Welcome to my official legislative website. Here you’ll find:
- Links to my E-newsletters describing my work on key priorities and our end of session review for 2024
- News coverage of some of my work
- A link to all the bills I have prime sponsored or co-sponsored (to find bills I prime sponsored in prior sessions, use this same link and change the dates under “biennium” to the years you wish to see)
- My calendars for legislative work: I believe constituents have a right to know who I meet with during legislative sessions
- A short biography
- Link to the 46th District map.
In 2025, my legislative priorities include:
Addressing our public schools’ funding crisis by fully funding special education: With Superintendent Chris Reykdal and working closely with Seattle Public Schools and school districts across Washington, PTSA and our educators, I’m introducing legislation to fully fund the education of our children with disabilities. The State’s failure to fund special education is the primary driver of massive deficits facing Seattle and other districts with a fiscal death spiral. An audit of special education funding done at my request as part of HB 1436 and delivered to the Legislature in December 2024 found that our school districts had to pay an unsustainable $592 million from local levy funds to meet their legal duties to pay for special education in the last school year.
Our legislation will also end what I consider to be an “unconscionable and unconstitutional cap” on how many children with disabilities the State will fund education services for. I will also reintroduce a new version of HB 1305 to greatly improve access to special education services and evaluations for children with disabilities. The Seattle Times editorialized on January 17, 2023:
- “…it’s hard to stomach the implications of Washington’s long-inadequate funding plans for the 151,000 students who need extra help to become well educated. The state Office of Public Instruction says schools are spending $400 million more than lawmakers provide each year on these legally mandated special education services — everything from speech therapy to full-time aides.
- “The reason for this shortfall is that Washington uses a somewhat arbitrary cap — 13.5% of a district’s student population — to determine how many special-needs kids the state will pay for. Any amount beyond that is funded by local levies, that is, local taxpayers. And sometimes those levies fail.”
- “This is surely not what the writers of Washington’s constitution intended when they said it was the state’s duty ‘to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.’”
My education priorities also include modernizing how we teach our students to read based on science rather than continuing to have approximately 40% of our kindergarten through fourth grade students not being able to read at grade level – and over half of low income and children of color needing intensive supports to learn to read. Kids deserve to be taught with the most up-to-date and scientifically tested standards for improving literacy. This only happens when teachers receive instruction in these standards during teacher prep programs. I am introducing legislation to update these standards and how teachers are instructed on teaching these standards.
To fund education, we need progressive revenues: Washington state’s fiscal deficit to maintain current services and education must not stop us from meeting our constitutional and moral duty to fund education. That’s why I am introducing legislation to end massive tax loopholes that allow businesses to evade paying any taxes on their profits from investments in Wall Street. The funds from my legislation will be devoted to education. I am a strong supporter to end the loophole enacted a few decades ago to benefit the world’s largest corporations and shareholders in our state by exempting stock and bond holdings from taxes. In addition, to bring about needed long-term reform, I am introducing legislation to require that tax loopholes have to be readopted in the budget or end, rather than going on forever while we struggle to pay for education, our “paramount duty.”
The Washington Promise: Tuition-free community college for all high school graduates in Washington, coupled with the evidence-based supports needed for all students to succeed in obtaining a degree or workforce training certification.
Access to reproductive health care: I’ve cosponsored important legislation to prevent hospital mergers from reducing access to abortion, gender affirming care, reproductive health care, and I am introducing legislation to bar hospitals that receive state funds from restricting medical practice (including abortion, gender affirming care and end of life choice).
I continue to expand my nation-leading efforts to ensure access to emergency contraception via free 24/7 access at all public colleges via vending machines to high school students.
Open government: I continue to lead efforts for openness at all levels of government, including the Legislature. This includes objecting to the newly minted claims that the Washington State Constitution provides for a shroud of secrecy that legislators may claim “legislative privilege” to avoid any disclosure of many of their public records. See Spokesman-Review article.
Environmental justice and tribal sovereignty: Ten years ago, I introduced the first environmental justice legislation in Washington. We’ve come a long way in recognizing that the health of many low-income and communities of color suffer tremendously due to disparities in pollution and other risks. I will be working to expand funding in our budget reflecting HB 1347 for communities and Tribes to be able to conduct “community-based health assessments” to assess the risks and prioritize what should be done to improve their health.
- With our federally recognized Tribes, I’m drafting an amendment to our State Constitution for Washington to be the first state in the nation to recognize Tribal sovereignty in its constitution. This is prompted by the US Supreme Court decision in June 2022 which undid 200 years of recognition of tribal sovereignty.
Ending gun violence: I will continue to work for safe storage and requiring permits for guns, following my years of work to enact our ban on sales of assault weapons, ending preemption of local gun control and safety measures, and other important efforts.
Homelessness and affordable housing: I continue to advocate for large scale investment in rapid housing enabling local governments to quickly move thousands of homeless residents into safe housing with support services and a major expansion of funds using bonding to build permanent supportive housing units. I’m a sponsor of legislation for a new progressive real estate excise tax for both these efforts.
To address housing affordability I will continue to support “transit oriented development” to increase density near light rails while ensuring that working families, low income and senior residents all have access to housing near our massive investments in light rail and fixed transit. Why should only developers and the wealthiest residents benefit from our taxpayer funded investments in light rail? I will continue working to ensure that we do not preempt Seattle and other cities from having anti-displacement and inclusive housing requirements apply to housing near transit in addition to statewide minimums, as I successfully did with middle housing.
I will continue advocating for statewide legislation to stabilize rents and will again prime sponsor legislation to end state preemption so Seattle and other cities can adopt their own rent stabilization programs if the Legislature fails to pass a statewide program.
Climate change, environmental justice and protecting our environment: I’ve led a review documenting that State forests harboring trees and habitat that are a hundred years old should be preserved to meet our State’s climate and habitat goals, rather than clearcut for timber sales. Based on that research, I will be introducing legislation to update our State Environmental Policy Act to consider benefits of carbon sequestration. I will continue to advocate to ensure that, consistent with good planning, public health, urban stream protection and climate goals, we preserve mature trees in urban areas.
Our lowest income neighborhoods with the highest numbers of BIPOC and immigrant residents typically suffer from the worst air pollution in the state. Air pollution is a major factor in the reduced life expectancies and increased morbidities in these “overburdened communities.” I’ve recently been involved in documenting that Washington’s official reporting on air quality in these communities is not based on air monitoring in these communities or even nearby. In the 46th and Seattle, this includes Lake City, Northgate and the Duwamish Valley. I am developing legislation and budget proposals to ensure we fund community-based air pollution monitoring to know what risks are being faced in our most vulnerable “overburdened” communities and what we should do to reduce air pollution and improve health.
For our neighborhoods in the 46th, I am glad we were able to celebrate the opening of the Northgate-North Seattle College pedestrian and bike bridge over I-5(John Lewis Bridge). I spent a decade leading the effort to fund and build this bridge and am now looking at how we can improve pedestrian and bike access along NE 45th Street between the University District and Wallingford as well as how we can alleviate traffic backups. This might include a new pedestrian and bike bridge. I am also working with neighbors, our legislators from the 32nd and 36th districts, and the City of Seattle to improve safety, pedestrian access, and economic well-being in the Aurora and Sand Point Way corridors. I am working with Sail Sand Point to have the City press for the Navy to cleanup contamination left behind on public docks and buildings used for swimming and boating in Magnuson Park.
I made a commitment to be the most accessible legislator possible. I continue to hold monthly drop-in “Traveling Town Halls” to discuss any legislative related issue on your mind on Saturday mornings (either on Zoom or at different meeting spots in the district). During session, I hold these weekly. If you’d like to participate, set a meeting, or contact me about any other legislative matter, please email me at gerry.pollet@leg.wa.gov or my Legislative Aide, Emily Grupp at Emily.grupp@leg.wa.gov.
2024 End-of-Session Newsletter
After the 2024 session, I sent out an update highlighting my work on issues like housing, climate change, education, reproductive rights, and more.
Visit this link or click on the preview below to read more.
2024 End-of-Session Newsletter
After the 2024 session, I sent out an update highlighting my work on issues like housing, climate change, education, reproductive rights, and more.
