Stopping lawlessness on our highways and ensuring we invest in our roads | 570 KVI Seattle

well my friends things may be peachy in Washington DC but they're absolutely miserable in Washington state the legislature is completely out of control the Republicans are fighting back against a Democrat insanity but it shows no end in sight and the Democrats in the process of pushing through the radical agenda are exposing their own lies and hypocrisy joining us now on the warrior injury law studio line is representative Andrew barcas from Olympia thank you so much for being with us today great to be on with you again Ari always a pleasure to talk to you about the fun stuff happening Under the Dome here in Olympia oh yes so much fun so let's break it down right away so the climate commitment act that was Jay eny's baby talking about how he was going to tax us only pennies which turned out to be a lot more than pennies for saving the climate which isn't actually going to save the climate but telling us about how this was going to invest in green energy and roads and bridges and if you didn't pass it they were going to take away money from roads and bridges but from what I hear they're doing that anyway what's going on well uh before did you see that Redman took delivery of their million dooll electric fir truck that's got to make you happy see that I I saw the million dollar fir truck well I thought to myself I wonder if this is going to be like kamla Harris's school buses which are in Kent which are quadruple the price and haven't run because they're missing pieces well so the climate commitment act you know this we fought this uh we knew it was going to be a tax they said it's not going to be a tax we know this is revenue coming in the state it does come into the State Transportation budget as we said I'm a ranking member in transportation I write the budget every year but you know the big thing was is we pushed the initiative to repeal it and the big campaign against it which you know they were successful after spending about $20 million they told everybody that you know if we took this money away this Revenue source for transportation we couldn't fix anything like roads and bridges and all the things that we need in Washington state with a failing infrastructure well the challeng is now Ari is that I'm trying to do a budget that has a billion doll hole in it due to ever increasing cost of these projects think 520 405 all the great things around Puget Sound and I can't use that climate commitment money because it can only be used for things like electric fire trucks and Transit and those things so I've I've got a bill right now Ari and what it does is it changes the the criteria by which the funds can be used it also Taps into if we do have an extra amount that comes in through the auction and it is important it's hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of Revenue that we could be using for transportation to balance our budget without raising taxes or additional revenue and the frustrating thing is that if we don't find these other Revenue then all these projects all these things that we've been working so hard on they're gone they get paused they get pushed out into you know Never Never Land and and that will create even more problems for the people of Washington state so here's something I don't get they had promised us oh no if you defund this if you take it away we're going to not not going to have money for roads and bridges and now you're telling me it wasn't even going to that in the first place you know it does go to some things I mean it it goes to a a myriad of things that they claim you know has a tie-in or a Nexus with uh you know Carbon reduction so the electric fir truck the electric buses Transit uh bike and ped paths active Transportation but it's restrictive so you've got money going into things that I'm not saying are bad but are they the priorities of Washington state and when we have a failing system when we have projects that need to be finished we have maintenance that's they you know by some accounts they say it's billion- dollar backlog of Maintenance I mean just drive down the freeway are I mean I I keep driving by areas where guard rails have been damaged for maybe a year right I mean there's crap all over the freeway and just there's a lot of different things that the maintenance and preservation which is so important but yet that money what we only have is traditional sources multimodal which is all your fees and then of course the gas tax which is the original gas tax that is goes to roads and projects and and that is it is a declining re it's not enough Revenue to take care of all the increasing expenses so it's a natural thing to say hey let's use the funds that is a revenue source for transportation and oh by the way you just got done telling everybody that we're going to use these funds for transportation exactly it's absolutely crazy that you have to fight for this so the bill number is 1324 and you want to call the Washington State State Legislature and you want to say yes to 1324 you want to make sure that they're doing this and changing this and their number is 1 1800 562 6000 that's 18800 562 6000 now speaking of roads and bridges you also have another bill out there where it's talking about making sure these kosnik and other Looney Tunes aren't blocking freeways anymore you tried this last year what's your hope that's going to get across this time about the same I mean it's you know again I started saying it's you know how I how do I feel you know how do you feel people ask how you doing Andrew how you feel man this is a this is a tough session already four weeks in and it just it's going to get worse you know we're doing the same things we've been doing decriminalizing changing processes going back on deals that were made on policy so the likelihood of this even getting a hearing is slim to none it's a bipartisan Bill Democrats signed onto it common sense Bill and it increases the penalties of course for this act that is legal already but and not being enforced so you need you need bigger consequences you need bigger penalties and maybe they'll stop doing it you know it's interesting I I'm really surprised at at when we saw the transition of uh with the president I'm really surprised we didn't see him back on the freeway and now with all the immigration it's just a matter of time you just saw this in Los Angeles you saw this in other areas where they were blocking the freeway shutting things down they'll do it again in Seattle somebody's going to get hurt or worse and it is illegal there are other ways that you can do your protests legally so um I'm pushing you know I I've had massive comments on this we we wrote we put a post out just to let people know that this bill was coming back it was one of the uh most um uh liked and shared and everything I mean people are it resonates with the people of Washington right they're saying yeah we need to have stronger penalties we need to keep people off our freeways and so uh I would I wish the majority would would listen to the people and they would actually look at this and go yeah we need to make these changes but not only in this piece of policy but so many others that we're seeing uh this legislative session well the thing that I saw is one of the rookie legislators Sean Scott is the one who's actually getting people all ticked off about this saying it's our right to protest on I5 and I'm reading this and going this is what happens when you elect a socialist from Seattle you get this kind of insane Insanity when they're advocating for it especially after two of his own activists were killed during the BLM riots by marching on the freeway or one of them was killed one of was horribly injured horribly injured yeah and you know I uh somebody clipped that over to me right away and said hey one of your colleagues likes your bill so it's like and and it got it out there more you know it's just but it you know it it's a classic example and it it is a really clear example of the difference between the majority and the minority and in the in the house and and what we're seeing with more and more within their membership of their caucus on these type of policies and when you have these pressures from these type of members um you know you're going to see policy come out this way and and there are a lot of new people holding gavels down here Ari and in those important committees and that's how these policies get out they're going to get to the floor you know and then we're going to have to do everything we can to to try to stop him and of course the good stuff like my bill that I put forth and many others like the graffiti bill again I'm running that one again they probably won't see the L of day which is beyond crazy representative Andrew barcas from Olympia thank you so much for fighting for all of us even though sometimes I know it feels like you're banging your head against a wall you bet are and thanks for carrying the message out there to all your great listeners and we appreciate much