Dear Friends and Neighbors,
The Legislature has adjourned sine die for the year! This year, in addition to passing supplemental operating, capital, and transportation budgets, we passed a new 16 year, $17 billion transportation package, Move Ahead Washington. This transportation package delivers historic investments to preserve our roads, reduce carbon emissions, and provide safe, accessible, and affordable options to get around. Importantly, it also provides $1.3 billion to build 4 new hybrid-electric ferries, $193 million to electrify and retrofit two older ferries, and an additional $510 million to improve ferry operations. Move Ahead Washington also provides funds to provide free transit service (including ferries!) for children under the age of 18. Finally, it does all of this without raising the gas tax!
Read on to learn about some of the other investments included for Kitsap County as well as a rundown of the legislation I sponsored that passed this year.
Supporting Our Local Community
The following projects were funded in this year’s supplemental capital budget:
Rejuvenation Community Day Center
For homeless neighbors, the simplest tasks, like doing laundry or taking a shower are taxing and difficult. One of the hardest parts of living on the street is not having anywhere to go and simply relax. Drayton Jackson, Executive Director for The Foundation for Homeless and Poverty Management is looking to build the Rejuvenation Community Day Center to help change that. The Day Center would supplement existing shelters in Bremerton by providing a one-stop-shop for basic services. It will include lockers, a kitchen shower area, laundry, computer room, TV area, child-care, barbershop, counseling, and social workers to assist with applying for services. Simply put, it will be a place for homeless people to get help, but also a place where they can take a shower, get a haircut, or simply watch some TV. I am proud to have helped secure $1.45 million to help build this new center.
You can read more about the center in this Kitsap Sun article.
Illahee Preserve Expansion
Illahee Preserve is a beautiful park in the heart of East Bremerton that many in our community come to recharge and connect with nature. I am pleased to have helped secure close to $300,000 to increase the size of the preserve!
Kitsap Humane Society
The Kitsap Human Society has been working to transform their Silverdale facility by building the Veterinary Lifesaving Center. This will triple the size of the current facility and allow for reduced fee veterinary services. This capital budget includes $258,000 to continue these renovations. Read more about the project on their website.
Port Gamble Forest Restoration
The Department of Ecology has worked with the land conservation group Forterra to restore the Port Gamble Forest. This budget contains $300,000 to continue that work. Read more about the project on Forterra’s website.
Rotary Morrow Community Park
This budget contained $50,000 to help with the creation of a new park in Poulsbo, the Rotary Community Park. This new park on the east side of Poulsbo will include playground equipment, trails, and natural play structures.
Read more about it on the City of Poulsbo’s website.
Bills Passed!
This session I passed three bills with broad bipartisan support. I am proud of the legislation that I passed which will help low-income people pay for health care and provide formerly incarcerated people with support and opportunity as they rejoin our community. Please read on to learn more.
HB 1616: Charity Care
House vote: 65-33
Senate vote: 31-16
The high cost of healthcare is one of the largest drivers of bankruptcy in our country. Nationally, over two-thirds of people who file for bankruptcy cite medical issues as a key contributor. To help alleviate this problem, Washington has a charity care law that requires hospitals to forgive some or all of the out-of-pocket costs of essential health care for low-income patients who qualify.
HB 1616 standardizes and expands eligibility for charity care. Hospitals will have to provide full write-offs of out-of-pocket expenses for people making up to 300% of the federal poverty level and provide partial write-offs for those who make up to 400% of the FPL. This will expand access to free or reduced healthcare to 2.2 million Washingtonians.
HB 1412: Legal Financial Obligations
House vote: 64-32
Senate vote: 38-11
Legal financial obligations (LFOs) are fines, fees, costs, and restitution that people with criminal convictions must pay as a part of their sentence. Unfortunately, for people without the ability to pay, they can create significant barriers to reentry. Formerly incarcerated people already face barriers to employment, education, and housing. On top of that, LFOs can trap those unable to afford them in a lifelong cycle of debt. Not only does this prevent those people from successfully reintegrating into society, but it also wastes the state’s resources as we try to collect money that will never exist.
HB 1412 recognizes that trapping people in a debt cycle only increases recidivism and allows judges to waive or reduce a person’s LFOs based on their inability to pay them. Not only will this remove significant barriers to reentry, but it will reduce the racial disparities in Washington’s criminal legal system. People of color are sentenced to pay LFOs more often and at higher rates than white people.
HB 1818: Promoting Successful Reentry and Rehabilitation
House vote: 87-10
Senate vote: 48-0
Currently, the Department of Corrections is only allowed to provide housing vouchers for people leaving incarceration for three months. This is often not enough time for a person re-entering society to get on their feet, find a job, and become a stable member of society. Unfortunately, this often results in formerly incarcerated people becoming homeless. Not only does this increase their chance of recidivism and decrease their chance of finding stable employment, but it also creates a public safety risk for our communities.
We should be working to set people rejoining our communities up for success, not putting barriers in their way. HB 1818 tackles this problem by extending the time that DOC can provide housing vouchers from three to six months, removing barriers to the DOC providing housing assistance, and eliminating fees that only serve to prevent successful re-entry into the community.
Thank you for reading my enewsletter. I will continue to send updates periodically until the start of election-year activity restrictions in May.
Sincerely,
Rep. Tarra Simmons