Senate Bill 5528, which now returns to the Senate for concurrence, is prime sponsored by Senator Jamie Pedersen (D‑43rd District: Seattle), and championed by Seattle Subway, The Urbanist, the Sierra Club’s Cascade Chapter, Transportation Choices Coalition, NPI, and many other organizations.
Category: Public Planning
Posted inPolicy Topics
Washington State Senate passes two critically important gun safety bills in evening session
A pair of extremely important, much needed gun safety bills previously approved by the House of Representatives each received constitutional majorities in the Washington State Senate on March 1st, 2022 and are one step closer to becoming laws.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Ban on high-capacity gun magazines very popular with Washingtonians, NPI poll finds
60% of 700 likely 2022 Washington State voters surveyed by Public Policy Polling (PPP) for NPI from February 17th-18th expressed support for reducing the scope of gun violence in our state by banning the sale of high-capacity magazines.
Posted inPolicy Topics
A huge majority of Washington voters support prohibiting guns at local government meeting facilities and election sites, NPI poll finds
66% of seven hundred likely 2022 Washington State voters surveyed by Public Policy Polling for NPI expressed support for taking action to prevent gun violence and protect our democracy while just 29% were opposed and 5% were not sure. 57% of the total surveyed expressed strong support.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Democrats’ legislative wins won’t resonate unless they get better at framing, storytelling
Will the Democrats who advocated for Amtrak (only a handful of House Republicans voted “yea” on infrastructure) find a way to “sell” to the public what will be substantial improvements in public services?
Posted inPolicy Topics
Democratic legislators unveil 2022 Move Ahead Washington transportation package
Negotiated by teams led by House Transportation Chair Jake Fey and Senate Transportation Chair Marko Liias, Move Ahead Washington would make substantial, billion-dollar multimodal investments in roads, bridges, ferries, and public transit over the next several years
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
Right to repair heads to House floor; Sound Transit revenue bill goes to Senate Rules
Two NPI priority bills are on the move in the Washington State Legislature, with one week left to go until the 2022 chamber of origin cutoff arrives.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Light rail trains roll through Bellevue on overhead power during weekend of testing
Video taken by Sound Transit’s photographer shows trains rolling from several angles during these nighttime forays onto our new rapid transit guideway. You can also see what it was like to be inside the train and stations during the testing
Posted inPolicy Topics
School seismic safety bill passes out of Senate Ways & Means with bonding plan removed
The purpose of the legislation is to protect schoolchildren, faculty, volunteers, and community members from geologic hazards by modernizing decrepit, dangerous old school buildings that are vulnerable to earthquakes, tsunamis, and lahars.
Posted inEducation
Most Washington voters think upgrading our seismically vulnerable school buildings is a state responsibility, NPI poll finds
The finding, unveiled by NPI at a public hearing in the Senate Ways & Means Committee, affirms that voters see the Legislature as principally responsible for upholding the state’s paramount duty to “make ample provision” for the education of all of the state’s children, as the Framers of the Constitution intended when they wrote Washington’s plan of government.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Two bills to polish and refine 2021 police reform laws clear Washington State House
House Bill 1719 and House Bill 1735 received nearly unanimous support in Friday afternoon floor action.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Big news! Meaningful school seismic safety bills have been introduced in the Legislature
The bills (HB 2095 and SB 5933) would create a school seismic safety grant program, backed by general obligation bonds that would need to be voter-approved in a special statewide vote to be held in November of 2022.
Posted inPolicy Topics
Washingtonians favor both improving Amtrak Cascades and building ultra high speed rail
62% of voters who participated in NPI’s November 2021 poll of the Washington State electorate said they would support updating and implementing Amtrak Cascades’ Long Range Plan to electrify existing intercity rail service at a cost of about $10 billion, while 51% said they would support a long-term project to build a new ultra high speed rail line costing between $24 and $2 billion.
Posted inLegislative Advocacy
A majority of Washington voters are willing to raise vehicle fees by $10/year to fund ferries
51% of likely 2022 voters surveyed by Public Policy Polling for NPI two months ago said they would support increasing the fees they pay annually to renew their vehicles’ car tabs by ten dollars to provide Washington State Ferries with stable, dedicated funding. 44% said they were opposed, while 6% were not sure.