Dear friends and neighbors,
Happy Sine Die!
Yesterday the 2024 legislative session came to an end when we adjourned “sine die” right before 6PM. Now that the legislative session is over, we’ll be heading back to our districts to work on crafting new legislation, meeting with constituents and stakeholders, and preparing for next year’s long 105-day session. Here’s some highlights from the last 60 days:
Supplemental budget basics
When the legislature meets in odd-numbered years we pass a biennial budget that covers the following two years (in 2023 we passed the 2024-25 biennial budget). During odd-numbered sessions we pass a supplemental budget to make sure we’re on track and add funding where necessary.
The House supplemental budget proposal allocated $260 million for K-12 education. Specifically, the money will fund new materials, resources for special education, student transportation, and free meals.
This year we also made significant investments in children, youth and families by increasing funding by $150M to increase childcare provider rates and doing everything we can to make sure Washington parents have access to affordable childcare.
Local budget wins
The supplemental Capital budget contains more than $4M in investments for the 49th District, including:
- $200K for the Vancouver Family Resource Center expansion. The Center is a key resource for providing youth behavioral health crisis support for youth and families. This funding will help them expand their facility to broaden their capacity to serve our community.
- $200K for the Council for the Homeless Building Rehabilitation. CFTH has been a leading responder to homelessness in the community since 1989. Their workforce is growing and this funding will help prepare additional office space to meet that need.
- $1.3M for college campuses and climate recovery. This will fund the installation of utility submeters in local community and technical colleges to ensure compliance with the 2019 Clean Buildings Act.
- $1M for the Vancouver Housing Authority energy retrofit.
- $600K for the Columbia River Mental Health Services Clinic.
- $500K for the State School for the Blind campus preservation.
I’m so excited to see these dollars used to grow our community resources and bolster services in areas where it is needed.
The bills that made it!
Every session members introduce bills that they’ve worked hard on over the interim or over a number of years, and every year we watch as some of those bills don’t make it to the finish line. This year 4 out of the 17 active bills I started with at the beginning of session made it to the governor’s desk. Here’s what made it:
I’m proud to represent the 49th district and love to hear from friends, neighbors, and community members. Please reach out to me at Monica.Stonier@leg.wa.gov with your questions, concerns, and your bill ideas.
Best,
