Budget cuts threaten WA's healthy future

As you have probably heard, last week the State Senate and House of Representatives each released an all-cuts budget. To balance the budget with cuts alone, they slashed almost $4 billion from essential government functions. These cuts are especially severe for the core environmental programs that protect our families and communities from pollution.

With the challenge of global warming, the economy in recession, and more and more people losing their jobs every day, we need to be building a new green economy, not slashing basic environmental programs. Over the long term, the cost of these cuts to Washington's public health and safety will be far greater than any immediate savings.

These all-cuts budgets will set Washington back by gutting critical funding for toxic cleanup, closing state parks and slashing the funding for WWRP that invests in parks, wildlife habitat and farmland preservation. Each of these cuts means fewer jobs in our communities at a time when we should be investing in and growing the number of good, green jobs.
 
Please call your legislators today at 1-800-562-6000 and let them know that a budget that guts efforts to protect public health, threatens the safety of our drinking water and weakens the health of our neighborhoods goes too far and does not reflect your values. Once you've made the call, let us know by clicking here.
 
With a deficit this size, cuts to programs we all care about are inevitable, but these cuts go too deep. Our legislators asked to hear from us – they want to know what their budget will actually mean to families around the state. If we don't speak up now, we'll be living with the consequences of this budget for years.
 
Call the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000 right now and leave a message for your three legislators. Tell them why you're concerned about the cuts to environmental protection and other programs and how you or your family will be impacted.

After you've made the call, click here to let us know how it went.

Thank you for taking a few minutes right now to protect our environment for generations to come.