Feb 27, 2024
Speaking in favor of the supplemental transportation budget, Rep. Sam Low, assistant ranking member on the House Transportation Committee, lauds the bipartisan collaboration that went into crafting a budget that reflects the state's needs.
Low underscores the policy implications of funding priorities, emphasizing the necessity of a new revenue package to kickstart essential projects in his district, including improvements to Highway 2, Highway 522, and Highway 20. He stresses the critical need for an increased state patrol presence to address rising fatalities on roadways, advocates for robust investment in ferry operations and workers, acknowledges the challenges faced by state workers in maintaining roads, and highlights how the budget addresses preservation and maintenance concerns.
I started here on the 8th of January uh
as you did uh ready to get to work for
the people of Washington and the next
morning we got to work on the
transportation budget and uh and I
appreciate the great bipartisan
leadership uh shown by the chair of the
committee and and the ranking member and
and and I appreciate all the work of the
hard staff uh that that they did and
making us as Representatives look good
and uh as as we looked at the priorities
in the budget we knew that there were
going to be struggles with uh the cost
of these projects uh I know in my
district uh there's some great projects
that need to be uh started and and
worked on Highway 2 The Trestle Highway
522 Highway 20 uh those are important to
my constituents and I know without a new
Revenue package that won't happen but uh
as we got into these projects it was
very complex and yet we worked together
as a team and I respect the process uh
the process in working in a bipartisan
way uh I felt that my opinions and My
Views uh and sometimes even my sense of
humor was was well taken um sometimes it
wasn't but uh but but I appreciate that
that I I felt heard because when I was
heard I felt like my constituents were
were heard uh one of the important
things in the budget to me was um our
state patrol budget and making sure that
we have enough uh uh state troopers on
the road uh making sure that our
highways are safe uh we've seen uh
fatalities increase on the roadways uh
over the last couple years and we need
to bring those numbers down uh we we
need more enforcement on the road and so
this budget will help towards
that uh a priority of mine was also the
fairies and making sure that uh uh we
can get our fairies
operational uh make sure that we invest
in the fairies we have now uh make sure
we invest in the workers uh on the
faeries and and I want to say this too I
appreciate our workers our state workers
with DOT um they take a lot of grief on
our road sometimes by people that are
impatient as they go through
construction zones uh right before
session started I got to meet with some
of our workers uh up in King County and
and hear their concerns about
preservation and maintenance and this
budget addresses that although I don't
agree with every single thing in the
budget uh I don't agree with with some
of the decisions that were made I agree
with the process and with that I support
this budget and I ask you to support
this budget with me today thank you
