LEGISLATURE 2023-24: Week 10: Legislative Update & Important Funding for our Community (REP. CLYDE SHAVERS)

State Representative Clyde Shavers (D-Oak Harbor) sent this email to constituents from his legislative account on Fri., Mar. 17, 2023.

Dear friends, 

March 8th marked the House of Origin Cutoff in Olympia, which means we’ve crossed the deadline for most bills to pass either the House or the Senate. The House has passed over 300 bills, with nearly two-thirds receiving unanimous support and over seventy six percent receiving strong bipartisan support.

As we resume committee hearings and prepare our state budget, I’d like to share an update on some bills and funding requests that directly help our community!

Our Bills That Passed the House!

Out of 12 bills, we’ve voted and passed 6 bills out of the House – which is amazing! These bills address all types of legislative priorities including environmental protection, support for our veterans and military, better educational opportunities for our children, and much more. These are the bills that are now heading to the Senate:

• House Bill 1086 provides better opportunities for our communities to partner with local service organizations
• House Bill 1346 establishes the Purple Star Award by recognizing schools that support our military-connected students
• House Bill 1458 studies how to remove unemployment barriers for our apprentices
• House Bill 1499 allows food banks to carry non-food essentials more easily – like diapers and hygiene products
• House Bill 1658 provides financial education and allows high school credit for paid work experience
• House Bill 1768 encourages utility businesses to use clean energy – green hydrogen – through an incentivized public utility tax exemption

For more information about our legislation, click here.

Last week, I published an editorial in the La Conner Weekly News highlighting the need to improve educational outcomes for children in our community. I highly encourage you to read it! 

Projects That Help Our Communities

I’ve been collaborating with community members on meaningful projects that benefit all of us. Out of a dozen or so requests, below are just some of these wonderful projects:

Environmental Protection

Stanwood – Diking District Fish Passage and Levee Improvements: This project will better protect local businesses from flood and tidal waters. It allows new businesses to develop and prosper in Stanwood without the risk of floods. Simultaneously, the levee will protect prime farmland that provides vital economic benefit to our area.

Greenbank – Lagoon Pt. Community Forest Grant: Forest management is critical to carbon sequestration, preventing fragmentations of important forested wildlife corridors, and enhancing climate resiliency on Whidbey Island. This funding will be used to maintain heavily used trails and timber corridors in the area to ensure Lagoon Point Community Forest continues to be open to the public while also being preserved for future generations.

Coupeville – Historic Waterfront Flood Mitigation: Preventing the damage that flooding causes is a large priority for me. Investing in prevention and resiliency results in overall savings compared to the cost of recovering from disaster. This flood mitigation funding will help design and engineer plans to make Coupeville more resilient in the future!

Oak Harbor – Utility Debt Relief: Local utilities continue to experience large debt payments resulting in increased costs for consumers. Reducing this debt can lead to cost savings for households every year. Helping local partners reduce this debt is critical to reducing wastewater rates for working families.

Housing

Coupeville – Food Bank and Workforce Housing Apartments:  Food banks in the community helps address food insecurity and resiliency for years to come. This funding will provide two large units of affordable, workforce housing in our community to help address the critical shortage in our community.

Oak Harbor – Camas Flats: The primary public benefit of Camas Flats is creating 81 new affordable housing units, eight of which will be dedicated as Permanent Supportive Housing Units for individuals and families experiencing homelessness and two units for Veterans. Camas Flats will offer a full suite of supportive services and case management necessary to increase health, education, and employment outcomes for the residents. In addition, the project will strengthen the area’s social, economic, and racial diversity.

Health Care

Whidbey – Health Medical Center Surgery Suite: This project will update the critical infrastructure necessary to serve the medical needs of the Island County community. This project will upgrade HVAC to meet current air quality requirements and for operating rooms. The resulting increase in air quality will provide the necessary sterile environment for life saving operations.

Community Improvements

Mount Vernon – Skagit PUD 10^thDistrict Waterline Relocations: Culvert replacement will improve salmon runs throughout the state, increasing tourism, the fishing industry, and our overall economy. As culvert replacement projects occur, the relocation of the waterlines will benefit the public by not having any disruptions to water service.

Mount Vernon – Lincoln Theatre HVAC and fire suppression: With only a heating boiler and no cooling available in the current system, a modern HVAC system will provide cooling in the summer months. Currently, the theatre remains ‘dark’ in the summer because of the uncomfortable heat in the building. Cooling the building will expand the Lincoln Theatre’s season into the summer months. The economic stimulus created will lead to long-term job creation in downtown Mount Vernon and hotels in Skagit County.

Arlington – Commercial Kitchen: Food delivery and food truck businesses are growing faster than dine-in options, and there is a lack of commercial kitchens in this area. The City of Arlington is creating a food truck park in cooperation with Washington State Food Truck Association to better serve our local community.

Honored to Serve You 

Thank you to all who attended our community town halls last Saturday! I sincerely appreciate you taking a moment to share your thoughts with me – because there’s nothing more important to me than hearing directly from you.

As always, thank you for giving me the opportunity to continue my life-long dedication to public service. As a veteran having attended the U.S. Naval Academy, graduated from Naval Nuclear Power School, trained at a naval nuclear reactor plant, and served in the Middle East and Southeast Asia as a public affairs officer, I am honored to serve you here in the Washington State Legislature. 

Always at Your Service, 

State Representative Clyde Shavers 

10th Legislative District