excluded from building economic stability in many ways from land theft of Indigenous people, to a GI Bill that was created to accommodate Jim Crow laws, to today’s immigrants who pay taxes but are prevented from accessing financial safety net programs. BIPOC communities owe disproportionate amounts of debt, such as medical and student loan debt and have less access to cash when they need it.
For more details, visit our 2023 Legislative Agenda page to stay up-to-date on the bills we are supporting this session.
More To Read
July 31, 2024
News from the Road: EOI’s summer policy road trip continues
We're working to understand the issues that matter to Washingtonians
July 15, 2024
It’s too expensive to get sick – it’s time to protect Washington patients
The extraordinary cost of medical debt.
July 8, 2024
The Washington Future Fund: Baby Bonds as Wealth Building
Inspiring academic and economic opportunities for Washington's future