Barkis Breakdown: A review of the 2024 session and the ongoing Republican effort to fix Washington

let's see that one that one a lot of policy lot of a second district state representative Andrew barcus and back here in the capital back of my office picking up a few things and cleaning up from the 2024 session It's the final barcus breakdown of the session of this year just want to give you some updates on on what we did during the session and what's next as we head into the inter term for the remainder of the year you know I've got to say myself and my colleagues did a lot to work on fixing Washington we had a lot of challenges in front of us whether it was public safety housing Transportation so many issues so many bills came forward this year I think it was a record for a short session of 60 day session I'm proud of the work we did you know we stopped a lot of bad policy coming through the state of Wasing that would have really affected you for example uh the policy on rent control was one that I worked on very closely as a policy that I think would have been very detrimental to our housing crisis that we're facing there were other great successes that we saw with regards to some housing policy dealing with co-housing Bill that I did working on removing some of the barriers for new construction existing buildings converting those some things that are really important to keep our focus on creating more Supply and housing in the state of Washington in the transportation Arena you know had a budget supplemental budget Frau with challenges we saw cost overruns on projects that we had never encountered in the state of Washington some with billion dooll increases from the time we left here last year in 2023 but I'm happy to say that in a bipartisan way we worked together to keep Washington moving to keep focusing on those projects and hold to our commitment to the people of Washington state in the supplemental budget and as a result I'm proud of the fact that it passed unanimously a couple weeks ago in the final days of the session you know I think this was an interesting year the conversation was really centered around what are we going to do to take care of the problems facing our state and what was driving that conversation were the six initiatives that you the people of Washington state put in front of the legislature was proud to work with my colleagues to Advocate your voice to make sure that those were considered all of them were considered unfortunately and fortunately we saw three of them come before the legislature and actually passed into law here in the state of Washington one of which was the police pursuit bill and I think with Public Safety being such a top issue one of the key pieces that you want fixed here in Washington state is our dealing with Public Safety and crime the ability for our law enforcement to have the tool of police pursuit again is a huge victory for the people of Washington state you know interim starts and so I'm here getting some files I'm actually heading to Seattle tomorrow to spend the entire day working with stakeholders on housing issues around rental homes and housing providers trying to find solutions to bring the tenant side and the landlord side together as we look at the rest this year and we prepare for next year with significant policy to deal with it it's time to break that landlock that loggerhead that we've had of US versus them and find real solutions that we can work on to bring better policy for the people of Washington state in transportation you know we have a huge task in front of us seeing these huge overruns our projects our maintenance and preservation you know we saw just a few days ago a tragic incident in Baltimore with the Francis Scott Key bridge being hit by a ship and unfortunately the loss of lives of a a Maryland work crew who was just working doing their normal stuff fixing potholes on this bridge and they tragically lost their lives six of their workers our hearts go out my heart goes out as a ranking member of Transportation dealing with our own Crews here and trying to work on focusing on safety for those Crews every day putting their lives at risk when they work on the highways so I just want to take a moment to remember those who were lost in that tragic incident but it also draws focus on what we need to do here in Washington state you know last year I went on a tour of the bridges in Washington along the Columbia River all along the system and we found out some pretty interesting information there are over 200 Bridges within our system of bridges in the Washington State infrastructure that are in bad shape that need addressing that need fixing and that has to be a top priority the safety of the traveling motorist in Washington state is a top priority so we need to make sure that we're putting everything we can into maintenance and preservation and looking at those issues and taking care of them now and this is a tragic reminder of what can happen when that infrastructure is damaged and a way that is significant you know I've proposed many solutions on that from using the sales tax on new cars finding a dedicated source of Revenue so that we could put forth that I'm proud that we did Advance $100 million towards maintenance and preservation in this last budget but it's not enough we need to work together in a bipartisan way to find a sustainable Revenue source to take care of our transportation infrastructure our maintenance and preservation and the needs of an Ever growing state so a lot of work ahead the interim is a great time for me I get a chance to get back out in the district was out there last night celebrating a Monumental thing with the bethl school district the groundbreaking for the bethl high school it was interesting to hear that it's taken 17 years from the idea to last night and turning the dirt to celebrate the groundbreaking 17 years part of that was legislation I worked on way back four or five years ago to alter the growth management that to allow for that building that school to be sighted outside the urban growth boundary it was a heavy lift but it reminds me the policies and the barriers that are put forth in our development Community when it takes a School District 17 years to site a new school for an Ever growing district and we have to go through all the environmental processes and the things that they had to do and the cost and time and money that they had to spend to get to this point is something that we need to do better we need to be able allow this type of development and we need to do it in a proper way and not take 17 years to do it think about what it would have taken to build that school even 10 or 12 years ago the cost would have been significantly less than what they're going to face today but no doubt it was a pretty cool event and it was great to celebrate with so many in the community there for this new school that will open here in a few short years but being part of the interim getting out in District I'm going to get out to all those communities from Elby to Ashford to oring to you know all the places that I love to go and meet with you in the second district to hear about your concerns to hear about what we're doing good what we can do better and the things that we need to focus on together for the second district in the state of Washington now this is my office here in Olympia it's open all year around you can still reach out to me through email through a phone call and set up an appointment I'm happy to meet you here in the office or in District to talk with you about what's going on what you're facing and and just to work with you as we prepare for again another session coming up which unfortunately will be just around the corner so Reach Out Kade my assistant works with me full-time and we'd love to meet and here hear from you so anyway hey thanks for watching another barcus breakdown and for watching the ones that we've put forth I hope that we've been able to provide great information for you keeping you up to date on all the major issues here under the dome in Olympia so until next time thanks second district and as I say it is an honor and privilege to serve you the people of second district and the state of Washington take care