Town Hall Next Thursday, Highway 18 & Move Ahead Transportation Package

Dear friends and neighbors,

With barely twenty days left of this year’s session, Rep. Lisa Callan, Sen. Mark Mullet, and I thought it’d be good to connect with you in a virtual town hall setting next week. Please join us on Thursday, February 24 from 7-8 p.m. We will each give you a quick update on what we’re working on, but more importantly, we will be answering your questions. You’ll be able to type questions in the comment sections of whichever platform you choose to watch the event, YouTube, Twitter, or Facebook, or you can go here now to send us your questions in in advance.

Move Ahead Washington: a transportation package for a sustainable future

You may have heard that we recently rolled out our 16-year transportation proposal, Move Ahead Washington, which creates a sustainable, achievable future for our transportation sector.

Move Ahead Washington delivers historic investments to preserve our roads, reduce carbon emissions, and provide safe, accessible, and affordable options to get around.

One piece of great news is that the Highway 18 widening project is completely funded in this package, you'll see more details on projects in and around our district further down.

The Transportation Committee held over 90 listening sessions all over the state to learn about transportation needs, preferences for funding sources, changes needed, and priorities.

Many of the people and organizations we reached out to had never been asked for their input before. This package addresses the concerns we heard and reflects our focus on meeting the needs of every community in our state.

Today's challenges in transportation

Inadequate funding for aging infrastructure means local maintenance projects have stalled. As a result, people are spending more to fix the wear and tear on their vehicles caused by deteriorating roads. Meanwhile, commuters sit in traffic because they don’t have other options to reach their destinations.

Tomorrow’s generations are counting on us to take meaningful action in addressing climate change.

Today's communities of color, low-income, and rural communities bear the brunt of traffic, pollution, and displacement caused by previous transportation policies. They have also been historically excluded from the family-wage jobs associated with transportation construction.

Move Ahead Washington serves everybody

Preserving existing infrastructure

Move Ahead Washington invests an unprecedented $3 billion to fix our existing infrastructure. By honoring our responsibility to complete projects we’ve started, we’re also creating good, family-wage construction jobs to make repairs across the state.

Taking bold action to reduce carbon emissions

Our package takes decisive action against climate change by putting $5.4 billion toward electrification and the expansion of affordable, accessible options to get from point A to point B. Our community deserves diverse choices so we can use what works for us—whether walking, rolling, driving, or riding—while reducing our carbon footprint.

Addressing harm caused by past transportation decisions

Move Ahead Washington re-prioritizes disinvested neighborhoods and renews our moral obligation to do better for BIPOC, rural, and low-income communities. We’re funding projects that expand reliable transit service, create bike and pedestrian routes, and increase opportunities for good jobs in the transportation sector. Our package also directs 35 percent of funds from the Climate Commitment Act into projects serving disinvested neighborhoods and communities often left out of the policymaking process.

Funding our investments

This proposal doesn't include a gas tax. This is a people-oriented proposal that doesn’t pass costs onto working families. After the economic hardships of the pandemic, it was particularly important that we fund these investments without a gas tax. Instead, we are meeting our state’s needs with a one-time transfer from the state’s general fund, federal dollars from the Infrastructure and Jobs Act, and investments from the Climate Commitment Act.

Move Ahead Washington projects in and around our district

Our district has been waiting years for dedicated funding for the final phase of widening Highway 18 from Issaquah-Hobart Road to the Raging River.

Since my first term in office, I have advocated year in and year out on the necessity of funding this crucial state highway.

This package does just that: Move Ahead Washington allocates almost $640 million to widen this piece of highway.

The dedicated funding will help increase the safety of traveling over Tiger Mountain via Highway 18. It will also improve the travel times and provide alternatives.

I look forward to this budget package passing the Senate, the House, and ultimately gaining the Governor's signature so we can start on this crucial work.

Thank you for reading my newsletter. If you need more information on the Move Ahead Washington Transportation Package, please don't hesitate to contact my office. And don't forget to join us next Thursday evening!

                                                Sincerely,