Dear friends and neighbors,
With just two weeks left in the legislative session, we have both the House and Senate budget proposals before us, and we are moving toward agreement on a final plan to supplement the underlying biennial budget we passed last year. As always, these budgets include some tough choices but support our priority to protect Washingtonians and the core services they rely on every day.
Operating budget
This time last year, state employees in our district were rightfully concerned about furloughs and cuts to health care. I was glad to work with you to stop those from happening. This year, I’m even more happy to report that furloughs were not on the table at all, and our state employees were protected in this budget. In addition, our WPEA union workers whose contract last year wasn’t completed in time to be included will get their contract funded, along with back pay for the raise they should have received last year. I’m also glad to report that we reversed a cut made last year to Evergreen State College, restoring funding to this important local institution.
Many of our other investments in the budget were to meet the rising costs and needs of Washington state. Demand for Medicaid, behavioral health care, long-term care for seniors and people with disabilities, and child care services are all rising. It’s a good thing that people are using state services, and that means higher costs for state government. There are cuts made to the budget, but our priority was to protect the services people rely on every day, preserve the progress Washington has made in expanding access to health care and behavioral health, and maintain the long-term fiscal stability that allows us to continue investing in our communities.
This situation shows why I am so glad to support the Millionaires Tax, asking households making more than $1 million per year to pay just a little bit more in taxes so we can make some transformative investments in public schools, health care, higher education, and essential services.
Infrastructure investments in our district
The transportation and capital budgets both make direct infrastructure investments in our district. The Senate transportation budget makes a major investment in Intercity Transit – helping to renovate the maintenance facility, moving us toward zero-emissions buses, and supporting service between Olympia and Lacey and between Lacey and the Sounder train station – along with some other investments in I-5 maintenance, pedestrian improvements on Mottman Road, and work on the Deschutes Valley Trail.
The capital budget has a major investment to address an issue I heard from many of you about – the damage done during the break-in at the state capitol building. The budget funds repairs that weren’t covered by insurance and makes an investment in security (particularly on the windows, which was how the person broke in) to help prevent such a thing from happening again. One difference between the Senate and House capital budgets – the House has additional funding for more progress on the Capitol Lake estuary project that the Senate doesn’t. I hope we adopt the House’s proposal so we can continue making progress on the estuary restoration..
Thank you to our pages!
I want to thank the young people who have been coming to the Senate recently to help serve as Senate pages – Ella from North Thurston High School and Carter from Capital High School. It is so much fun having students join us to help out on the Senate floor and participate in programs like the Page School. Page applications for this year are closed, but if you know any young people in your life who will be between 14 and 16 years old next winter, I hope you make a note of the page program and encourage them to apply for this fun, educational experience!
As always, you can reach me with thoughts and feedback at Jessica.Bateman@leg.wa.gov. Thanks for reading and for your involvement in our legislative process!
In service,
-Jess
