Press Release

ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim King" To: "Steve Greaves" ; "David Kutz" ; "Robert Murphy" Cc: "Michael Campbell" ; "Marina Hench" ; "Cliff Webster" Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 8:27 AM Subject: Boating Activities Program- Where We Stand > Folks: > > The Senate passed its version of the supplemental > operating budget WITH the million dollar cut to the > boating activities program. The House did NOT include > this cut in its budget, NOR did the Governor. > >>From here we go to House-Senate negotiations. This is > pretty much limited to the Democrats- being a very > small minority, the Republicans will have little > influence on budget discussions. The Democrats' > negotiators are Rep. Helen Sommers, Rep. Hans Dunshee, > Sen. Margarita Prentice, and Sen. Craig Pridemore. > The Republicans are Rep. Gary Alexander and Sen. Joe > Zarelli. > > These negotiations have begun and will go for about > ten days. There are some VERY big differences between > House and Senate, and we are a relatively small > difference. > > Although the negotiators are who will make the > decisions, we should be continuing heavy grassroots > communications to ALL legislators. If they are > getting heat, they will put heat on their negotiators. > > Governor Gregoire has the final word. This cut is a > change from last year's budget, and she can veto the > change and leave the money in place. It is very > important that communications from the grassroots also > go to Governor Gregoire. She will have twenty working > days (not counting Sundays and holidays) after the > Legislature adjourns to make her decisions- that means > April 5th is the final day for action. > > We have to keep the heat on the Legislature and the > Governor if we are to succeed. > > Jim > > Citizens for Parks and Recreation > James L. King, Jr., Coordinator > 120 State Ave NE #199 > Olympia, WA 98501-8212 > Cellular Phone (360)480-0038 > Message Phone (360)754-6800 > ----- Original Message ----- From: davidjkutz To: rbaw-elert@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 8:02 PM Subject: [rbaw-elert] MAYDAY! MAYDAY IN OLYMPIA! ************URGENT ACTION REQUEST************* >From the Recreational Boating Association of Washington Your Washington State Senate is proposing to cut $1 million from the Boating Activities program- the program we Boaters established just a year ago. This would effectively end the program just as it is getting off the ground. Your RBAW and NMTA lobbyists are hard at work on preventing this cut- but they need your help. A simple script is below for calling the legislative hotline and opposing this cut. We need those calls immediately. Please call, and have friends and family call. -You can have an impact if you call the hotline now. -Distribution of this message, and the script, is urgent. We need action in the next 2 Days. -PLEASE FORWARD TO EVERY WASHINGTON STATE BOATER YOU KNOW. -David Kutz RBAW Government Affairs Director -------------- URGENT! PLEASE CALL TODAY. HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE YOUR PHONE CALL. YOU MUST ACT NOW! It is very important that phone calls be made to our legislators – NOW!! – if we are to continue to make a difference in Olympia with the Legislature. The easiest way to do this is call the toll-free legislative hotline @ 1-800-562-6000, and tell them you'd like to get a message to your legislators. They'll ask for your name, home address and phone number. With this information they will be able to identify your legislators and get your message to all 3 of your legislators, and the Governor, with just your one call. They'll ask if there is a particular bill number you are calling about. Tell them Proposed Senate Striking Amendment to SHB 2687, the proposed Senate operating budget. They'll ask if you favor or oppose. Tell them oppose. They'll ask if you would like to add more information to your message. Tell them yes. Tell them "Please oppose the million dollar cut to the boating activities program". -Then choose something like one of the following: -This is funding desperately needed to support boating programs. -Most of the money proposed to be cut has already been committed to state and local boating safety and enforcement programs. -Boaters have worked too hard for too many years for this program to just eliminate it without any notice. That's it. It's that simple. Have your family and friends call as boaters, too. This message needs to be sent, loud and clear, with many voices. The legislative hotline is open Mon-Fri 8am-8pm, and Sat 9am to 1pm. Please call today. This measure will be voted on over the next two days- PLEASE CALL TODAY!