Progressive Issues Make Headway in 2001
• How do you put an average of $4,000 back into
the pocketbooks of American families? Ensure equal pay.
• What’s the best way to deal with the heart of the prescription drug
crisis—the soaring price of drugs? Allow the state to negotiate prices for the
uninsured.
• How do you get back to family values and make the right to take time off
possible for those who can’t afford lost wages? Provide family leave benefits.
• How do you give working families a simple, efficient and non-bureaucratic
tax cut to reward their work and keep them out of poverty? Adopt Earned Income
Tax Credit programs.
These are some of the most innovative policies pursued in 2001 by state
legislators and grassroots advocates fighting for the American people on issues
that matter most. In 2001 CPA helped take these inventive ideas to scale by
providing timely, reliable information and organizing a network of state leaders
for action.
Earned Income Tax Credit
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The EITC has helped move more working families out
of poverty than has any other government program. It’s good
public policy because it fights poverty by rewarding work.
Fourteen states and the District of Columbia currently have an
EITC. Eight states in 2001 proposed instituting an EITC and
seven additional states and the District of Columbia
introduced legislation to expand eligibility or increase the amount of
their existing EITC. WEST CPA highlighted the EITC at our Work and Family in the
New Economy conference last
fall in California. In the West, Oregon introduced legislation this
session to make their EITC refundable. California advocates are campaigning for an EITC—which would lift 55,000 children out of poverty if
enacted. According to Children Now, a California children’s advocacy
organization, a refundable EITC could help struggling families pay for
items they otherwise would not be able to afford, such as clothing for
their children, school supplies and health care. Children Now is part of a statewide coalition,
including labor unions and other activists supporting the proposed state
EITC. |
Prescription Drugs
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Although many states have put forward legislation to increase
prescription drug coverage, the real story concerns the 27 states in 2001 that, for
the first time ever, attempted to lower prices for uninsured Americans.
Two Southwestern states, Arizona and Texas, and two Midwestern
states, Indiana and Illinois, made significant strides to that end this year.
SOUTHWEST
CPA worked with Sen. Chris Cummiskey and a number of
concerned organizations like the Arizona AFL-CIO, Arizona AFSCME,
Arizona Central Labor Council, Arizona Silver Haired Legislature, and AARP
to form a broad coalition in Arizona positioned for action to
make prescription drugs affordable. Arizona leaders held a press
conference in 2000 to announce their intention to fix the prescription drug
crisis, as part of CPA’s national coordinated prescription drug campaign.
By 2001, a number of prescription drug bills were introduced in
Arizona, but legislation sponsored by Cummiskey and Sen. Andy Nichols
began to stand out as a viable, popular solution. This approach,
patterned after CPA’s model, called for the creation of a bulk purchasing
program that would offer drugs at a discount to the uninsured. This
bill quickly passed key committees. Next year the fight will continue.
And in Texas, CPA worked with several legislators on a bill to
require state agencies that purchase prescription drugs to pool together
to negotiate lower prices. Local governments that operate
county hospitals and other health care organizations can also join the
pool. This legislation could save Texas taxpayers as much as $31.5 million
in the next two years. This bill is still alive to date.
MIDWEST
In the Midwest, CPA worked closely with Indiana
AFL-CIO Secretary Treasurer Jerry Payne and Illinois Sen.
Debbie Halvorson on fair pricing legislation. In Illinois,
AFSCME brought over 1,000 seniors to the Springfield capitol to
show support for legislation to create a buyers club.
Retirees chanted from the Senate gallery, demanding their
legislators bring the bill to a vote, which was ultimately held
up. Seniors and union activists plan to continue the fight in
the 2002 legislative session, and expect results, given
the tremendous grassroots and public support gained this year.
| Family Leave
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Support for family leave benefits (or paid family leave)
has grown dramatically in the past three years, from three
states introducing bills in 1999 to 23 states introducing
39 proposals in 2001. Legislators and coalitions of
advocates across the country are utilizing creative approaches
to enable working families to take family leave. The
most common approach utilizes unemployment insurance
and temporary disability insurance to provide partial
wage replacement when parents take time off to care for
a newborn or newly-adopted baby. Legislators and
advocates in Illinois, Minnesota, Washington and Vermont
developed creative proposals for payment systems, under
which employees, employers, and/or the state would contribute
to a new fund to allow workers to take time off to care for
new babies, sick family members, or their own health care
needs. NORTHEAST Among the many advocates committing resources and energy to the family leave
benefits campaign is the Northeast Commission on the Status of Women. The
Commission decided to make paid family leave their number one state legislative
issue and met in 2001 to coordinate efforts and messages. CPA and the National
Partnership for Women and Children, collaborators on the nationwide campaign for
family leave benefits, helped these Northeast advocates strategize their
approach, provided information about other state efforts and led message
development training based on leading public opinion research.
|
Equal Pay
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Legislation promoting equal pay for women and
people of color was introduced in 34 state legislatures,
and the legislation passed in both houses in states
as scattered as Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, Wyoming, and became law in Georgia. This
sudden, broad progress is a huge step in the decades-long
battle to achieve the goal of equal pay for equal work.
SOUTHEAST
In February, CPA partnered with state leaders across the
country to challenge America to take action to ensure equal pay for equal work.
In the Southeast region, which has led the way on equal pay legislation this
year, participants from Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and West Virginia held
press conferences to announce their public support for equal pay and introduce
legislation. To date, the Southeast introduced 19 bills related to equal pay,
and at the present time, five bills passed through at least one of the houses of
the state legislatures, and Georgia enacted a law to study wage
disparity.
Additional Legislative Summaries
