Dear friends and neighbors,
This week was the governor’s deadline for vetoing or signing bills into law. We are now officially finished with one of the most challenging sessions we’ve had since I started in the Legislature. We ended on time, with a balanced budget — but we had to make difficult decisions to get to the finish line. Fortunately, we were able to preserve a lot of what we all care about — support for our public schools, financial aid to make college and apprenticeships more affordable so people can get good jobs and support families, and further investments in our ferry system to bring back regular service — and avoid truly devastating cuts. Below, I’ll highlight what our budget accomplishes, the bills I worked on that have been signed into law, and some of the community projects I’m pleased we could support.
Operating budget
We started this session with a structural deficit — doing what we were doing already as a state would cost more than the tax revenues we bring in. That structural deficit was around $16 billion, or just under 10% of the four-year budget. The reasons for this structural deficit are complex, but they include programs set to phase in over time that were scheduled to expand, unanticipated increases in the number of people using government programs, and higher costs because of inflation, which affected the entire budget.
Last November, I started carefully going through the budget for possible cuts. That meant going item-by-item through budget additions over the past six years, looking carefully to see what we could reduce without doing great harm. By February, I had identified around $280 million in possible cuts, and by March that was up to about $500 million. Some of these were reductions that we should make whether or not the state was in a deficit — for example, government programs that just weren’t working the way they should — and some of them were reductions that were very tough. But a combination of the reductions I and others suggested — along with revenue increases — allowed us to close the deficit and balance our budget.
Despite these challenges, we focused on ensuring students have access to high-quality education in our communities by increasing funding for our public schools, maintaining our strong community college and university system, and protecting financial aid so people can afford to get trained for jobs to support their families. We focused on preserving core services and eliminating “extras” where we could. We significantly expanded funding for special education (with bipartisan support); we also successfully fought off efforts to increase tuition and cuts to financial aid. I serve on the K-12 Education, Higher Education, and Ways & Means Committees, so I was very involved in education funding decisions this session. Though we didn’t get everything I had hoped, we were able to preserve the foundations of our public schools and college and university systems and avoid truly devastating cuts.
Protecting reproductive rights
In 2023, we passed the Shield Law I sponsored to protect people seeking abortions in Washington state after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. My bill this year, SB 5632, expands and strengthens those protections: Washington will continue to lead the way in protecting reproductive rights.
Right-to-repair bills signed into law!
Gov. Bob Ferguson signs Senate Bill 5680, establishing the right to repair mobility equipment, and House Bill 1483, making it easier for consumers and independent repair shops to fix electronic devices, on May 19, 2025.
One of the bills I worked on that I’m most excited about will make it easier for people who use motorized wheelchairs to get them repaired if they break down. For the many people in this state who use wheelchairs or other mobility equipment, even a minor breakdown could mean weeks without mobility as they wait for an appointment at a manufacturer’s repair shop. SB 5680, which I prime sponsored, will require wheelchair equipment manufacturers to provide wheelchair owners and independent repair providers access to documentation, parts, embedded software, firmware, and tools. I’m grateful to my colleague, Rep. Mia Gregerson, for leading this effort and the disability community, especially my constituent Dr. Marsha Cutting, for helping us understand how much this bill will help.
Supporting community projects in the 23rd Legislative District
Our state’s two-year capital budget invests in construction and infrastructure projects across Washington and makes major investments in affordable housing and public school construction.
Several capital budget investments Reps. Tarra Simmons and Greg Nance and I advocated for are funded in our final capital budget, including:
✅ Support for several Peninsula Community Health Services projects that improve access to affordable health care. $927,000 goes toward the completion of a new dental clinic in Bremerton, offering primary care dental services to an estimated 2,100 patients per year, while creating jobs in the dental field. $556,000 will help complete work on an integrated primary care clinic in Bainbridge, providing medical and behavioral health services, along with support and transportation services.
✅$42 million to help West Sound Tech finish construction of one of the state’s largest skills trade centers, serving up to 1,000 students from 10 school districts. WST provides trades and skills training in construction, welding, auto and collision repair, medical and dental, maritime, criminal justice, and early childhood education and more. Completing this facility will help support our region’s workforce needs and ensure folks can have good paying jobs that support their families.
✅$1.5 million to help St. Vincent de Paul begin development on a four-story residential building in Bremerton with 38 affordable housing units for women and children. Star of Hope will have 10 transitional units and 28 permanent supportive housing units, addressing the needs of vulnerable people, including women transitioning from the Washington Corrections Center for Women and those eligible for Washington’s Apple Health & Home program who may face significant housing barriers. The project will also expand the neighboring Stella Maris shelter for women and children, creating 17 more beds.
✅$18.48 million to help the Suquamish Tribe renovate and equip an opioid treatment clinic in Poulsbo. Once operational, the clinic will provide medication-assisted treatment, counseling, dental services, and other supportive services for people with opioid use disorders, improving community health outcomes.
Investing in our ferry system
Finally, this year’s bipartisan transportation budget includes key investments to continue ferry service reliability improvements, maintain Washington’s aging fleet and complete terminal improvements. I’m proud it also increases spending on ferries and terminals by $100 million and ensures we continue funding five new ferry vessels. I have always made ferries my #1 transportation budget priority, and I am happy to welcome other legislators from across the state who are starting to recognize and fund ferries as the marine highways that they are.
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As always, please reach out to my office any time. We are always happy to help in any way we can. I appreciate your engagement this session and look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely,
Drew Hansen
