Jinkins: Governing is hard. Politicking isn’t. Here’s how WA is moving forward, together
When the COVID-19 pandemic officially arrived in our state in 2020, I had been Speaker of the House for just 45 days. Suddenly we were confronting a deadly virus disrupting everything from schools, to workplaces to the global supply chain.
Majority Democrats in the state House and Senate had a responsibility to do right by the people of Washington as we entered these challenging and unprecedented times. It was our job to govern.
Two years later, I feel good about how my caucus — and our Senate Democratic colleagues — have governed during this pandemic. We’ve focused on ensuring we recover together.
Previous recoveries haven’t always brought everyone along, and those most likely to fall behind are those who were struggling to begin with. We couldn’t just weather the pandemic; we had to place a strong foundation of opportunity reaching every corner of the state.
That’s why in 2021 we passed the Washington Recovery Budget, which invested big in COVID-19 response and public health measures, in rent and mortgage assistance to keep people housed, in small business supports to help keep our local Main Streets afloat, in child care and early learning so working parents could access this resource, in broadband expansion, and more.
That’s why in the 2022 session, we followed up with a historic supplemental budget that funds utility assistance so households can pay basic bills, in food assistance so families don’t go hungry, in additional small business assistance such as B&O tax credits and reduced unemployment insurance premiums, and in support for hospitality-related businesses — one of our hardest-hit sectors.
That’s not all. There’s a new one percent state student loan program to make college more affordable, a nurse educator loan program to train much-needed health care workers, and grants for students with low-incomes to cover costs beyond tuition, like transportation, books and child care.
There’s our sweeping, $17 billion Move Ahead Washington transportation package that will reshape and modernize our transportation system so it’s more accessible and sustainable. Plus a historic construction budget that invests in schools, colleges and state parks as well as in building more affordable housing to address this dire need.
If this is the first you’re hearing about much of this, it might be because governing doesn’t tend to make headlines.
But politicking does. Whether it’s politicizing masks and spreading vaccine disinformation during a public health crisis, or falsely claiming teachers in our K-12 public schools are indoctrinating students with critical race theory, some have utilized the pandemic as an opportunity to stoke division and fear.
We see how this plays out in other states, and in Congress, and how destructive it can be. When elected leaders focus their energy rolling back the clock on abortion rights, passing bills that hurt trans children, or banning books from school libraries and classrooms, that’s not governing. That’s politicking.
As our state’s first lesbian Speaker of the House, I’ve spent my political career standing against bad ideas that divide people and pit communities against each other. The short-term gain is not worth the long-lasting damage to our democracy. I know we make better progress as a state when we are united, not divided.
With 95% of bills passing the Legislature on a bipartisan basis — many unanimously or near-unanimously — both sides of the aisle could be talking about all the big, historic accomplishments of the last two years and how they help the people. I know members of my caucus are doing this in their communities right now.
Governing, particularly in challenging times, is not easy. Yet it’s what people expect from their elected leaders. Good policies and smart investments don’t always get the most media coverage, especially with highly polarizing issues providing a distraction. But governing, not politicking, helped Washington weather the pandemic better than most other states. And it will help us recover better, together.
Laurie Jinkins (D-Tacoma) is the Speaker of the Washington State House of Representatives.
This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 5:00 AM.