Tag Archives: Curtis King

Jackson Finley serves as page for Sen. King

Jackson Finley, a freshman at West Valley High School in Yakima, spent a week working as a page for the Washington State Senate at the Capitol in Olympia. Jackson was one of 22 students who served as Senate pages for the sixth week of the 2016 legislative session.

He was sponsored by 14th Legislative District Sen. Curtis King.

“Jackson played an important role this week here at the Capitol and I am pleased he learned more about the state’s legislative process,” said King, R-Yakima.

The Senate Page Program is an opportunity for Washington students to spend a week working in the Legislature. Students are responsible for transporting documents between offices, as well as delivering messages and mail. Pages spend time in the Senate chamber and attend page school to learn about parliamentary procedure and the legislative process. Students also draft their own bills and engage in a mock session.

“It was a really fun experience and I definitely wish I could do it again,” said Jackson about his week at the Capitol.

Jackson enjoys playing basketball, baseball, and participating in his school’s Associated Student Body.

Jackson, 15, is the son of Andy and Katie Finley of Yakima.

Students interested in the Senate Page Program are encouraged to visit: https://leg.wa.gov/Senate/Administration/PageProgram/

Senate transportation leaders release bipartisan supplemental transportation budget

Senate transportation-committee leaders today introduced a bipartisan 2016 supplemental transportation budget that will direct a modest amount of new funding toward road preservation and safety projects. The plan, which would adjust the 2015-17 transportation budget adopted this past year, would lift total spending for the biennium to $8.6 billion.

“The process of creating a supplemental budget gives us an opportunity to check on existing programs and make sure they are on track. We were able to further complement the largest transportation revenue package in state history passed by the Legislature last year,” said Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, transportation committee chair.

In addition to funding for existing work, the proposed Senate supplemental transportation budget includes these new investments:

$351 million for road-preservation projects
$108 million for safety improvements
$84 million for fish passage
$1.4 million to purchase and operate 10 new Incident Response Trucks
$1.1 million to improve rail-crossing safety

“This budget represents a good balance of what is important to the residents of Washington. We all want our tax dollars spent wisely, we want safer roads, we want our environment to be protected – and this budget does all of that. There’s still work to be done and negotiations with the House, but I think this is a very strong start,” said Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, the top-ranking minority senator on the committee.

The supplemental budget is scheduled for a public hearing today before the Senate Transportation Committee at 3:30 p.m.

Senate approves King’s measure to bolster disadvantaged businesses

Today the Senate unanimously approved Sen. Curtis King’s bill that would provide a new avenue for minority-owned contracting companies to work with state transportation leaders on issues that affect their businesses.

“I was approached by minority-owned business leaders who had become frustrated with the Department of Transportation. These leaders were requesting some minor changes that would provide additional oversight to the admittedly complicated Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program. The result of their meeting with me was this simple bill,” said King, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.

Senate Bill 6180 would create a Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Advisory Committee. within the Washington State Transportation Commission, aimed at increasing accountability and transparency regarding DBE activities.

“The law requires compliance with the goals of the DBE program. This bill will go a long way toward ensuring those goals are being met,” said King. “It was gratifying to see both sides of the aisle come together in support of this legislation today.”

The measure now moves to the House of Representatives for its consideration.

Senate transportation-committee chair responds to governor’s ‘scurrilous’ accusations

Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, today made this statement clarifying his role as Senate Transportation Committee chair and the Senate’s decision Friday to reject the appointment of state transportation secretary Lynn Peterson:

“Today the governor claimed the rejection of former-Secretary Peterson came as a great shock to him. He must be the only person in Washington who was surprised. Over the past three years, stories of botched DOT projects and relentless mismanagement has provided fodder for every form of social media, as well as newspapers and nightly newscasts across the state. For my own part, I sent multiple letters to the former transportation secretary since 2013 expressing my concerns and lack of confidence over a number of issues. I think the biggest surprise to drivers in this state is that it took this long for a change to be made.

“When the members of the Senate Transportation Committee voted to move the confirmation of the former transportation secretary into the Rules Committee over a year ago, they were not voting ‘for’ or ‘against’ the agency head, they were voting to move the nomination forward. That is how the confirmation process works, and the governor knows it – or should. To characterize the words I said during the public hearing in committee as an affirmation of her work is disingenuous. Thanking Ms. Peterson for making her staff available to legislators is hardly a ringing endorsement.

“In 2015 it was the Legislature which determined the scope, budget and project list for the largest transportation revenue package in state history. The role of DOT and the former transportation secretary was to implement the package. To suggest that our approval of the package itself constitutes an endorsement of Ms. Peterson is also inaccurate.

“Agency directors should be well aware that they are ultimately responsible when there are problems within their agency. Pointing fingers at contractors is just blame-shifting. The Senate confirms or rejects people appointed by the governor, not contractors hired by those people. We are also not the human-resources department for the executive branch – meaning our job is not to coach agency heads or manage them. That is the job of the governor. When he fails to do his job, then we are forced to do ours.”

IN THE NEWS: King awarded for help in passing energy bill

Photo Caption: Sen. Curtis King (right) receives an award from George Caan, Executive Director of the Washington Public Utility Districts Association.

The Washington Public Utility Districts Association honored King for his leadership in passage of a bill signed last July by Gov. Jay Inslee last April that allows public utility districts to produce and sell renewable natural gas from landfills, wastewater treatment plants, and dairy digesters for use as a transportation fuel; adding value to PUD projects and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The new PUD authority went into effect in July of 2015.

The award, presented to King at the Association’s Jan. 14, 2016 meeting in Olympia, recognizes a Washington State Legislator or Member of Congress that has taken a leadership role in pursuing passage of WPUDA supported legislation or preventing passage of legislation that would negatively impact PUDs. King was the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 5424 in the 2015 session and his leadership played a critical role in passage of the legislation. The bill passed both houses of the legislature unanimously with Rep. Norm Johnson, also from the 14th District, providing leadership in the House to help facilitate passage of the Senate bill.

King’s District (14th) includes Klickitat County, the location of a Klickitat PUD project that uses landfill gas from the Roosevelt Regional Landfill to generate renewable electricity. The legislation allows Klickitat PUD to expand the project to produce and sell renewable natural gas (RNG) as a transportation fuel. When RNG is used as a transportation fuel it displaces gasoline or diesel with a renewable fuel, lowering greenhouse gas emissions. This new authority adds value to the PUD’s project, provides a substantial source of renewable fuel in the state, and reduces greenhouse gas from the transportation fleet, the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Washington.

The legislation also opens the door for Whatcom County PUD to expand their work with dairies in the area to produce and sell renewable natural gas from dairy digesters. Whatcom County is the 10th largest dairy producing county in the country. Whatcom PUD is currently working with Western Washington University and dairies in the county to address their excess dairy gas problem by researching economical methods to convert it to renewable natural gas.

“It was with the support of Sen. King that we were able to take a good idea and develop it into good public policy,” said George Caan, Executive Director of the Washington Public Utility Districts Association. “We are grateful for his dedicated effort to guide this legislation through the process.”

The Washington PUD Association was established in 1936. Its mission is to support, protect and enhance its members’ ability to conserve the power and water resources for the benefit of the people of the State of Washington and provide not-for-profit, locally controlled utility services. Visit https://www.wpuda.org for more information.

Published Feb. 3, 2016. The original article and photo can be viewed here.

Legislature gives green light to statewide package of transportation revenue, reforms

After years of discussion, statewide listening tours and heated negotiations, the Legislature passed the final bills that make up the new $16 billion transportation package with a broad bipartisan vote today. The suite of 14 reform and revenue bills now headed to Gov. Jay Inslee for his signature will provide over 100,000 jobs, congestion relief and improved roadways statewide.

Sen. Curtis King, Senate transportation-committee chair, is pleased that cost-saving transportation reforms called for by the people of Washington had remained part of the final package.

“The reforms built into this package are groundbreaking. For the first time the sales tax that’s being charged on our highway projects will be returned for use on transportation work instead of being siphoned off to the general fund. There are changes to streamline our state’s ferry construction, improved permitting processes and much more,” said King, R-Yakima. “People who understand the complexities of transportation projects know these reforms will truly transform the way projects are managed by our state’s transportation department. There will be greater accountability and taxpayer dollars will be stretched further than ever.

“We also stopped the implementation of a low-carbon fuel standard. That’s huge,” King said. “This unnecessary and arbitrary charge with no environmental or transportation benefit would have raised the price of gas anywhere between 70 cents to well over a dollar a gallon. This would be a huge hit to the pocketbook of every citizen in our state and negatively impact our economic vitality.”

The final transportation-revenue package will devote $8.8 billion to new construction and $1.4 billion to maintain and preserve roads and bridges across the state. The previous transportation-revenue package approved by the Legislature, in 2005, allocated no money for maintenance and preservation. The primary source of revenue will come from an 11.9 cent-per-gallon gas-tax increase, phased in over two years.

“No one wanted to ask the citizens of this state to pay more at the pump, especially me. But we have reached a tipping point where our state’s crumbling roadways and aging bridges need to be repaired, congestion relieved and goods need to be able to get to market reliably. Continuing to delay improvements is not only costly, it is a safety issue as well. There are over 140 local projects funded and completed in this package. Nearly every project was strategically selected for maximum economic return. There is something that will benefit every part of our state in this package,” said King.

The package also includes money for ferries, rail and the Washington State Patrol. Sound Transit, operating in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, received the authority to seek voter approval for $15 billion in future projects.

“This package took the long way to the governor’s desk. Like many road trips, there were also some unexpected stops and bumps, but now I can look back and really appreciate the journey. Negotiations are about the art of compromise and this package is truly a reflection of that principle. There was one compromise I was unwilling to make, however, which was to go against the mandate from the people of Washington who told me they’d be willing to invest in our transportation system, but only if substantial reforms were included,” King explained. “I’m pleased to deliver a package that not only meets that expectation, but goes even further.”

Sen. Curtis King’s Olympia Update – End of Session Edition – April 24, 2015

For months, the plan has been for the Legislature to adjourn on Sunday, April 26. While those of us in the Senate have done everything possible to finish on time, I am disappointed to report that the Legislature is adjourning two days early and a special session has already been called by Gov. Inslee.

Click here to read my complete Olympia Update where I explain more about the end-of-session stalemate and I also highlight the local student pages who worked in Olympia this year.

King to host telephone town hall March 19

Sen. Curtis King invites residents of the 14th Legislative District to participate in an upcoming telephone town hall. The interactive forum allows people to ask questions, participate in instant polls or simply listen to the conversation through either their telephone or computer.

The community conversation will take place Thursday, March 19, at 7 p.m. and will last an hour.

On the evening of the virtual town hall, participants may call 509-795-3784 to join.

Residents may also join using their computers by going to listen.townhallinteractive.com and entering PIN: 928516 when prompted.

“This high-tech gathering is great way to bring folks from all over my district together. I’m excited to hear what my friends and neighbors have to say. Their feedback helps me do my job in Olympia,” said King.

Transportation reforms, revenue and projects now at House doorstep

Two days after the Senate passed a $15 billion transportation package, its transportation-committee chair is crediting the people of Washington for the cost-saving reforms that set the package apart from anything the Legislature has passed.

“The bills we have laid at the doorstep of the House of Representatives, with broad bipartisan votes, contain some very effective consumer protections – including one meant to keep fuel-related revenue from disappearing into the air, under the disguise of a low carbon fuel standard, instead being put toward roads and bridges,” said Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima. “Our negotiating positions have been closer than most folks know; taking the time to work out more of the details resulted in a great package for nearly every resident of our state.

“After the Senate put the brakes on the governor in 2013, and set aside the no-reform package he wanted, we went around the state listening to what the people said they wanted in a transportation system. At every turn they indicated a willingness to invest more in the infrastructure but only if we included reforms that would protect their investment and stretch their dollars,” King explained. “It’s those reforms that make this package so much better than the governor’s approach as well as what the Legislature adopted in 2003 and 2005.”

The 11-bill transportation-revenue package would devote $8 billion to new construction and $1.4 billion to maintenance and preservation of existing roads and bridges across the state. The first eight bills passed in the Senate addressed key reforms that were sticking points for King during negotiations. Agreement on the accountability measures led King and his Majority Coalition Caucus colleagues to support the proposed 11.7 cent-per-gallon gas-tax increase, phased in over three years.

“No one likes paying more at the pump, including me. But people in our state are smart and they understand we can’t have a ‘no tax of any kind’ option and still fix our crumbling infrastructure. I think folks can also see through the ‘make the polluters pay’ scheme that is rife with feel-good sound bites and devoid of tangible details – we can’t build roads and bridges on ideology,” said King, R-Yakima.

A transportation-revenue package has not been approved by the Legislature since 2005, and that one allocated no money to maintenance and preservation. King noted that this package gets the state back on track.

“Our roads and bridges have been neglected for over a decade. It is time for us to step up and deal with the mess we’ve been left,” continued King. “Sometimes that isn’t the popular choice, but it is the responsible and proper choice. Not all of the decisions we make in life are easy, but they still have to be made.”

The package also includes a contingency that effectively blocks any effort by the governor to use executive action to impose low-carbon fuel standards on Washington’s citizens.

“The idea that we have to decide between the environment and this revenue package is patently false. Our state is already a low-carbon place and many of the programs we’ve already put in place continue to drive down our carbon output. This revenue package doesn’t imperil the health of one single citizen, but it does provide tremendous economic development, hundreds of thousands of good, family-wage jobs and safer roads,” said King.