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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
There are countless examples of Washingtonians promoting ideas in our citizen Legislature. I'd like to share one local example. Christian Arciniega (pictured), a constituent of mine, believes institutions of higher education should be required to make an early registration process available to spouses and domestic partners of active members of the military. She presented this idea to some state lawmakers, Rep. Dave Hayes offered to prime sponsor the bill, and it now has bipartisan support. House Bill 1052 was heard in the House Higher Education Committee on Wednesday. You can watch Christian's testimony here. She did a great job! This is a great example of how you can not only be involved in, but influence, the legislative process.Survey results
In my last e-mail update, I provided a survey that asked you about your legislative priorities. I really appreciate the great response. You can find the results below. I'm going to leave this survey open through February 4. Please consider sharing your views if you haven't already.Do you believe the Legislature should raise taxes for the next operating budget?
- 5.67% | Yes, …
- 86.79% | No, ….
- 3.77% | I'm open to the idea of certain new tax increases.
- 3.77% | I'm not sure.
What are your legislative priorities? (This question asked you to rank issues 1-8. Listed below are issues ranked in overall importance by those who responded, with one being most important.)
- State spending/operating budget.
- Jobs and the economy.
- Taxes.
- State government reform.
- K-12 education.
- Transportation infrastructure.
- Health care.
- Higher education.
Would you support a new road usage charge for motorists?
- 9.09% | Yes.
- 58.18% | No.
- 32.73% | I'm not sure and I would need to learn more about it.
Media availability event
I participated in a media availability event this week with the Senate Majority Coalition Caucus. Some of the topics included: the governor's carbon tax proposal; a transportation tax package; the Seattle tunnel project; collective bargaining agreements; and the operating budget. You can watch the event here. As always, I welcome your feedback.Telephone town hall reminder
I will be hosting a telephone town hall with Rep. Elizabeth Scott on Tuesday evening (February 3). The community conversation will begin at 6:00 p.m. To join in and ask us questions, please call (360) 350-6256.
In your service,
Dan Kristiansen