Town Hall
North Seattle Community College, Cafeteria
9600 College Way N, Seattle
The doors will open at 5:30 PM, and the program will run 6:00 – 7:30 PM.
Representative Gerry Pollet
360.786.7886
Gerry.Pollet@leg.wa.gov |
Dear friends and neighbors,I wanted to remind you of the upcoming town hall Sen. David Frockt, Rep. Jessyn Farrell, and I will host the evening of Tuesday, November 12th, 6 PM at North Seattle Community College’s cafeteria (there will be easy signs to follow). We are likely to have just completed a Special Session, and I look forward to hearing your feedback on our work this week and from the entire 2013 legislative session.
Now that we are more than halfway between the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions, we want to hear from you about what happened during this year’s sessions – both the good – and the areas where Olympia needs to do better.As many of you know, the 2013 legislative session saw the Legislature go into two extra sessions before a budget agreement was reached. The crux of the dispute was over how much and how to pay for additional investments in our public schools. In the end, we provided $982 million in additional money for basic education, though this investment was offset by cuts in some educational areas including a state-paid cost of living adjustment for teachers. Unfortunately, because the Senate Republicans would not agree to new revenue for schools—even from making our tax system more fair by closing large loopholes— one of the only remaining options was to defund public works needed by local governments to build necessary infrastructure. We hope to restore those funds in coming years. Your delegation and the Democrats originally called for $1.4 billion in new money for education and what we ended up getting was far less than what we need.
On a brighter note, we worked hard to provide enough funds for our state colleges and universities to freeze tuition increases this year. As vice-chair of the House Higher Education Committee, I was deeply involved in working to ensure that we invested in access to higher education and didn’t increase tuition for the first time in 27 years! I am continuing to work to ensure that we also do not have tuition increases next year.
We are also proud to have secured funding for important infrastructure investments in the 46th District including: $10 million in a distressed schools grant to ease overcrowding in N.E. and N. Seattle public schools, millions of dollars for repairs and renovations at North Seattle Community College, assistance to meet priorities for Kenmore and Lake Forest Park, and additional low-income housing.
As you may know, the governor has called a Special Session to address state support for the aerospace industry and to pass a statewide transportation package. We have, and will continue to advocate strongly for a transportation package to fund key safety and infrastructure improvements for the 46th District and create 100,000 jobs across the state. This could also include an option for King County Metro to obtain funding, with voter approval, to avoid the imminent 17 percent cut to bus service.
We’d love to have a chance to talk with you face-to-face and hear your priorities, which is why we’ll be holding an in-person town hall meeting soon. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to serve you and we look forward to hearing from you!
If you can’t make it, please contact me at my district office at (206) 729-3234 or send me an email at gerry.pollet@leg.wa.gov.
Because I know how hard it is to go to Olympia to meet your legislators during the Session, I am committed to continue holding weekly drop-in, in-district office hours every Saturday morning during the regular Session from 10-12. During Special Session and the interim, I am pleased to meet for coffee at my monthly Traveling Town Halls or by appointment. Check where the upcoming Traveling Town Hall will be either at my website: https://housedemocrats.wa.gov/roster/rep-gerry-pollet/
Or, check on my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/gerry.pollet.7
Rep. Gerry Pollet
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