EOI’s 2020 Legislative Priorities

Early Learning and Care: 

Quality early learning and care allows children to thrive and parents to achieve economic security. Nonetheless, childcare is unaffordable and too hard to find, while teachers receive poverty-level wages. Our kids, parents, and businesses need more state investment.

• Invest in childcare quality and compensation with $10 million for an updated Early Childhood Education Career & Wage Ladder.
• Support investments in comprehensive system of affordability, access, quality, and professional compensation. (C. Wilson & Senn)

Health Care Access:

Everyone deserves access to quality healthcare, but our system leaves too many without affordable coverage, and out-of-pocket costs are soaring.

• Extend no-cost insurance coverage to all 19- to 25-year-olds, the age group which has the highest uninsurance rate. The expansion should include undocumented residents who cannot buy on the Exchange. This will improve health and move us closer to universal coverage. (HB 1697 Macri/SB 5814 Nguyen)
• Extend Medicaid to full-year post-partum, assuring that lower-income women have health-care access for a full year following childbirth. This will save lives, improve maternal and infant health, and decrease racial disparities. (SB 6128 Randall/HB 2381 Stonier)

Progressive Revenue:

A regressive and outmoded tax system leaves our state chronically short of the funds. We need more revenue from the wealthiest to invest in thriving communities and opportunity across our state.

• Tax capital gains of more than $500,000 so that the very wealthy are no longer able to avoid taxation.
• Consider other progressive revenue options.

Legislative Endorsements:

These are efforts supported by EOI that are spearheaded by other groups.

• Revise unemployment insurance eligibility decisions to include factors like childcare availability. (HB 1445 Gregerson/SB 5473 Saldaña)
• Assure secure scheduling to promote work/life balance for workers in large retail and food service establishments. (HB 1491 Macri/SB 5717 Saldaña)
• Help formerly incarcerated people build new lives through the Clean Slate Act. (Hansen)
• Establish College Promise pilot programs in rural counties to remove barriers to community college, build local economies, and open doors of opportunity.