The House and Senate release their budgets (finally!)

The past few weeks have been FULL of legislative activity, though most of it's been going on under the radar. Both the Senate's and the House's proposed budgets came out at the end of March, bringing with them both good and bad news for Washington State CASA: while the Senate's budget included full funding (!) for WaCASA at it's current level of $628,000 for the biennium, the House suspended all funding for WaCASA, meaning that they cut us entirely. Local CASA programs are still in good shape, as none of the proposed budgets have specified any cuts directly to them, though every proposal does include a proviso that the Washington Courts must make cuts from their budget.

WaCASA, the Legislative Committee, and Legislative Partners statewide responded quickly and enthusiastically by writing to members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee to say thank so much for the inclusion, and to members of the House Ways and Means Committee to ask them to please reconsider their position during final budget negotiations. 

Final budget negotiations are still under way, and we probably won't have any final answers for another three weeks at the very earliest. Though budget negotiations are well under way, you can still advocate for WaCASA funding by calling the legislative hot line at 1.800.562.6000 (TTY for hearing impaired 1.800.635.9993). When asked for your message, you'll want to leave it in two parts:

Part One - to your senator: Thank you for including Washington State CASA in the Senate's proposed budget! Please ask your budget negotiators to stick to their position during negotiations.

Part Two - to your representatives: I understand that in this extraordinary economic climate you're being forced to make incredibly difficult decisions; however, I urge you to consider how heavily WaCASA leverages state funding to provide an extremely high rate of return on a relatively small state investment. Please urge your budget negotiators to consider our commitment to abused and neglected children by including funding for WaCASA in the final state budget. 

As always, feel free to give me a call at 206.667.9716 if you have any budget or legislative questions!