Rep. Chris Corry speaks to his public safety amendment to the supplemental operating budget

a good member from the 14th representative Corey thank you madam speaker um I urge the body's adoption of this amendment it does some very important things for Washington State Madam speaker you and I both know we have a public safety crisis in Washington state we are the 51st out of 50 states and the District of Colombia in terms of police officers per capita and what that has gotten us is some staggeringly not positive statistics when it comes to crime in our State Madam speaker may I read briefly please proceed Madam speaker we are number one for the state most impacted by retail theft we're number two for all property crime and we're number three for automobile thefts this is having a terrible impact in the lives of washingtonians all across our state our citizens deserve to live in communities where they feel safe where they don't have to worry about their vehicle being stolen where they don't have have to worry about being the victim of a crime this amendment fixes that issue what it does is adopts the Senate budget and increases additional funding for a variety of areas that you and I both would probably agree are much needed in our state first and foremost it provides 150 million in ongoing grants for law enforcement to increase police Staffing additionally it would provide 20 million in Grants to Transit agencies for Transit enforcement of not only fairs but also for uh to prevent drug use in our Transit facilities Madam speaker you and I have seen the videos of people openly using drugs on means of transportation that are crucial to getting washingtonians where they need to go we can't have that anymore Madam speaker this bill would begin or this amendment would begin to address that lastly it also provides 8 million in Grants to Transit agencies for cost of unfortunately drug detection and cleanup that drug use doesn't just impact the user on these buses it's impacting the Riders it's impacting the drivers Madam speaker we have to fix this crisis this amendment would do just that it would provide much needed tools and resources to address these issues that are rampant across Washington State it would draw a line in the sand so our citizens know enough is enough we're going to put proper resources where they belong to clean up this problem and fix Washington please vote Yes