Bills of Interest and Governors budget proposal 2012

1/17/2012 Bills of Interest
2012 Governor Gregoire Supplemental Budget Proposal
While Legislators are working to develop a supplemental operating budget to address the budget deficit, there has been very little information about what the proposed budgets might include that would affect people with developmental disabilities and their families. The next Revenue Forecast is scheduled to be delivered on February 16, 2012. In recent years, proposed legislative budgets have been released after the most recent revenue forecast. We will keep you updated as we receive more information.

There are several bills working their way through the process and I have attached a bill list from The Arc of Washington to this email. The Arc of Washington office in Olympia is still without power so they have not been able to update this list since last week. To look up the full text of these bills please visit: http://www.leg.wa.gov/pages/home.aspx click on bill search and type in the bill number.

A couple additional bills not listed that you might be interested in are as follows:

HB 2581 – services to people with developmental disabilities transitioning from an RHC to Community Settings.

SB 6384 – ensures persons with developmental disabilities be given the opportunity to transition to a community access program after enrollment in an employment program for 9 months.