It’s a debate that’s lingered among state lawmakers for about 20 years. In the last two legislative sessions, two bills that would have made clergy members mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect have failed.

Washington lawmakers are debating whether to require coverage of fertility treatments under group health plans and Medicaid in an attempt to help more people start families. Though concerns have been raised about the costs around the mandate.

Lawmakers will have 105 days to make multi-billion dollar shortfalls disappear from state operations and transportation budgets. They’ll wrangle over policies for capping rent hikes, purchasing guns, providing child care, teaching students, and much, much more. With many new faces, they’ll spend a lot of time getting to know one another as well.

Here are six lawmakers and one statewide executive to keep an eye on when the action begins.

Seeking to cover a looming budget shortfall and stave off cuts to state services, Gov. Jay Inslee is throwing his support behind a proposed “wealth tax” on the state’s richest residents.

A half-dozen state Senate committees will have new chairpersons heading into the 2025 session, with Democrats releasing the lineup on Thursday

Wilson, 33, was diagnosed with schizophrenia over a decade ago. The Lower Queen Anne resident has made it his mission to spend his days helping others — and to share his story about living with the serious mental health condition.

I was shocked at the news that 43 young people in our juvenile detention system were suddenly sent to adult prison without due process or notice. This sudden move is wrong for rehabilitation, wrong for community safety and wrong for the young people who will suffer as a result.

Seattle Bike Blog did not have the capacity to do our own endorsements in this election, but we have collected the endorsements of a handful of safe streets and transportation-minded organizations. Below you can find endorsements from Washington Bikes (WB), the Transit Riders Union (TRU) and The Urbanist (URB)

Rep. Noel Frame is the Legislature’s progressive revenue queen. As someone who just led a five-year-long, bipartisan effort to study ways to completely restructure our state’s regressive tax code, she knows more about the issue than anyone else. Those corporate drones in the Senate will need her leadership in this discussion if we’re to make this place even just a little fairer any time soon.

State Rep. Noel Frame has represented the 36th Legislative District since 2016. Now, she is seeking to jump to the state Senate to replace Reuven Carlyle, who announced his departure this year.

Reading a draft Supreme Court opinion that portends the potential end of legal abortion in much of the United States, Jennifer Martinez said to herself that people need to hear stories like hers.

So Martinez, 34 years old and 39 weeks pregnant, stood in Seattle in front of the governor, attorney general, members of Congress, dozens of cameras and hundreds of others and talked about the two abortions she had 13 years ago.

SEATTLE – Representative Noel Frame officially launched her campaign today for State Senate in the 36th Legislative District, where she has represented her constituents since 2016. Frame launches with the endorsement of hundreds of community members and elected officials, including fellow legislators Sen. Joe Nguyen (D-34), Rep. Nicole Macri (D-43), Rep. Liz Berry (D-36), and retired State Representatives for the 36th District, Gael Tarleton, Mary Lou Dickerson and Seth Armstrong.

As all babies will tell you — at the top of their lungs — soggy diapers are miserable, and diaper rash hurts a lot. So we are pleased to see that both the state Senate and House proposed budgets include funding for diapers for very low income families that receive monthly grants from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

House Finance Chair Noel Frame declared Thursday for Sen. Reuven Carlyle’s soon-to-be vacant seat in the state Senate.

Carlyle, chair of Senate Environment, Energy, and Technology announced Monday that he wouldn’t seek another term this fall. As we noted Monday, even though he’s coming off a big win with the passage of the Climate Commitment Act last year, rumors persisted that he might face a challenge from the left in Seattle’s overwhelmingly Democratic 36th District.

Following up on last year’s capital gains tax—a major legislative win for progressives during the 2021 session that puts a 7 percent tax on profits greater than $250,000 from the sales of assets, such as stocks and bonds—state Rep. Noel Frame (D-36) has her eye on comprehensive structural change for Washington’s upside-down tax code.

The poorest fifth of Washington state residents pay, on average, 16.8 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes while the richest 1 percent of Washingtonians pay an average of just 2.4 percent.

GALEN HERZ
Jacobin

Last week, Washington State passed a capital gains tax aimed at the state’s ultra-wealthy. The tax is historic because Washington, despite its progressive reputation, until now had the worst tax code in the nation when it comes to fairness, behind Texas, Florida, and South Dakota.

A landmark 2018 report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the poor and working class pay 18 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while the ultra-wealthy only pay 3 percent.

“It’s so upside-down. . . . It’s completely out of step with our values,” Rep. Noel Frame, a champion for tax reform in Washington’s legislature, told me.

Prashanthi Reddy is passionate about home-style Indian food. The kind she grew up eating at her mom’s house and with relatives. A New Jersey native, Reddy owns the coffee shop Makeda and Mingus in Greenwood. The shop does not have a kitchen, but Reddy cooks a lot at home and has been sharing the food of her family with her community in myriad ways; through Airbnb experiences and online cooking classes. What she would really like to do is cook food for people and sell it to them. Yet, with rent, permits staffing and food costs to consider, the barriers to entry are high for budding restaurateurs.

But a bill is moving through the state channels of government that, if passed, could allow people like Reddy to sell meals made out of their home kitchens.

Noel Frame, Washington State Representative (D-36), joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers to break down her wealth tax proposal.

For some time, Washington state has held a dubious distinction that defies its reputation as a progressive policy haven. According to federal statistics, Washington has been the nation’s longtime leader in jailing children for noncriminal offenses, such as running away or skipping school. Toward the start of the decade, Washington accounted for roughly a third of instances nationwide where kids were jailed for doing things that aren’t actually crimes.