Legislators have agreed to a plan to lift the cap and want to spend $870 million more on special education programs.
Inadequate housing stock is causing problems across the country. Local zoning is part of the problem. State-level reforms in two western states may point to the answer.
The state is facing more than a dozen lawsuits involving at least 180 ex-employees who were allegedly forced from their jobs after asserting religious or other objections to the COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
Gov. Jay Inslee proposed a plan to “transform the state’s mental health system” by 2023, but the state has failed to meet its deadline and the repercussions are frustrating families, advocates and law enforcement.
While improvements could take a decade to complete and cost more than $200 million, officials are hopeful that the city’s downtown transit system can improve its broken and run-down stations to boost ridership.
The state’s first auction for pollution allowances sold all of its nearly 6.2 million allowances, each of which represented one metric ton of greenhouse gas emissions. The settlement price was $48.50 per ton.
The state’s employment office will review the cases of 136,000 residents who collectively received $1.2 billion in “overpayments.” Only approximately 21,000 residents can expect to have their repayments waived.
Patients from abortion-banned states are traveling thousands of miles to receive the service in Washington state, where the procedure remains legal and where efforts are being made to protect abortion patients and providers.
BIPOC entrepreneurs, veteran- and women-owned businesses and small businesses in underserved regions of Washington state, including Walla Walla County, may be eligible to receive an impact grant of up to $100,000.
South Carolina will hold the first primary election but it isn't yet clear when the first five states' primaries will take place. Meanwhile, no one wants to run Seattle and redistricting never ends.
A group of bipartisan state legislators have announced support for 13 bills that would ease permitting, zoning or other regulations to increase housing availability. Some estimate Washington currently needs 150,000 new housing units.
The number of deaths on the state’s roads last year was the highest in more than 30 years. There is bipartisan support for legislation to increase Washington’s road safety and lower the blood alcohol limit.
Calls to the state’s Employment Security Department were answered just 12.5 percent of the time in December and problems left over from the pandemic continue to backlog the benefits system, delaying relief for residents.
Washington’s biggest county has proposed a requirement that retailers in unincorporated areas accept up to $250 in cash for a single transaction and would prohibit marking up prices for cash-paying customers.
Only 59 percent of homeless students in Washington state graduate from high school in four years. But North Thurston Public Schools has their more than 600 homeless students graduating at nearly the same rate as their peers.
The Washington state governor’s budget proposal for the next two-year cycle will fund a variety of programs across the state, including education, construction, salaries and public safety. There would be $2.6 billion left over.
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