Tag Archives: bipartisan

Governor violated confidentiality agreement with Senate and House negotiators

Senate majority sets the record straight with public release of transportation-negotiation documents.

20140212_LegWA_0110ksIn response to Gov. Jay Inslee’s violation of a confidentiality agreement between his office and transportation negotiators from the Senate and House of Representatives, Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, co-chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, today released the past nine months’ worth of House and Senate transportation proposals to set the record straight on the status of the state’s transportation package.

“In light of blatant and false accusations by the governor and his violation of a confidentiality agreement with the negotiating parties, we have been forced to release the negotiating positions of the House and Senate,” said King, who represents the 14th Legislative District. “In making these unprecedented disclosures, we are setting the record straight on just how far the Senate Majority Coalition Caucus moved toward the Democrats’ position and how truly close we came to an agreement during the last two weeks of the legislative session.”

“What was missing throughout the 2014 session was bipartisan leadership by the governor and commitment to reforming our broken transportation system,” King continued. “Governor Inslee failed to bring the two parties together and the Democratic co-chair of the Senate transportation committee along with leadership among the Senate’s minority Democrats, failed to allow reforms to come to a vote.” Continue reading →

Bipartisan Senate committee unveils 2013-15 transportation budget

king_120Making good on promises to continue a tradition of cooperation, leaders of the Washington State Senate Transportation Committee today proposed a bipartisan transportation budget that would spend $8.7 billion in 2013-15: $5.3 billion in capital construction spending and $3.4 billion for operating costs and debt service payments. The proposal would complete the tunnel replacing Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct, restore and maintain ferry service levels, and improve or preserve highways across Washington, as well as make a number of system-wide reforms.

“We were faced with a particularly challenging set of circumstances this year, but I’m proud that this committee has not only faced those challenges but overcome them,” said Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, and co-chair of the transportation committee. “We’ve been able to maintain funding for all the projects to which the state is already committed, and we’ve even identified a number of areas where we can generate savings by implementing reforms.” Continue reading →

King bill to spare beekeepers from tax receives committee hearing

Sen. Curtis King this morning told the Senate Agriculture and Rural Economic Development Committee that Washington would benefit if the state’s beleaguered beekeepers could take the money they pay in state taxes and invest it in the health of their hives instead.

King, R-Yakima, is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 6468, which received a public hearing before the agriculture committee. The bipartisan measure would exempt pollination services, sales of bees and use of bees from the applicable state taxes – which amount to about a dollar per hive – and lift state restrictions on farm diesel used by beekeepers. Continue reading →