State Representative Term: 2 years Salary: $72,494Washington's House of Representatives has 98 members; two from each legislative district in the state. Representatives are elected to two-year terms, so the total membership of the House is up for election each even-numbered year.During legislative sessions, the Legislature is called upon to: enact or reject legislation affecting public policy in the state; provide for the levy and collection of taxes and other revenue to support state government and assist local government; and appropriate funds for these purposes. The House also has the exclusive power to bring impeachment proceedings. Although laws are enacted only when the Legislature is convened in formal session, policy issues and the general operation of state and local government are under continuous review by legislators serving on permanent and interim study committees.
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Biography (max 750 char)
Jessica Forsythe is a two-term Redmond City Councilmember, former non-profit Executive Director, and small business owner. Elected in 2019 & chosen as Council President in her first term, she has passed billion-dollar budgets, conceived legislation that became state law, expanded tenant protections, co-authored Redmond's Climate Emergency Declaration, and added three Mental Health Professionals to the city's crisis response. An award-winning creative, she brings design-thinking framework to governance centering voices most often excluded from decision-making. In Olympia, she will fight for immigrant rights, reproductive freedom, housing affordability, fully funded education, and a clean energy transition built with strong labor standards.
Fully funding education is a top priority because even post-McCleary decision the state is still not living up to our paramount duty to fully fund education.
The PFML program has shown to be incredibly popular, but there is an urgent need to address how it will continue to remain solvent. I will support lifting the contribution cap or raising the payroll percentages to ensure this program remains available.
Alternative revenue sources must continue to be explored as they have been in recent sessions while having real conversations about the implications of these sources on working families. I will not shy away from the challenge of addressing our regressive tax structure.
Advancing civic participation is a core value of mine and actually lead me to serve on the League of Women Voters King County board as well as work on various voting rights initiatives including early registration and automatic voter registration. I believe a civic education courses should be available in every county across the state and the state could explore funding non-partisan partners to do this work. I am confident in our mail-in voting system and the security of our elections. I have toured elections facilities and watched democracy in action and encourage others to do the same.
Investments in our front-line responders is a key strategy to ensuring positive outcomes for all communities. To me this looks like investments in mental and behavioral health professionals embedded with our first responders, exploring alternatives such as Redmond's drone as a first responder program which has been proven to reduce the need for an armed police officer to respond to a call, and supporting housing and food programs to keep people's basic needs met.
When the FCC removed the rule that implemented the Appearance of Fairness Doctrine in 2011 we started to see a greater political divide in reporting and reliable news. Washington can be a leader on exploring ways to implement similar policies that do not infringe on 1st Amendment rights which also challenging large scale media mergers and buy outs that reduce independent reporting.
Washington will need to pay very close attention to the most recent cases at the Supreme Court and the possible implications those cases may have on our most recently drawn districts to ensure marginalized voices do not become even more marginalized. The Redistricting Commission must remain independent, non-partisan, and impartial and continue to collect critical community feedback in the process. We must also work to ensure communities are not afraid to answer accurately census questions that allow the Commission to accurately draw district maps.
Affordability is one of the greatest issues facing LD48. We have the second highest number of renters in the county and 40% of our renters are cost burdened. Nearly 20% of eastsiders cannot afford basic daily necessities. Housing prices are more and more out of reach and seniors are experiencing faster than expected depletion of their retirement and savings. One way I will work to address this is to focus on middle housing expansion so first time buyers have more options and those looking to downsize have viable options.
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