House Democrats met behind closed doors last night to discuss and count votes on 4 more bills, including House Bill 2377. That's the one that would raise the state sales tax by 0.3 percentage points for 3 years to raise $1.1 billion to restore health care cuts and give money to poor families.

I'm told House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, and Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle, the prime sponsor, still don't have enough votes to get the measure passed by the House because his head count of "yes" votes fell short.

How short?

"It's a ways," said one Democratic lawmaker. That has been confirmed by a few others who should know, too.

They also talked about the E-911 tax (fee) hike, from 70 cents to 95 cents a month (probably not gonna make it onto the August ballot for a public vote, "Hans Bonds" the proposal by Rep. Hans Dunshee to put a $3 billion construction measure on the ballot to create 90,000 jobs (I dont' think so, but I dont' know for sure yet) and House Bill 1614. That last one is the oil barrell tax (Democrats call it a fee) that would raise about $115 million a year to prevent or clean up runoff pollution.

Sorry, don't yet know how those are faring. More later.

Advocates for the public tax vote in November are pulling out all the stops. Besides the news conference about whether people might actually die, the SEIU sent a letter to lawmakers, urging a yes vote. That appears below.

April 23, 2009
Dear legislators:
As the Presidents of the SEIU Healthcare locals in Washington State, collectively representing more
than 60,000 health and long-term care workers in hospitals, nursing homes, community clinics, mental
health, in-home care and adult day health, we are writing to strongly urge you to approve HB 2377.
This critical piece of legislation would give voters a referendum on a temporary sales tax increase. It is the only way to prevent massive cuts to our health care system, harming seniors, people with
disabilities, children, and working families across Washington State.

[More:]

What’s At Stake
Without new revenues, budget cuts will cause real and lasting damage to our state’s health care
system:
• 40,000 working adults will lose their health care coverage;
• Hospitals will cut services, and we’ll see longer wait times and a reduction in the quality of
care at the exact time when more people need hospital care;
• Adult day health services will be forced to close, leaving vulnerable seniors and people with
developmental disabilities without this critical and effective health care service;
• Nursing homes, especially those in rural areas, will close, forcing frail residents to relocate and
separating residents from their families and communities;
• Low-income children will be denied access to physicians as doctors refuse to accept Medicaid
patients due to inadequate rates;
• With severely reduced or no services, tens of thousands of mental health clients will cycle into
crisis, ending up in our already-clogged emergency rooms and in our jails, costing taxpayers
more in the long run;
• Tens of thousands of vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities will have their hours of inhome
care reduced;
• Thousands of caregivers in our hospitals and nursing homes will be laid off, reducing the
quality of care and quality of life for patients and residents.
What the polling showed us
We are no more enamored by an increase in the sales tax than many of you. We represent tens of
thousands of low-wage workers – those who pay a disproportionate share of their income in state and
local taxes compared to the wealthy.
We would not support an increase in the sales tax unless we truly believed two things: that there were
no other viable options and that the alternative – implementing cuts to health care – would cause
significantly more hardship for working people in our state.
Over the past several months, working in coalition with other partners, we have looked at every
revenue option available to the state. And after extensive focus groups and polling, we have concluded
that a temporary sales tax increase is the only viable option to raise revenue in this biennium to prevent
these cuts.
We recognize that many of you are concerned about whether HB 2377 can win at the ballot in
November. Three things were consistently clear throughout the focus groups and polling:
1. When voters learned about the budget cuts being contemplated by the legislature, they were
strongly opposed to those cuts. This opposition to cuts will only grow as the cuts take effect in
the new biennium.
2. Voters were receptive to a tax that was for dedicated health care programs.
3. After looking carefully at all the options – sales, sin, income, B&O, tax exemptions – the
coalition came to the firm conclusion that the only viable option to raise immediate revenue to
address the cuts was through a small temporary sales tax increase.
The campaign to pass this referendum – like any campaign to increase taxes - will be difficult. But we
believe that as voters see these cuts go into effect and learn the real world impact, they will support a
small temporary tax increase in order to buy back these critical health care services. But if we fail to
act now, voters will have no choice at all.
SEIU shares the desire that many of you have for fundamental tax reform. We have been a founding
partner in the Tax Fairness Coalition and the Budget and Policy Center and are committed to working
with you and other allies to continue to win the tax reform we all know is necessary.
And SEIU shares the desire of many of you for fundamental health care reform. In fact many of our
staff have been working for months in Washington DC and targeted states across the country in the
effort to win national health care reform. And we are committed to working with you and other allies
to achieve real health care reform in our state.
But, with only days left in the session, the choices are clear. The choice before you is not whether to
send voters this tax package or a fundamental restructuring of our tax system.
The choice before you is to take action on HB 2377, or to do nothing. The choice is whether you will
give voters the opportunity to prevent massive cuts to health care, or allow the cuts to go into effect
without an opportunity for the public to weigh in.
Please give hope to the tens of thousands of working families who could lose their health insurance.
Please give hope to the tens of thousands of seniors and people with disabilities who rely on home
care, adult day, nursing home, and other long-term care services every day.
And please give hope to the tens of thousands of front-line nurses and caregivers we represent, who
will witness the devastation caused by these cuts to health care services.
Please vote Yes on HB 2377.
In solidarity,
Diane Sosne, RN, President
SEIU Healthcare 1199NW
David Rolf, President
SEIU Healthcare 775NW