Time to Tax the Rich?

It is time for us to consider a tax on families making more than $500,000 a year. Our state is flat broke and the tax system is unfair. Currently, our state places the tax burden on low and moderate income citizens through a combination of sales, property, and small businesses taxes. According to the Economic Opportunity Institute (EOI) the lowest income citizens pay the highest percentage of their income in taxes, while the wealthiest pay the smallest amount. In fact, our structure is so outdated and inefficient that we have the most regressive tax system in the country. Even Louisiana and Mississippi and Texas laugh at us which is saying something.

Moreover, not only is the tax system unfair it does not provide enough revenue to finance basic services including education, transportation, health care, or early learning. If, for example, we want to truly ensure that all children in this state enter school ready to learn and are reading at grade level, we need to spend considerable more resources than we are right now. A fairer and more progressive tax structure is needed. I for one support a tax on the rich to get it done!

For more information please go to http://www.eoionline.org/tax_reform/reports/FairerTaxesForWashington-Apr08.pdf

Joel

Help us with the WSA Fall Meeting

Our annual WSA Fall Meeting is coming up October 28-30 in Spokane, and this week Joel and I are busily working on putting together the agenda for the event.

We're already working on a couple of things that might interest you -

• The day before the event (10/27) we'll be doing a special one-day training on a topic soon to be finalized, possibly something around working with parents with disabilities
  

• The State-based Head Start Training office will be doing a half-day training for Directors who are receiving federal stimulus dollars

• We're working on a special 'track' of breakout sessions that will help parents with job hunting skills, financial literacy, etc

We still have a lot to fill in, and you can help. Click on 'Comments' below and share any suggestions you might have for keynote speakers, breakout sessions/trainings, activities, or any other ideas you might have that will make this meeting great for everyone who attends!

Katy

Medicaid

As you know, the debate about health care reform in Washington DC is heating up. The Head Start/ECEAP community needs to stay informed because this issue affects the families we serve. None is more important than the future of the Medicaid program. Medicaid provides health coverage to some of the poorest families in our state. Without Medicaid many families would not be able to access important preventive care for their kids or themselves. But Medicaid reimbursements rates and benefits are so stingy that many providers—especially dentists--are unwilling to take families utilizing Medicaid. This makes it very hard and sometimes impossible for families to find services for their kids.

The health care bills introduced in Congress would expand Medicaid eligibility to 133 percent of the poverty level, but clearly more funds are needed to increase the service levels for families already receiving assistance. With our state in the midst of a funding crisis and already cutting health services we need more federal support for Medicaid so that there is at least some basic access to health services for low income children and families. To find out more about how health care reform impacts your family go to www.familiesusa.org.

I would be very interested to hear from programs, staff, and families about how the Medicaid program in our state could be improved.

Joel

Welcome to the WSA Blog

Welcome to our first WSA Blog Post!

Every week or two we'll be posting about an issue or question of importance to ECEAP, Head Start and Early Head Start programs and families. We invite you to comment below and share your thoughts and ideas. And if you would like to 'guest blog' with your own topic, or if you have an idea for a topic that might be interesting to our members, send Joel or Katy an email.

So without further ado, let's start blogging and commenting!

Katy