Dear neighbors,
The 2025 legislative session adjourned Sine Die on April 27 on the 105th day. I’ll be real – it was a tough session. We gaveled in on January 13 facing a $12 billion budget gap and that number continued to go up with each update from our budget team thanks to inflation and turbulent economic conditions.
This is also an emotionally challenging few months. We lost several members of our legislative family including former Secretary of State Ralph Munro, former Speaker Frank Chopp, and Senator Bill Ramos. Their legacy will live on in the programs they established and laws they passed to help folks every day across our great state, and in the hearts of their families, communities, and colleagues.
Despite the hard days, late nights, and long hours, we emerged with a balanced 2025-27 biennial budget that prioritizes education, housing, and healthcare for every Washingtonian from the youngest neighbors to the oldest.
Survey and Post-session Town Hall on June 14!
The ladies of the 49th invite you to join us for our post-session town hall on Saturday, June 14! We’ll be at the ESD 112 Conference Center in Vancouver from 10:30-11:30 ready to hear your complaints, answer your questions, and give you the insider scoop on the 2025 legislative session.
Do you have a specific question you’re burning to ask your legislators? Weigh in on your priorities, ask your question, and tell us how we can best communicate with you by taking this short survey!
Budget Basics
Before leaving office, former Governor Jay Inslee proposed an all-cuts budget with no new revenue to show exactly how harmful it would be. Implementing that budget would have been devastating for people across the state, from newborns to students to seniors. It would have left parents without childcare, taken food off the table for working families, and slashed funding for mental health and addiction treatment.
You sent me to Olympia to help our communities and make Washington a better place to live. That’s why I voted yes on the final budget proposal that blended cuts and new revenue to follow through on our prior commitments, make sure our kids can have a safe place to learn, and support our communities so we can keep Washington working for you.
The state has three budgets: operating, which pays for day-to-day costs; transportation; and the capital budget, overseeing construction projects. Here’s a little bit about regional and local investments made in the capital and transportation budgets.
The Capital Budget
Affordable Housing
The new two-year budget invests a historic total of $782 million in housing and homelessness programs. This includes a record-setting $605 million for the Housing Trust Fund, directly funding the construction of affordable housing.
K-12 and Early Learning
There is nearly $1 billion for K-12 school construction and early learning facilities. That total includes $202 million for small district and tribal compact schools, $151 million for school seismic safety, and $100 million for early learning facilities. The legislature also increased funding for special education and the Local Efforts Assistance fund totaling $200M. It also increases funds for materials, supplies and operating costs ($215 million), and maintains funding for school meals and summer EBT for kids ($45 million).
Behavioral Health
The budget includes $130 million in grants for projects expanding behavioral health care capacity in community settings, increased funding for 988 & Crisis Facility Grants for three centers, and funds the completion of the new forensic hospital facility at Western State Hospital.
For more details about the capital budget—or the state operating budget and transportation budget–visit fiscal.wa.gov.
There is more than $26 million in projects right here in the 30th district:
- $18.28M for renovations and updates to the Washington Center for Deaf & Hard of Hearing Youth
- $2.46M for modernization and improvements to the State School for the Blind
- $1.36M for Cascadia Tech Academy building repairs and updates
- $1.2M for the Vancouver Family Resource Center
- $1.18M for the Housing Solutions Center acquisition and renovation
- $1M for Clark County Public Safety
- $1M for the Community Roots Mill Plain Housing Project that will create 20 units of permanent housing for individuals exiting homelessness, providing residents with access to mental health services and support.
- $400K for YWCA Clark County, Housing & Empowerment Campus – provides funding for the planning, engineering, and preparation for the construction of 54-unit income-restricted housing project.
The Transportation Budget
Having a transportation network that allows people and goods to move efficiently and safely around the state is good for everyone and helps our economy thrive. The new transportation budget includes $15.6 billion in projects and improvements to the state’s network of highways, ferries, trains, buses, and other alternatives. It follows through on commitments made in past years to complete projects and fix longstanding issues to keep Washington moving.
Here’s the local and regional projects included in the transportation budget:
49th District transportation investments:
- $4.75M for C-TRAN Highway 99 Bus Rapid Transit
- $580.18M I-5 Columbia River Bridge
Regional transportation investments:
- $28.9M for C-Tran infrastructure upgrades and fleet modernization
- $250K for SR 14/I-205 to SE 164th Ave improvements
More information on the state transportation budget can be found here.
Bill Update
Here’s a quick update on a couple of my bills that passed the legislature this year:
House Bill 1669 – Prosthetic limb and custom orthotic brace coverage
Just like you wouldn’t want to wear sandals to play baseball, or stilettos to go kayaking, there are different types of prosthetic limbs and orthotic braces that are designed for maximum mobility for the wearer. HB 1669 requires group health plans to provide expanded coverage for prosthetic limbs and custom orthotic devices, giving individuals more opportunity to live active lives and stay healthy. The success of this bill is largely due to 49th district constituent Nicole Ver Kuilen, who brought the idea forward this past summer. It’s a great example of how you don’t have to be a lawmaker to inspire and champion legislation from idea into law.
House Bill 1296 – Promoting a safe and supportive public education system
HB 1296 brings the parental bill of rights initiative language into alignment with other parts of state law, expanding parental rights established by the initiative while protecting student safety and privacy. All students have the right to receive a public education free from discrimination. HB 1296 ensures public schools don’t discriminate against students based on their ethnicity, gender expression, gender identity, homelessness, immigration or citizen status, or neurodivergence.
What I’ll be Working on During Interim
During interim I return to my day job as an instructional coach with Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver, and I continue working as a lawmaker. Here’s a little bit about what I’ll be up to over the summer and fall.
Meeting with Constituents — This is one of my favorite parts of the job! Talking to folks in the district helps me learn about important issues impacting our communities, it allows me to deep dive into topics that inform the work I do in the legislature, and it inspires ideas for new bills to address problems people in our district are facing.
Deep Diving into Learning — Because of my background in education, that’s usually where I focus first. Working in the public school system gives me a front-row seat to see where our schools are thriving and where they need support. Since no two school districts—or schools—are the same, I make it a point to visit different sites as often as I can to broaden my perspective through others’ lived experiences.
One of the first topics I’ll be exploring is how we can better meet our educational obligations for students with significant physical or behavioral health care needs because every single child has the right to a quality education in our state.
I’ll be sending out a few more updates over the interim to let you know what I’m working on and provide some updates on how our budget dollars are being put to work.
I’m honored to serve the people of the 49th District.
-Monica