To Our FPIW Defenders:
My first order of business – on this last Sunday of February – is to offer a heartfelt “Thank You” to all of you who have taken the time to register your position on bills we are highlighting on our FPIW Action website and on our new Washington Defender App. Ten bills are now ready for you, and you can register by clicking here, or on your app.
Record-Setting CONS
Two bills – one impacting the cap on our property tax lid, and the other promoting a mileage tax – apparently set records for the highest number of CON registrations in legislative history. It is proof that citizens are taking notice of what is happening in Olympia, and we are beginning to push back against bad legislation. For this I am very grateful.
Saving Eight Million People From New Taxes
Now that I have taken a moment to thank you for your involvement, let me take a moment to share a concern. In a state where nearly 8 million people reside, we are celebrating a record turnout of 20,000 people who registered against two pieces of legislation that could have a significant impact on every single resident’s budget for years to come.
Using my calculator, I conclude that .0025% of our population in Washington believed that a potential raise in our property tax from 1% a year to 3% a year was worth 30 seconds of their time to protest. Roughly the same number of people felt strongly enough about being charged 2.6 cents for every mile they drive that they spent another 30 seconds to register their CON position on this frightening legislative proposal.
It took 20,000 of us one minute to try and save all 8 million residents of Washington thousands of dollars in taxes.
There’s room to improve! My questions for you are:
• First, how do we, as FPIW Defenders, get the other 7,980,000 residents of our fine state to get engaged?
• Second, what are YOU personally going to do to get those other 7,980,000 people involved in the political realm?
At FPIW, we are spending long hours reviewing thousands of bills that are being dropped in Olympia. We have provided several hundred reviews of bills that you can find on our FPIW Action website. To find these reviews, simply click on the ‘Legislation’ heading, and then choose ‘House Bills’ or ‘Senate Bills’ in the drop-down menu. (You also can access these bills via our app.)
On a daily basis, we are highlighting 7 to 10 bills that you can quickly register PRO or CON. If you take a few moments to complete the ‘auto-fill’ function on your phone and computer it will take you less than 30 seconds to complete your registration on a bill. That means you can register your position on 10 bills in 5 minutes a day. Click here for how to auto-fill on your iPhone, or click here for how to auto-fill at the official Washington State Legislature website.
The Neighbor
As I wrap up this week’s bulletin, let me remind you that the Bible tells us to ‘love our neighbor’. And who is our neighbor?
The 8 million people living in our beautiful state is a good start. Do you think that taking one minute to register your position on two bills that would substantially impact their finances is demonstrating love for your neighbor? I do!
And there are many other bills pending right now that will impact their safety, their ability to afford housing, their ability to heat their home, the air they breathe, the education their children are getting in public schools … and the list goes on.
Through our Washington Defender App and our FPIW Action website, we have provided the tools to engage with your legislators in Olympia. There are multiple podcasts, interviews, and insightful articles on your app to keep you up-to-date on what is happening legislatively in Washington.
Please utilize these tools and make a commitment to ‘love your neighbor’ … and encourage your ‘neighbors’ to do the same. 1.3 million of your ‘neighbors’ in Washington are Christians that are not even taking advantage of their God-given right to vote. Help us dwindle that number to zero.
I know, I know, you think I’m preaching to the choir … but we have more than 80,000 FPIW Defenders who have committed to registering their positions on legislation, and yet we have a maximum of 20,000 residents registering their position in Washington. So apparently I do need to preach to the choir!
We NEED you! Time to register.
Defending the family,
Brad Payne, President
FPIW Action
