OLYMPIA – District 13 Representative Alex Ybarra said there were a lot of good moments this session, but he is most proud of securing millions of dollars in capital funds for local projects.

“We were very lucky,” said Ybarra. “It was a good year for us.”

He said that he felt like there were a lot more bad bills during the COVID-19 sessions of the last few years because the bills weren’t able to be discussed or fleshed out the same way they are when legislators are able to have passing conversations or happenstance run-ins in the hallways. In part because of that, Ybarra said he was being able to secure millions of dollars in capital requests, which he was very proud of accomplishing for the area.

“So, the big deal was Samaritan,” Ybarra said. “They needed $8.4 million (for) their project and they’ve been doing a whole bunch of work to try to get the money and we were able to secure the funds for them.”

He added that the 13th District legislators were able to notch $3.8 million for Confluence Health to finish their Radiation Treatment Center project as well. The radiation treatment center is under construction across the street from the Confluence Health-Moses Lake Clinic.

With that success, Ybarra said it still didn’t fulfill all the requests they received for capital funds this session. He said what local legislators secured this session was only about a third of the total requests they received.

“There were a lot of folks that didn’t get what they wanted so I’ll be working on it next year to try to get some of that funding to those folks for the projects that didn't get funded this year,” he said.

Ybarra had three bills introduced this session: House Bills 1213, 1624 and 1796.

HB 1213 concerned compliance with labeling requirements for wipes. The bill passed both the House and Senate unanimously and awaits the governor’s signature. Local sewer system maintainers have issues with wipes labeled as “flushable” actually clogging up water treatment infrastructure.

HB 1624 modifies provisions governing the administration of educational service district board member elections by removing provisions requiring elections to be conducted only by mail. The bill passed the House 97-0 and the Senate 47-1 and was signed into law on April 13. The law goes into effect July 23.

HB 1796 concerned property tax exemptions for certain mobile homes and manufactured homes. The bill did not make it out of committee.

Looking forward to next session, Ybarra said he will be focusing on his legislative committees and the problems they look to tackle.

“I’ve got three new committees this year,” Ybarra said.

Those committees are Postsecondary Education and Workforce; Environment and Energy; and Innovation, Community and Economic Development, and Veterans.

Ybarra said this session worked a lot better than the remote sessions that were held during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I thought it went smoother than other sessions,” said Ybarra.

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