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Dear Friends,
I want to thank you all of you who had the opportunity to participate in my telephone town hall last week. We had a great discussion on many issues impacting the 10th Legislative District as well as Washington state.
This week I had the opportunity to participate in two interviews on TVW. You may recall they did a summertime special report on ferries that I participated in with some other legislators whose districts contain the ferry system. Sen. Christine Rolfes and I participated in this week's segment of the “The Impact” which you can view here.
I also had the privilege of being interviewed on their “Off the Set” Web site video blog program about the work I have been doing on economic development in Olympia to push reforms that will strengthen our economy and protect and create private-sector jobs. You can watch that interview here.
Finally, as we approach the halfway point in the session I am very concerned about the lack of urgency we are seeing with the budget from the majority party. Today the House Republican Caucus took a bold step forward and unveiled a proposal to Fund Education First. We are proposing a separate education budget before we do anything else. The state Supreme Court said in the McCleary v. State of Washington case we are failing in our paramount duty to fully-fund basic education. We have proposed an education budget to make sure we are funding it at the level we should be. Let's pass an education budget to ensure our students, teachers and school districts are getting our first dollars, not our last. You can read more about our plan here.
I hope you find this update informative. Please continue to communicate with me on your priorities as we move into the second half of the legislative session. There are still a number of issues to be debated and your input and feedback is important to me.
Warm regards.
Warm Regards,
Norma Smith
