Transportation

E-News: See you at a town hall tomorrow! March 17, 2023 Hello Friends and Neighbors, There aren’t many things the Legislature must do, but in odd-numbered years like this, approving new budgets is one of them. There are three state budgets: operating, capital and transportation. They cover a two-year period that begins July 1 in odd-numbered years. The... Read More...
E-News: Pain at the pump June 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, I hope this report finds you and your loved ones doing OK. I wish I had good news about the affordability issues facing families here and across our state, but none of the 303 laws created by the Legislature this year will provide significant... Read More...
E-Newsletter: Time is getting short… March 5, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, The end of the 2022 legislative session is less than a week away, and yesterday brought the last of the major deadlines for acting on bills. With the exception of budget-related legislation, the Senate is officially done voting on House bills for the... Read More...
E-Newsletter: Why more taxes when it’s raining money? [[VIEW_THIS]]  Feb.18, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, In the same week that state government’s budget surplus hit the $15 BILLION mark, the state Senate rushed a bill through that would mean triple-digit increases in certain costs for Washington drivers and has our neighboring states accusing ours of trying to tax... Read More...
E-Newsletter: A win, a loss and… another win [[VIEW_THIS]]  Feb.11, 2022 Hello Friends and Neighbors, Both chambers of the Legislature are in the middle of an eight-day stretch of floor action. This is when, with few exceptions, we spend the entire day at our desks on the floor of the Senate chamber and take action on bills forwarded... Read More...
E-Newsletter: Big (and mostly bad) bills still moving Hello Friends and Neighbors, The final day of our 105-day session is a week from this Sunday. I mentioned in my previous report how there’s no excuse for going past that deadline when one party controls both houses of the Legislature… but sure enough, the chatter about an overtime session... Read More...
Area legislators welcome WSDOT inventory of bridge intel Efforts to replace the outmoded I-5 bridge spanning the Columbia River took a key step forward last week when the state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) released a comprehensive inventory of bridge data. WSDOT was directed to conduct an inventory of existing data from previous efforts to replace the bridge as... Read More...