proof of legal residency
Require proof of legal residency before providing any public financed or subsidized services.
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This idea is active.Economic Development »100 comments
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This idea is active.Economic Development »
Put ALL inmates to work
Put inmates to work. It costs the state enormous amounts of money to inprison these people. Put ALL of them to work manufacturing goods to s ...more »
81 commentsPut inmates to work. It costs the state enormous amounts of money to inprison these people. Put ALL of them to work manufacturing goods to sell.
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Legalizing Marijuana
I have never ingested marijuana or any illicit drugs, but you could help the budget by legalizing a fairly benign substance in marijuana as ...more »
210 commentsI have never ingested marijuana or any illicit drugs, but you could help the budget by legalizing a fairly benign substance in marijuana as i-1068 would have done. The polling data is fairly neutral regarding this topic in Washington state. Both state polls I have seen show legalization favored by slightly over 50% though.
You would be doing this in two ways. 1.) Not having to waste money on law enforcement, judicial proceedings, and incarceration. 2.) Potentially collecting taxes from those that sell it. Another interesting way to go with that would be to treat it like alcohol by selling it in a regulated manner as they do in Amsterdam (despite it not being legal). Interestingly, use in Amsterdam is the lowest in Europe despite how easy it is to obtain. Why? Drug dealers do not check for I.D.
I became interested in this topic ever since the state held a committee hearing in Olympia in January of this year. I have done the research and it has changed my mind from disagreeing with legalizing to thinking legalizing is probably the way to go.
Thank you.
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This idea is active.Economic Development »
Limit salaries
Limit maximum pay of state employees. Does any state employee need to make more than $250,000 in pay and benefits? If you are so afraid to l ...more »
47 commentsLimit maximum pay of state employees. Does any state employee need to make more than $250,000 in pay and benefits? If you are so afraid to loose them to private employers, let them go and save money by attrition. There are way to many state employees making seriously large salaries.
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This idea is active.Effective Government »
save energy and turn off lights, computers, printers
turn off the lights! any time i drive by a state office at night nearly every light, every printer, computers, computer screens - nearly al ...more »
26 commentsturn off the lights! any time i drive by a state office at night nearly every light, every printer, computers, computer screens - nearly all of it is left on. why? what a waste. you need a program where state workers turn off the lights, computers and printers. it will save millions a month in electric bills, and furthermore, the state should not be such an energy hog!
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This idea is active.Economic Development »
Stop state employee from double-dipping into both pension and payroll
Seattle Times recently ran an investigative article, revealing how some state employees are collecting state pension while on active payroll ...more »
45 commentsSeattle Times recently ran an investigative article, revealing how some state employees are collecting state pension while on active payroll with the state. In many cases, the article claimed the employees "retired" from the job only to immediately get hired on for the very same position. This is a waste of the taxpayer's money and should be stopped. Not only would the cut not impact existing headcount, it would allow the state to hire more personnel with the money saved.
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This idea is active.Economic Development »
Liquor Stores
61 commentsSell all the building and land the liquor stores sit on when liquor sales are privatized after the elections.
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This idea is active.Protect Health and Vulnerable People »
Drug Test for State Payments.
We all know that Welfare is necessary to keep those afloat that cannot do so on their own. It also seems to be a known fact that many that ...more »
95 commentsWe all know that Welfare is necessary to keep those afloat that cannot do so on their own. It also seems to be a known fact that many that receive Welfare tend to spend some of the money they receive on illegal drug use. By requiring a drug test to receive a Welfare check, not only do you avoid paying "free" money to "criminals" but, in turn, it is likely that the amount of drug use will decrease by the effect of the recipients not wanting to lose their benefits.
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We should require Work for Welfare
I've always wondered...why don't we ask healthy people who are receiving welfare or unemployment to do some work in exchange for the benefit ...more »
49 commentsI've always wondered...why don't we ask healthy people who are receiving welfare or unemployment to do some work in exchange for the benefits? There are too many long-term and highly talented people receiving our hard earned taxpayer money. Let's help them and help our state at the same time. Requiring them to work even 4 hours a day would still give people time to hunt for work and at the same time help them feel better about themselves, accomplish jobs that might otherwise be cut, train people for new careers, improve our environment, and get people off welfare quicker. People who need childcare to work could even have that provided by other people on welfare too. The era of government 'handouts' for people who are able to work needs to end in this time where every one of our tax dollars needs to count.
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This idea is active.Economic Development »
License plates
Stop requiring new plates being issued every few years for vehicles. You should only have to get new ones when requested by the owner of the ...more »
27 commentsStop requiring new plates being issued every few years for vehicles. You should only have to get new ones when requested by the owner of the vehicle or if ticketed. Besides savings on labor and materials for the plates; any software changes need for computers to recognize the new plate format.
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English Only!
I suggest you stop printing all government paperwork in both English and Spanish. Print in English only. We don't print everything in Ital ...more »
111 commentsI suggest you stop printing all government paperwork in both English and Spanish. Print in English only. We don't print everything in Italian, German, French, Japanese. We shouldn't cater to just one ethnic group. If someone wants the benefits the government offers then they should learn English or bring an interpreter with them. It is not the State's problem if they don't comprehend. If they need an interpreter, provide one for a fee. Let them pay for the extra services.
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This idea is active.Effective Government »
cut travel budget
37 commentsFreeze non-essential travel for elected officials and state employees.
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This idea is active.Effective Government »
Too many managers (Wms)
Look at middle and upper management. When we took the last cuts, we got one more manager, and lost 3 office assisstants. You dont need a ...more »
32 commentsLook at middle and upper management. When we took the last cuts, we got one more manager, and lost 3 office assisstants. You dont need a managing director, and another manager (WMS) under her/him with only 5 employees in a unit. Cut pay or number of WMS, and make sure it is WMS, everytime this comes around to our agency, they play the shell game and we lose more front people and the WMS are moved/renamed/saved, but never cut!!
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This idea is active.Effective Government »
Pool Health Insurance
Put all State (and public employees for that matter), including teachers on one health plan. With that buying power you could get a really ...more »
23 commentsPut all State (and public employees for that matter), including teachers on one health plan. With that buying power you could get a really good plan for these people at a reduced cost to the State, School Districts, and the employees. Get something like the construction unions or Boeing have that you can cover the entire family without any out of pocket expense to the employee
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This idea is active.Economic Development »
Stop giving tax money away to the international coal company TransAlta.
TransAlta (the owners of the state's only coal-fired power plant in Centralia which is our state's largest single source of pollution) rece ...more »
35 commentsTransAlta (the owners of the state's only coal-fired power plant in Centralia which is our state's largest single source of pollution) receives a $5 million-a-year sales tax exemption for burning coal in Washington. This corporate tax loophole must be ended in the next budget.
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This idea is active.Economic Development »
Welfare Reform
There are too many ways to list. I see the system abused on so many levels. Watching people pay for their booze & smokes with cash and foo ...more »
61 commentsThere are too many ways to list. I see the system abused on so many levels. Watching people pay for their booze & smokes with cash and food with food stamps is a very typical scene.
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This idea is active.Economic Development »
Spend it or Lose it doesn't make sense anymore.
You say you are looking at creative ways to increase revenue through program cuts or increasing taxes so, why hasn’t anyone looked at revamp ...more »
14 commentsYou say you are looking at creative ways to increase revenue through program cuts or increasing taxes so, why hasn’t anyone looked at revamping how state funding is allocated?
You ask any agency accountant or OFM and most every state employee can tell you this too, how many times have you heard the phrase “got to send it or lose it” especially around the end of a fiscal year or biennium? If an agency doesn’t spend all of their allocation for that period, the next budget cycle guess what? Their next allocation is reduced by the amount that didn’t get spent in the previous one. This causes waste! We’ve all seen it. Agencies budget themselves up near the end of a fiscal period then low and behold they have all sorts of funds available they need to spend by June 30 or risk losing it the next fiscal period. Trust me; a lot of frivolous spending goes on at this point until the money is gone. We “all” know it happens. Check the spending records for most of your agencies in May and June.
What if agencies could get the funding they requested and if funds were left over they could return it to the general fund to help offset lower than expected revenues without impacting their next budgetary request? Maybe even offer an insentive. It just may help if you can get OFM and the Legislature opt in.
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This idea is active.Economic Development »
No Oregon sales tax exemptions on items or services purchased here in Washington.
No Oregon sales tax exemptions on items or services purchased here in Washington by Oregonians other then the four counties adjacent to the ...more »
18 commentsNo Oregon sales tax exemptions on items or services purchased here in Washington by Oregonians other then the four counties adjacent to the Portland area.This would protect the business in the Washington counties adjacent to the Portland area from lost sales by Oregon residents but would allow the state to collect sales tax from out of state visitors like every other state does. This would also end most of the tax cheating of individuals who really live in Washington but obtain an Oregon licence for the benefits. This would also allow a more accurate population count which would bring more federal dollars into our state
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Government waste
17 commentsCut the governors ball and other unneccessary parties. We simply don't need to spend tax payer dollars on stuff like that right now.
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This idea is active.Effective Government »
close the D.C. office
14 commentsClose the separate office in Washington D.C. and the governor can share a senator's office like all the rest of the governors do.
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This idea is active.Economic Development »
No more front license plates
Remove the requirement for front license plates for vehicles. Nearly half the states do not require them. The state can save the costs of ...more »
40 commentsRemove the requirement for front license plates for vehicles. Nearly half the states do not require them. The state can save the costs of making the plates and the enforcement required.
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This idea is active.Effective Government »
Special Sessions
15 commentsCease paying for "special Legislative sessions". Taxpayers should not have to foot the bill for legislative inefficiency.
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This idea is active.Effective Government »
Prevent lawmaker salary increases
9 commentsPrevent lawmakers from raising their salaries until balanced budget is passed.
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This idea is active.Economic Development »
Stop wasting money on art!
I suggest that WA State STOP spending money on art projects! If there is not enough money for essential services such as health agencies, p ...more »
46 commentsI suggest that WA State STOP spending money on art projects! If there is not enough money for essential services such as health agencies, police/troopers, fire, schools, prisons, the State has NO business spending even a penny on any art projects, or Poet Lauriets, etc. It's shameful if it continues!
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