In Olympia, state lawmakers kicked off the 2025 Legislative Session yesterday. During the next 105 days, legislators will create new laws, change existing ones, and enact budgets on housing, education, behavioral health, workforce, and public safety issues.

At United Way of King County, we believe that public policy needs to address the drivers of systemic inequities affecting communities of color and promote our community’s ability to thrive. That’s why our Systems Change and Public Policy team will be in Olympia this session, meeting with legislators, partners, and experts to advocate for policies that address immediate community needs and long-term systems change.

During the next few months, we’ll take time to highlight United Way of King County’s policy agendas—both here in Washington and at the federal level. We’ll also discuss what we achieved in the 2024 session and how the legislative landscape has changed since November’s presidential election.

But first, here is United Way of King County’s state policy agenda for 2025:

Advancing Economic Mobility

• Create the Evergreen Basic Income Trust account to pilot and evaluate the impacts of providing a guaranteed income to families in poverty and support direct cash programs to boost financial security and prevent youth and young adult homelessness.
• Maximize working families’ tax credit and increase Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
• Increase and fund access to affordable and culturally responsive childcare and after-school care by maximizing child care subsidies and other childcare benefits.
• Pay pathways for undocumented students in post-secondary education.
• Support undocumented workers by creating and fully funding an unemployment insurance program for undocumented workers and codify and fully fund the Apple Health Expansion program that covers low-income immigrant and refugee community members.
• Support increased funding capacity for the 211 call system so that there is one easy-to-use phone number for the community to access human services and other necessary resources.
• Increase funding for high-quality, culturally responsive, and accessible mental and behavioral health for all.

Promoting Housing Stability

• Increase tenant rental protections.
• Advocate for capital investments in affordable homeownership to create new homes for buyers eligible for the Covenant Homeownership Account Program; advocate for capital investments in affordable home ownership, reforms to the covenant home ownership account, and increased capacity for by-and for developers.
• Advocate for a state bill to authorize an expanded Real Estate Excise Tax (REET) for affordable housing and a local REET option.
• Increase funding for rental assistance and affordable homes.
• Expand the Homeless Student Stability Program, which funds rental assistance for families of students who would otherwise have to move away from their local school because of rental costs.

Interrupting the School-To-Prison Pipeline

• Include barrier reduction dollars for students to use on various barriers to their attending school and fund a summer pilot for open-door programming to ensure youth are re-engaged year round.
• Support 9th grade success.
• Fund on-campus navigators to full-time positions and fully fund the WA Passport Program.
• Ensure every student eats free with universal school meals and full funding across all food systems.
• Support positive behavior intervention and restorative practices in K-12. Eliminate restraint and isolation.
• Fully fund special education, support a more equitable state funding formula for all education and provide holistic wraparound support (services) for families and students.

We encourage the Legislature to develop new models of progressive revenue streams and ensure robust funding for programs that create equitable access to a high quality of life and resources for people at the intersection of racism and poverty.

At United Way of King County, we are working side by side with communities to build an equitable future where everyone has a safe place to call home, enough to eat, quality education, and access to the resources they need. Racial justice guides our work, and we are advocating for policies that can shape a stronger community.