{"id":43869,"date":"2020-01-10T11:20:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T19:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/homelessness-guns-among-2020-legislative-priorities\/"},"modified":"2020-01-10T12:29:30","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T20:29:30","slug":"homelessness-guns-among-2020-legislative-priorities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/homelessness-guns-among-2020-legislative-priorities\/","title":{"rendered":"Homelessness, guns among 2020 legislative priorities"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Washington state Legislature will try to address homelessness, the climate crisis and gun violence this session, but per usual the fight over funding will likely be front and center.<\/p>\n
During the AP Legislative preview Jan. 9, state lawmakers and Gov. Jay Inslee walked through some of their priorities this session. One of the biggest items was a discussion about the governor’s proposed budget, which included $146 million in the 2019-2021 cycle. In total, it asked for more than $300 million<\/a> over three years. Inslee proposed the state tap into its $2.5 billion emergency (“rainy day”) fund.<\/p>\n Democratic Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig (D-Spokane) said he likely didn’t have the votes to approve using the rainy day fund. Sen. Patty Kuderer (D-Bellevue) said the emergency fund was created for emergencies like the homelessness crisis.<\/p>\n Sen. Hans Zeiger (R-Puyallup) said the state should be looking to fund homelessness responses with its surplus instead. Other conservative lawmakers echoed similar ideas.<\/p>\n Inslee said using the fund makes sense because the level of homelessness is a crisis. It would also let the state take action without raising new revenue.<\/p>\n “I think this would be better than an additional tax increase,” Inslee said.<\/p>\n Inslee said he wasn’t as worried about where the money came from as long as it was approved.<\/p>\n There were also differing ideas on how best to address homelessness. Rep. Nicole Macri (D-Seattle) said having a stable place to live is what ends homelessness, and she supported building more housing and removing barriers that prevent people from getting housing. She said more services are needed.<\/p>\n “We know that building housing alone does not address homelessness,” Macri said.<\/p>\n