November LAC Meeting and 2016 Legislative Agenda

If you want to participate in forming the 2016 King County Legislative Action Committee Legislative Agenda, please plan on coming to our next meeting Sunday November 15, 2 to 4 p.m. at the Maple Valley Library, 21844 SE 248th St., Maple Valley.

Go here for directions and a map.

Our speaker is 47th District Rep. Pat Sullivan, Majority Leader of the House Democrats. Pat will comment on the 2015 session and the challenges for the 2016 session. Our program is a free-form dialog, an unusual opportunity to go deep on policy issues with a legislator.

Majority Leader Sullivan’s conversation will set the stage for our second hour, where we will shape our 2016 Legislative Agenda. We updated our 2015 agenda (see attachment) and brainstormed at our October meeting (see notes). If we can complete this work in November, it will be voted by the KCDCC at our November 24th meeting. Otherwise, it will be finalized by the LAC December 13th and confirmed by the KCDCC January 26th. The short legislative session starts January 11th and ends March 10th, 2016.

Good advocacy practice limits the Legislative Agenda to one page. It’s a handout for legislators. Only issues that will be viable in this short session will be considered. Since legislatures (like Congress) last two years, bills from last session are still viable. Budget items and tax reform are likely to be overshadowed by solving McCleary education funding.

Each LD should send at least one delegate. Finalizing our Legislative Agenda is the only time this committee votes. All Democrats are welcome, but only an official representative can vote.

Of course, as Democrats, we have many other issues. If you want to promote something that doesn’t fit in this agenda, please consider joining your LD or King County Platform Committee. Your LD Chair appoints one King County Platform Committee member. The committee starts meeting weekly about February 1st and finishes about March 31st, in time for a draft platform to be available to the March 26th Precinct Caucuses.

You can review here the current King County Democrats Platform and the latest draft agenda