Budgets are Moral Documents: Why We're Defending the Millionaires Tax

Budgets are Moral Documents: Why We're Defending the Millionaires Tax
Tuesday, September 29, 6:30 PM.

On Zoom

Join us for a conversation on the Millionaires Tax! Learn about this important source of funding for our schools, families, and small businesses and why we are voting No on I-645 this November.

At Faith Action Network, we believe that budgets are moral documents. The choices we make about raising and spending public resources reveal whose lives we value, whose needs we prioritize, and whether we are willing to share responsibility for the well-being of our neighbors. 

I-645 would repeal the Millionaires Tax package, a historic new law that will modestly increase taxes on just the top one percent of Washingtonians - while cutting taxes for the other 99%. Washington already has one of the most upside-down tax systems in the nation, where low-income and middle-class families pay a far bigger share of their income in taxes than the wealthiest. I-645 would make this worse by increasing costs for working families and putting critical tax breaks at risk of repeal, including those for lower-income families and small businesses.  

That's why FAN is joining the effort to fight this repeal and is convening a conversation to educate faith communities and speak from a moral voice about why this matters from a faith- and conscience-based perspective.

Join us on Tuesday, September 29, from 6:30 - 8 pm for Budgets are Moral Documents: Why We're Defending Millionaires Tax on Zoom.

We will be joined by guest speakers:

• Rick Steves, Founder and Owner of Rick Steves Europe
• Emily Vyhnanek, Associate Director of Campaigns at Washington Budget and Policy Center
• The Rev. Dr. Kelle J Brown, Senior Pastor at Plymouth United Church of Christ, Seattle
• Rep. Osman Salahuddin, Representative for Washington's 48th Legislative District
• Teresa Bendito, Organizing Manager at Rural People's Voice
   

About our panelists:

Rick Steves is a popular public television host, a best-selling guidebook author, and an outspoken activist who encourages Americans to broaden their perspectives through travel. He is the founder and owner of Rick Steves' Europe, a travel business with a small-group tour program that brings more than 30,000 people to Europe annually. Rick lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington, where his office window overlooks his old junior high school.

Rev. Dr. Kelle J. Brown is the senior pastor of Plymouth Church United Church of Christ in downtown Seattle, Washington, where she is widely recognized as a powerful preacher, pastor, and public theologian committed to justice, compassion, and community transformation. For more than 30 years, her ministry weaves together rigorous theological reflection, pastoral care, and artistic expression, particularly through music and creative arts, to nurture a radically inclusive and liberative Christian witness in the Pacific Northwest.​

Osman represents the 48th Legislative District, including parts of Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, and all of Clyde Hill, Medina, Yarrow Point, and Hunts Point. A Redmond native and proud son of immigrants—a special education teacher and small business owner—he earned a B.S. in neurobiology from the University of Washington, where he served as Student Body President. Before being elected, Osman worked as a researcher at Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center and UW Medicine. He has served his community on the Redmond City Council, worked for the King County Council, and contributed to non-profit boards like the Transportation Choices Coalition.

Teresa Bendito was born and raised in Wenatchee by two Mexican immigrant parents and she still calls that community home. Since college she has worked as a community organizer, co-founding Parque Padrinos to champion park advocacy and create culturally relevant outdoor experiences in South Wenatchee. She now serves as Organizing Director for Rural People's Voice, where she develops leaders who represent working people, advances policies that support everyday families, and organizes across Chelan, Douglas, and Okanogan counties toward a strong, multiracial working-class majority.