Dear neighbors,
Putting our district and your needs ahead of party was my priority on every vote, and I did my best this session for you.
Thank you to everyone who emailed, called, or joined one of my events in district. Hearing directly from you is incredibly important to me.
What mattered to me the most for every vote and public hearing were your stories and perspectives. My goal was to push for common-sense solutions, not extremes from either end of the political spectrum.
We faced tough challenges, including a budget gap, a ferry system that needs help, and an economy where hard-working people feel like they’re falling behind.
Despite various setbacks, I believe we made some progress on all of those issues.
This e-news is a short recap of what happened this session. I’ll send you a longer print mailer with more details, and dive into big issues in future e-newsletters each month.
I’ll also host coffee chats, roundtables, and town hall meetings in different corners of the 26th District. I hope you can make the next event, a coffee chat this Saturday, May 17, in Key Center!
Affordability—Voting against tax increases
What I heard about most from folks across our district is concern about the rising cost of living. Frankly, our operating budget and revenue package adds costs that low and middle income people pay, while still making cuts to Medicaid programs, reproductive healthcare and adding burdens on low-income school districts and small businesses. So I voted no.
We needed a budget and revenue package that brought the focus back to education, healthcare, and safety, while being responsible, especially in the face of possible federal cuts and economic headwinds. In my view, we didn’t get there. For more on my position, watch the video here:
However, there are bright spots:
In childcare, we passed two bills to help improve access, particularly in rural areas like on the Key Peninsula and Port Orchard, which will help with affordability. We made a 26th District team effort to pass SB, which will enable more churches and community centers to be child care hosts.
On housing: I ran on making places like Seattle and Tacoma build more housing while we look at responsible and sustainable growth in our district. We passed at least 5 pieces of legislation that will help build housing in bigger cities to increase supply and stabilize the housing market:
- Transit Oriented Development, or building more housing near transit centers in big cities.
- Lot splitting to allow more accessory dwelling units in bigger cities.
- Reforms to minimum parking requirements in cities with more than 30,000 people.
- Reforms to insurance on condominiums and town homes that help make it easier to finance those projects.
- Reforming historic landmark legislation that has been abused to prevent development in places like Seattle.
I am also happy to say we boosted special education funding by $775 million while removing the arbitrary funding cap, so school districts can be compensated based on the actual number of students, not an inflexible percentage.
Public Safety
The second issue I heard about the most was public safety. I supported a couple different bills that would have provided additional, dedicated, and necessary funding for law enforcement. In the end, the $100 million in one time grants we did pass to fund more local law enforcement will help boost public safety, but I supported different funding mechanisms and long term funds, so I ultimately voted no on HB 2015.
I supported at least three other bills that will help public safety.
- Increasing penalties for crimes committed against ferry workers.
- Installing speed inhibiting equipment in the cars of those found to recklessly speed at a time when excessive speeding is increasing.
- Increasing penalties for those convicted of rape and made the victim pregnant.
Far more to do, but I will continue to come up with ideas and solutions, including on homelessness and the shortage of public defenders and prosecutors. Stay tuned!
A transportation system that maintains priorities, while I voted no on increasing gas taxes
Our district relies on ferries, highways, and bridges. The new two-year transportation budget means significant improvements to our district’s transportation network, including progress on fixing our ferries; moving forward with the Wollochet on ramp, keeping bridge tolls down, $13.348 million for local projects, and $565 million for projects shared between our district and neighboring ones.
Ferry improvements include modernizing the ticketing and reservation system, ferry wait time information for travelers, replacing the old ferry dispatch system, and making improvements to terminals and vessels.
The Governor also moved to take two full-size ferries and put them back into service instead of converting them to hybrid-electric right away. The change will help ferry riders with more reliable service, and we secured his executive order in the budget along with fast ferry funding through the end of the World Cup next summer.
I voted no on the revenue package that increases gas taxes because there were several other decisions that could have prevented that increase at a time when folks in our district are feeling squeezed at the pump.
Building a better future
The state capital budget invests $7.5 billion in new construction projects, including $147 million in the 26th District.
These will create jobs immediately for engineers and folks in hard hats, while creating infrastructure that will serve our families and businesses for generations.
I’m especially happy to tell you about the $42 million we secured for the West Sound Technical Skills Center, which only happened because so many of you spoke out and fought for it alongside me. I could not have done this without your help. We also funded projects in every corner of the district, from Bremerton, to the KP, to Fox Island.
More to come
There’s a lot more to what happened this session—health care, jobs, housing, public safety—and I can’t fit it all into this e-newsletter. I’ll keep you informed all through the year about what happened, what is happening—and what should happen.
If you have questions about a specific issue or bill, please contact my office. We can find out and tell you more.
I hope to hear from you soon—or see you at one of the coffee chats, like the one in Key Center on May 17!
