Infrastructure Investment:
Improving roads, bridges, and public transportation can create jobs and stimulate economic growth. These projects not only provide immediate employment opportunities but also enhance long-term economic productivity.
Partnering with contractors and the unions that represent their employees would be a privilege. We must continue important maintenance, new development of affordable housing and transit, and offer sustainable careers in the trades.
Immediate investments into support of local priority hire and community workforce agreements through offering grants and other funding opportunities will grow and develop groups of local workers in jobs that propel them to the middle class.
Small Business Support:
I've been a small business owner. My business was created to support injured workers, veterans, and seniors live their lives in their own homes. The amount of ridiculous red-tape and frustration you face as a small business owner is something I've unfortunately faced first-hand.
I'd love the opportunity to bring my ability to run business to the state budget and provide real support to small business owners. Easing barriers to loans and incentivizing the most difficult thing a business can do, scaling-up, would be huge priorities so that our state can recognize the incredible opportunity we have to support good employers.
Let's reward the risk that small businesses take to provide necessary services to our communities.
For young people in our district, and throughout the state, buying a home is almost out of the question. At the same time, rents are soaring so it's hard for people, young and old, to live near their work and their families. Mix all that with pain at the pump, stagnant wages, inflation, and the thickest red-tape imaginable for small businesses, and you have a complete crisis of affordability.
Our state has relied on the same tired "solutions" for too long. Unfairly taxing the working and middle class isn't going to work because it hasn't ever worked.
My platform is designed to generate real wealth for our residents. We can all play our part to make our neighborhoods safe, combat climate change, and support our public schools - but the biggest impact I want to make is in making our state affordable.
Fixing Our Crisis of Affordability.
Housing Availability:
Upholding Progressive Values:
I'd really like for all of our kids to afford to purchase a home eventually. Housing of all kinds needs to be built, and lawmakers need to be partners to local jurisdictions in fixing our housing problem.
When you ask a municipal official what the number one problem in their city is, most of them answer, "housing". These folks have been trusted to deliver for their communities, but too often have to choose between state mandated growth and being responsive to their residents. We urgently need to bridge that gap.
I believe in lawmaking that preserves our neighborhoods while planning for our future. I'll bring that sensibility to Olympia to deliver lasting results on housing.
This is a state that has a tradition of leading with progressive values. I'm strongly committed to preserving the right to choose, strongly committed to common sense gun safety legislation, and strongly committed to passing meaningful legislation on climate change so that all current and future generations can live in the beauty, bounty, and compassion of the state we love.
I also believe that everyone in our state has the right to be treated with dignity and respect, no matter their sexual orientation. I believe we should continue our work to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in all aspects of our state government and all aspects of our shared community.