Governor signs package of transportation, safety, education and housing bills

The governor signed a package of bills in a conference-room ceremony that included measures on transportation funding, worker and public safety, education and housing policy.

Leading the package was House Bill 21 34, a supplemental state transportation budget the governor said addresses declining transportation revenue and rising project costs. The governor said the Climate Commitment Act has already added $1,000,000,000 in this biennium and that this supplemental contributes another $140,000,000 in Climate Commitment Act revenues plus $154,000,000 in future funding for ferry construction and electrification. The governor also said the budget provides $30,000,000 in additional operating support for ferries, a pilot program to test speed-camera technology on Interstate 5 and more training slots for state-patrol trooper cadets. “We're getting our electric boats,” the governor said.

The signing included several safety- and workforce-related bills. The governor signed House Bill 20 22, a crane-safety measure that sets standards for crane operation and holds contractors responsible for failures; Andrea and Henry Wong, who the governor said lost their daughter Sarah Penkeep Wong in a crane accident, were present and acknowledged for their advocacy. The governor also signed Senate Bill 54 24 to permit flexible or part-time schedules for peace officers to aid recruitment and retention, and Senate Bill 56 52 to provide compensation and recovery options for tow-operator costs following crashes.

Other bills signed at the ceremony included measures to improve transition services for people reentering the community (House Bill 20 99, requiring agencies to help obtain IDs before release), expand access to relocation assistance for manufactured/mobile-home communities (Senate Bill 60 59), and extend financial-aid eligibility to support postsecondary completion (Senate Bill 59 04). The governor signed education-related bills such as Senate Bill 51 80 to join the Interstate Teacher Mobility Compact and House Bill 23 31 to require at least one parent on instructional-materials committees and offer a path to resolve materials disputes.

The governor also signed bills addressing public-health and family supports — including measures to strengthen preventive health coverage, expand training options for home-care workers, and direct courts to consider the dangers of high-potency synthetic opioids like fentanyl when deciding child-removal cases — and bills to encourage conversion of underutilized commercial property into affordable housing through a tax-deferral option.

Ceremonial moments punctuated the event: the governor paused for photographs, invited Charlotte Littleton, a student, to assist with a pen during the final signing and thanked many sponsors by name. The governor repeatedly framed the package as providing tools for communities and noted that some funding pressures will require future policy work. He also asserted that repealing the Climate Commitment Act would “blow a hole” in transportation funding and called claims that delaying electric ferries in favor of diesel boats would speed delivery “false.”

The ceremony closed after the governor signed what he said was the last bill he would sign in that conference room and invited applause.