Michele Thomas, Director of Policy and Advocacy

I wanted to share with you that we are very possibly in the last hours of budget negotiations. This could very well mean that now is a critical time to take one more action and to push your networks to do the same.

The Governor held a press conference about an hour ago and announced this via Twitter:

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At the press conference, he also announced that the state is sending layoff notices to government employees today and a major breakthrough happened between budget negotiators just hours ago. This means that it's very likely they are putting the final touches on their budget. We have to keep pushing to make sure the safety net isn't compromised and that they also pass a Capital Budget Bill that includes a re-appropriation of previously allocated funds and new capital dollars that invest deeply in the Housing Trust Fund.

Please send an email or make a call today and ask your networks to do the same. Until the votes are counted and the ink is dry, we can still influence the final budget.

You can forward the action below or just send people to the action page: http://org.salsalabs.com/o/2685/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=13545.

Housing and Essential Needs Update

The House passed HB 2069 again yesterday and it again received very significant bipartisan support, with only 8 no votes in total. This is good news, because this bill needs to be passed in order for the Disability Lifeline/Housing and Essential Needs program to align with Medicaid expansion. At this point, the bill is in the Senate's hands and we know the House was demanding its passage as a condition of any final budget agreement.

Senate "Reform" Bills

The Senate's list of "reform" bills have been mostly put aside for now, but they will come back up again next year including SB 5895 which would impose strict spending caps on social service programs. We will need to keep pushing hard against that bill. The payday lending bill also appears to be off the table for now, but again, will be an issue next year.

Lastly, please note that the Housing Alliance is planning on holding a call this Thursday, June 27 at 2:00pm on the budget and special session. Please mark your calendars. We will be sending an email tomorrow where you can RSVP for it.