6/20/2022: The Legislative session will be over in just under six weeks, but there's one key deadline that's earlier than that: the state budget deadline, which is just around the corner on June 30.

The Legislature doesn't always meet that deadline (pushing things into July), but it still exists. And that means action has to happen quick.

Here are three key areas to contact your legislators on:

*Equitable Approaches in Public Safety: The Senate budget included language to increase funding to $3.5M for the Equitable Approaches to Public Safety (EAPS) program (line item 4512-2020). This language and funding will allow municipalities to create community-based alternative crisis response models centered around social and emotional health professionals like social workers and peer support specialists.

*Early Education and Child Care: The House and Senate both included new funding for early education and child care in their budgets. They increased funding in different ways, but, as the Common Start Coalition has argued, if the priorities of both chambers make it into the final budget, it would represent a substantial step toward implementing the coalition's full vision of a high-quality early education and childcare system that is affordable and accessible for all families.

*No Cost Calls: Both the House and Senate budgets included language to provide persons who are incarcerated with access to free phone calls or similar forms of communication. It is unconscionable that prisons and jails have been price-gouging incarcerated individuals and their families for years, and it's important that this provision is a part of the final budget.