Новости

27 апреля Законодательное собрание штата Вашингтон объявило о закрытии сессии 2025 года. В этом году «длинная сессия» длилась 105 дней и была посвящена составлению полного двухгодичного бюджета штата на 2025–2027 годы, включая операционный, транспортный и капитальный.

From the start, we knew this would be a tough year: the state faced a significant budget shortfall — growing to an estimated $15–16 billion over the four-year outlook. Between declining revenues and rising costs, the legislature had to make difficult choices, with many policy bills scaled back or stalled altogether due to limited resources. Against this backdrop, our focus was clear: protect and sustain critical investments for families, especially in times of uncertainty.

For Help Me Grow, our top priority this session was the preservation of ongoing funding for Help Me Grow Washington — a statewide system that connects families with young children to essential services, programs, and community resources. During the 2021 session, we secured ongoing funding to support Help Me Grow’s core capacity and infrastructure including resource navigators, resource database maintenance, and technical assistance for local communities. While the funding was provided ‘ongoing’ by the legislature, it is something that can easily be reduced or eliminated, especially during tight fiscal times. Thanks to strong advocacy and collective effort, the full $265,000 in state funding for each of the next two years was secured to continue this vital work.

We also advocated strongly to secure a continuation of $250,000/year in one-time funding that was first provided in the 2023 session to support Help Me Grow’s community engagement. While this request unfortunately wasn’t included in the final budget, we will continue to look for future opportunities to advocate for this funding.