Bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers back plan to Invest in WA newborns

SEATTLE, January 5, 2023 – Lawmakers in Olympia are contemplating setting apart cash to create a brighter future for 1000’s of infants born in Washington State every year.

“Practically half of the youngsters being born in our state are being born into poverty,” mentioned Washington State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti. “We’re asking the legislature put aside and reserve cash within the identify of each baby born by way of an Apple Well being-funded beginning, that are the youngsters born on the lowest revenue in our state.”

The proposed ‘Washington Future Fund’ would put aside $4,000 from the state’s funds for every baby enrolled in Apple Well being by age one. The cash could be invested till they’re a minimum of 18, after they might money out to purchase a home, begin a enterprise, or enroll in postsecondary schooling.

“Over a protracted time frame that cash will develop, and the expansion of that cash will meet these future wants, and be very impactful to actually make a distinction within the lives of those that come from the least quantity of assets,” Pellicciotti mentioned.

In 2020, roughly 47% of births in Washington State had been funded by Apple Well being. The Treasurer’s workplace believes the determine “forecasts a rising wealth and alternative divide starting within the first days of life.”

“Households who can try this. They put cash apart to satisfy future wants, they put inventory or investments apart for his or her youngsters, and we’d like to verify we’re doing the identical for everybody within the state of Washington.” Pellicciotti continued, “it is a approach to inject cash into these communities, a really impactful approach to meet these future wants, whereas on the identical time doing so in a accountable approach, as a substitute of spending that cash in the present day.”

This 12 months’s Washington State legislative session is ready to start subsequent Tuesday. If adopted and signed into regulation, the Washington Future Fund might launch as quickly as subsequent 12 months.