JUUstice Washington

A Unitarian Universalist State Action Network

Seattle’s controversial ‘poverty defense’ proposal stalls out

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A controversial “poverty defense” proposal, which would have expanded legal defenses for poor or mentally ill people accused of a misdemeanor, has stalled in Seattle City Hall before it ever became an official bill and has no immediate timeline for its revival.

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Anita Khandelwal, director of the King County Department of Public Defense and an advocate of the proposal, said in an email: “We’re continuing to work with the community on an ordinance that would allow people to tell their full story in court and we continue to discuss this legislation with council members. It reflects an important effort to make a racially disproportionate and expensive system into one that is less harmful to our community.”

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Enbridge Line 3 divides Indigenous lands, people

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It’s a conflict facing growing numbers of Native people along Line 3’s nearly 400-mile path. As it cuts across the Fond du Lac reservation, treaty lands of several other bands of Ojibwe and the headwaters of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota, the project has brought not just jobs but controversy and discord into the most intimate spheres of spirituality, family and community.

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WA lawmakers look to fix climate while solving the housing crisis

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Efforts to expand the state’s green building rules would, among other things, phase out gas heat and appliances in most homes and businesses.

As Washington lawmakers work to get ahead of a brewing post-pandemic housing catastrophe, efforts are underway to join that effort with responses to two slower-burning disasters — the climate crisis and runaway housing costs.

Since mid-January, legislators have put forward dozens of bills aimed at injecting carbon and affordability into a built environment that’s long been short on both. That work comes as housing prices continue their upward climb in a state where the average mortgage requires borrowers to have a six-figure income to comfortably pay.

Climate-centered bills would phase out gas heat and appliances in most Washington homes and buildings,require that cities consider climate costs in their plans, and increase housing density in some areas by 50%. At the same time, the Legislature is considering expansions to renter protections and public housing with a vigor that advocates say they haven’t seen before in Olympia, while looking to correct racial inequities in the housing system.

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Tracking plans to tax the rich in the 2021 Washington Legislature

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One new measure would focus on taxing billionaires. Other proposals revive the idea of taxing capital gains. A tax on capital gains, such as profits from selling stocks and bonds, is something that has been discussed in Olympia for many years, but so far hasn’t had the votes to pass. A new payroll tax on corporations that pay high salaries — similar to a measure recently approved in Seattle — also is under discussion.

Each of the proposals is different. But for many Democrats, as well as others on the political left, the goal is the same: Make the richest Washingtonians pay for COVID-19 relief programs and other services that would help people who are struggling. Democrats also say the state’s current tax system is highly regressive, meaning lower-income people pay a larger share of their income in taxes than the wealthy. They are looking to correct that imbalance.

Read more here.