Vision

First and foremost, we need to change the way we fund our state’s budget.
Our revenue is largely reliant on sales and property taxes. Because of the regressive nature of these taxes, those in the lowest income bracket end up paying 17% or more of their income in taxes, while the richest pay 3% or less. Washington state is the worst in the nation for putting an undue burden on the lower and middle classes. 

Additionally, sales tax is a volatile revenue stream, and the COVID-19 crisis has created the absolute worst-case scenario for the state’s budget with consumers making significantly fewer purchases; we are taking in a fraction of our previous revenue in sales at a time when we need to be spending more on our social safety net. We need to invest in our future, and to do that we need consistent, equitable funding sources.

To address this, we need to immediately prioritize:

  • Creating new streams of revenue, starting with a capital gains tax and a wealth tax for assets above $2M, as well as a payroll tax for big business to address homelessness

  • Reforming our existing Business & Occupation tax to close loopholes

  • Reforming property tax rules to be more equitable

  • Reducing sales tax rates to put more money in the pockets of consumers

  • Removing the balanced budget requirement that stops us from being able to make investments when the financial state is good

  • Creating a public bank to reallocate budget spent on interest to other budget needs

We should also push for a progressive income tax, at least for high earners, paired with appropriate reductions in other regressive taxes, though this may have a longer legal path forward.

Progressive taxation for social safety net

Climate action

As we deal with the current COVID-19 crisis, we also need to work hard to mitigate the climate crisis. A way to do both is through a Green New Deal. One of the few positive side-effects of the shelter-in-place order has been that our state’s emissions have greatly decreased due to reduced travel, but we need to make this work in a permanent, sustainable way. As we transition out of social distancing and isolation, we must facilitate options that reduce reliance on commutes in single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs). Where SOVs are still in use, we need to reduce their emissions. This should include:

  • Supporting a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) standard

  • Funding transit expansion and supporting free transit, including allowing Seattle to move faster on Light Rail expansion

  • Ensuring meaningful access to transit options for individuals with disabilities

  • Halting further highway expansion projects while maintaining our current roads and bridges

  • Building additional segregated/protected bike lanes in connected systems

  • Transitioning away from internal combustion engines

  • Incentivizing and facilitating telecommuting for workers, including support for public internet

At a time when many people are out of work, making large investments in public transit and green infrastructure are key to both keeping workers employed and making progress toward our climate goals. We must facilitate transitioning existing union jobs to the green economy. Some preliminary steps in building and infrastructure are:

  • Updating the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) review process to fast-track green projects and consider the full end-to-end environmental impact of other projects

  • Updating building requirements to support sustainable timber and to reduce emissions and use of fossil fuels

  • Supporting community solar projects


Communities of color (especially Black and Indigenous populations) are disproportionately impacted by the effects of pollution and climate change. As we develop and enact detailed policies, we need to ensure that we are doing so while centering the experiences and needs of these communities first and bringing them directly to the discussion table.

Comprehensive, accessible healthcare for all

Our health and wellbeing is inextricably tied to the health of our neighbors. Healthcare access needs to be decoupled from employment through the introduction of a statewide single-payer system, and equitable access needs to be ensured regardless of people’s zip code, income, ability, race, immigration status, or LGBTQ+ identity. 

Certain types of healthcare, like oral healthcare (dentistry), behavioral and mental healthcare, and sexual/reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care in particular can be hard to obtain and must be made more accessible. Disparate outcomes in healthcare based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, and other factors must be addressed and mitigated, particularly the maternal mortality rate for Black women. Addressing these issues should begin with:

  • Supporting the path to statewide single-payer healthcare 

  • Funding outpatient services for mental/behavioral health and protecting the privacy of young people seeking these services

  • Requiring insurance coverage for PrEP and PEP and other care for conditions disproportionately impacting the LGBTQ+ community

  • Expanding access to oral health through creation of dental therapist role and inclusion in insurance plans

  • Expanding access to abortion care, maternal care, and reproductive care 

  • Ensuring healthcare workers have support for safe working conditions

  • Creating and funding implicit bias training for healthcare workers and residents

  • Ensuring patient rights in religiously affiliated hospitals

Seattle declared a state of emergency over the issue of homelessness in November of 2015. In the subsequent years, the problem has only worsened. People of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, veterans, and people with disabilities are disproportionately represented among those who are unhoused or who face housing instability. Everyone should be able to live near where they work, and we need to embrace housing policies that can allow for dense but vibrant neighborhoods that are climate-friendly and walkable/rollable. As a renter myself, I understand firsthand the importance of rental protections and affordable housing options. Some ways to do this include:

  • During the COVID crisis, freeze rent and mortgage payments for everyone, and provide relief for those living in motels or other pay-by-night housing

  • Declare that housing is a human right and fund housing-first plans to address homelessness 

  • Fund only evidence-based programs for addressing housing instability and homelessness, and ban the practice of homeless sweeps

  • Open up zoning requirements to allow greater density

  • Enact renters’ protections, including Good Cause eviction protection; lifting the ban on rent control; and creating statewide rent stabilization protections

  • Generate progressive revenue to fund building of social housing using union labor

  • Create statewide Renters’ Commission

  • Create programs to support aging-in-place 

  • Create programs using community preference to combat gentrification

  • Reduce parking requirements for housing near transit

a roof over everyone’s head

equity, Policing, & justice

In these policies and others, we need to examine the root causes of inequalities in our city and state through a lens of equity. While the implementation of the above needs to take this into account, there are many other areas that need to be addressed to combat inequities.
Some of these include:

  • Defund and de-militarize the police - remove state funding wherever possible

  • Redirect police department funding to community-based alternatives to policing especially for Black and brown communities

  • Increase accountability and transparency in police union contracts

  • Further restrict the use of excessive or deadly force by police

  • Give subpoena and other investigative powers to independent oversight boards

  • Mandating trauma-informed care and providing restorative justice options for sexual assault/rape 

  • Decriminalizing sex work

  • Banning private prisons and predatory businesses that operate within prisons

  • No new jails

  • Moving to zero youth incarceration and reducing incarceration significantly across the board

  • During COVID in particular, fast-track clemency to reduce crowding in prisons

  • Funding supervised injection sites and needle exchanges to reduce overdose deaths

  • Fully eliminate the death penalty in WA

  • End cash bail system in WA

  • Prioritizing Black communities for marijuana business licenses and loans

Washington’s education system is in a crisis. For decades, it’s been grossly underfunded and mismanaged, creating an unsustainable and inequitable public school system. This has affected all of our kids, but has hit our communities of color, low income, and immigrant families disproportionately hard. In order to combat these disparities, we must:

  • Fully fund our education system through new progressive revenue streams that are both sustainable and equitably sourced 

  • Pay our teachers and child care workers a fair and competitive wage

  • Reinstate funding for all supportive staff, including counselors, nurses, special education teachers, and more

  • Provide universal Pre-K 

  • Continue to invest in trauma-informed care and restorative justice practices in our schools

education

workers’ rights

Workers have been especially hit hard by the recent economic downturn and shelter-in-place policies, even as it’s become ever clearer how much our economy depends on their labor. We need to ensure that those who have lost their jobs or been furloughed can get back on their feet, and those who have had to work risking their health get adequate protections and pay. Beyond this, there are a number of pro-worker policies have been implemented in Seattle that need to be enacted statewide, and adjustments needed to set standards in new industries. Some of these reforms include:

  • During COVID and any future public health crises, essential workers need hazard pay, adequate personal protective equipment, allowances for additional paid sick leave for personal quarantine or caregiving needs, and protections against retaliation for vulnerable populations needing additional accommodations

  • Fully funding universal child care

  • Creating protections for gig economy workers who are often intentionally misclassified as contractors

  • Statewide Domestic Workers Bill of Rights

  • Statewide secure scheduling requirements

  • Prioritized green infrastructure jobs for union workers

  • Increased minimum wage to keep up with costs of living

  • Statewide Worker Protection Act 

  • Statewide Cannabis Workplace Standards

  • Robust protections for undocumented workers reporting workplace issues

  • Minimum required paid time off

Washington has some of the most robust laws to reduce gun violence in the country, but there are still steps to be taken to reduce interpersonal, accidental, and self-inflicted deaths. In Washington, almost 80% of suicides use firearms. Some of the highest priority reforms to be enacted are:

  • Regulating access to high-capacity magazines

  • Requiring safe storage of guns and ammo 

  • Supporting and funding community-based programs to reduce gun violence 

  • Funding suicide-prevention programs 

  • Allowing seized guns to be destroyed rather than sold at auction

reducing gun violence

adapting our laws to changing technology

As technology advances, our laws need to keep up. We need to empower consumers to understand and control how data about them is being used, protect our infrastructure from bad actors, and ensure that everyone has access to the benefits of the internet. We can begin this process by:

  • Enacting data privacy protections in the vein of the California Consumer Privacy Act

  • Ensuring the security of our power grid and other utilities that are connected to the internet

  • Mandating additional transparency of when Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning are being used to make decisions including in housing, finance, and access to public services

  • Placing additional limits on surveillance technology usage 

  • Building and regulating public internet as a utility

This is a living document intended to reflect what our campaign hears from the community, and may evolve over time.