Action Needed: Call the Legislative Hotline
Call the Legislative Hotline
To balance the projected $12 billion budget shortfall, our elected officials will come up with some combination of spending cuts and new revenue.
Furloughs were Governor Ferguson's idea, and they're just a proposal.
The House and the Senate don't need to include furloughs in their budgets, which they'll be releasing the week of March 24. But they may if they don't hear from enough of us.
If you have not called your elected official yet, please make sure to do it this week.
WFSE represents 52,000+ public workers. If we put our numbers to work, we can protect our pay, protect the services we provide, and protect the people who depend on them.
Instructions for Calling the Legislative Hotline
1. Click the phone number here (888-258-4588) to hear a short recording from WFSE and leave a message for your state Senator and Representatives. Please call from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
2. A nice, friendly fellow public worker from the Legislative Hotline will answer the call and ask for your address so they can get your message to your representatives.
3. Say you are a member of the Washington Federation of State Employees who works at (your employer).
4. Let them know you're calling in regard to House Bill 1198 and Senate Bill 5167 (these are the two operating budget bills) if your message is about any of the items below:
- Ferguson's proposal of 1 furlough day a month for 2 years
- Ferguson's proposed $63,000,000 cut to higher education funding
- Closures to DOC reenty centers in Bellingham and Yakima
- Ward closures at Western State Hospital and the Special Commitment Center
If you're speaking out against the proposed closures of Yakima Valley School and Rainier School, let them know you OPPOSE House Bill 1472 and Senate Bill 5393.
5. Example message if you're speaking against furloughs: "I'm a member of the Washington Federation of State Employees who works at ________. I want a state budget without furloughs for public employees. Please consider the many options for new revenue from the wealthiest Washingtonians who aren't paying their fair share in taxes."
To personalize your message, you can explain how furloughs and budget cuts would impact your ability to do your job, and how the public would suffer.
Just keep it short. The hotline operator is writing down your message to deliver to your elected officials.
Together we can protect our pay raises and convince our elected officials that it's time to fix our upside-down tax code rather than "taxing" the people who keep this state running with furloughs.
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