EVERETT—The Economic Alliance of Snohomish County held a Legislative Kickoff event on Wednesday, December 10, featuring a panel discussion with Washington State Representatives Sam Low (R-39), April Berg (D-44), Carolyn Eslick (R-39), and Washington State Senator Marko Liias (D-21). Topics of conversation spanned the lawmakers’ priorities going into the 2026 legislative session, and an array of topics from transportation; to budgets and taxes; to clean energy; to jobs; to housing and more.
EASC’s Legislative Kickoff event is a premier event that unites business leaders and elected officials to advocate for policies that drive the success of the local economy. As Snohomish County’s largest business advocacy organization, EASC strives to be business leaders’ voice in Olympia, representing the needs of industries across the region.
The event provides a critical platform for the local business community to engage directly with legislators before they head into session.
The event took place at Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett, beginning with a 9 a.m. breakfast and coffee mingling hour, following by some opening remarks by Ray Stephanson, President and CEO of EASC.
Rich White, Government Relations Manager for the Boeing Company – one of the events key sponsors – then shared some remarks saying, with more Boeing employees living in Snohomish County than anywhere else in the world, it’s a “special place” for the aerospace manufacturing giant.
“On behalf of the 34,000 Boeing employees who work in the county, as well as the 30,000 Boeing employees who live in the county, it’s a great honor to be here, to introduce this event,” said White.
Robert Knoll, Senior Government Affairs Rep for Puget Sound Energy (PSE) then took the stage to moderate the discussion with special guests Rep. Berg, Rep. Low, Rep. Eslick, and Sen. Liias.
After a quick lighting round of “fun facts,” Senator Liias took the first question, which had to do with keeping Move Ahead Washington afloat – particularly the US2 trestle replacement and Everett Link extension – with the state’s reduced transportation budget.
Sen. Liias deferred to the passing of ESSB5801, which was a bipartisan revenue package that increased the state gas tax (at a rate of 6 cents per gallon) to address maintenance preservation and increased costs for major projects.
On the Senate end, Liias continued, members have set aside money generated from this tax increase to deal with rising costs of supplies, but also complete Move Ahead projects.
“Finishing 522, building the trestle, are core priorities for our community. We have the funds in the outlook, but we need to make some tough decisions and prioritize projects,” said Liias adding stagnant job growth in Washington is also a cause. “I think there is a yellow, if not red, light blinking on our economy but I’m committed, on my part, to creating thousands of jobs across the state with our budget, to try and mitigate what we’re seeing at the national economy.”
Rep. Low was then asked what permitting, or procurement, strategies could be expected, at the House Transportation Committee level, to deal with cost overruns on infrastructure projects.
Low’s solution was to do more in the private sector, through public-private partnerships.
“We struggled in Olympia with transportation issues, with the cost overruns – which have been incredible and a lot of projects overbudget into the billions of dollars. What that does is slows up the rest of the projects here in Snohomish County,” said Low.
The good news, he added, was construction has just started on the Snohomish River Bridge with other projects in the pipeline.
To ensure freight and cargo shipments aren’t deprioritized, Sen. Liias added he’s been pushing for Supply Chain Infrastructure Grant Program – with the Port of Everett in mind. As of now there isn’t any dedicated funding for ports like what exists for freight rail, according to Liias, yet the Port of Everett is one of the largest ports on the west coast and pivotal in bringing in materials for the Boeing Company.
Moving on to business climate, Rep. Eslick was asked what her priorities are this session, particularly regarding reducing administrative burdens, permit streamlining, and B&O taxes.
Washington State ranks 42nd in the United States for business climate, Eslick noted chalking that up to “more regulations.”
“I will fight to my death on a 5% tax on payroll. We know that Seattle did that and we know that Amazon moved to Bellevue because of that,” said Eslick. “That is only a hinderance to us and that’s one of the reasons our unemployment is so high. We need to start protecting our employees and our workforce.”
Eslick applauded the RAP program up in Marysville for training, and educating, the next generation of workers and said she would be supporting that program and others like it. She also added that this session she will be fighting for families first and making sure business is still viable in Washington State.
Liias echoed the support for trade training, and career pipeline programs, but also stressed emphasis on higher education.
Rep. Berg then took the next questions, regarding sales tax revenue and how the Finance Committee is preparing for unintended impacts to service providers. The question was directly referring to ESSB5814, which went into effect October 1, and adds certain excise taxes on services.
“We know that our economy is moving away from consumption and moving more towards services, so that was part of the thinking of charging sales tax on services. That said, it was absolutely imperfect in lots of ways,” said Berg. “We are collecting a lot of feedback from communities, from school districts, and municipalities. There will be some clarifications on it so folks across the state will now who we’re charging, and how, and on what.”
A lot of those clarifications, Berg added, will revolve around sourcing with sales tax being charged on destination. The upside, Berg said, is there should be a bump in sales tax revenue which she called potential “accidental good news.”
Berg was also asked about slow employment growth in the most recent economic forecast, and how the legislature would support existing workforce training grants – especially in healthcare, construction, and advanced manufacturing.
“We are in a deficit, and it seems to be growing every day I wake up. We’ve also had stagnant employment growth. According to financial analysis we are in, what could be considered, a recession,” said Berg. “I think what you can expect to see this year is maintaining our commitments and really trying to keep to the ethics of promises made, promises kept.”
In addition, Berg said the legislature will need to get creative to offset capital dollars and maintain workforce, especially in advanced manufacturing. But she was confident the state would successfully get through the worst of it on top.
The topic of childcare accessibility and affordability went to Rep. Eslick – who sponsored House Bill 1648 which modified childcare provider qualifications. Though the bill was a start, Eslick said she will continue to look at permit streamlining, modifying licensing, and changing childcare workers in schools to be able to work 6 hours, instead of the state mandated 4, as well as a possible B&O incentive.
Regarding Housing and Land use, Rep. Berg addressed condo and rental reform, anticipating the topic to gain momentum in this session to obtain home ownership for young professionals.
It’s a topic “near and dear” to Rep. Berg’s heart, she said, especially despite her district in Mill Creek, which was built out as an HOA, having strong feelings about condo reform.
Rep. Low added to Rep. Berg’s points, talking about annexation as a possibility, but ultimately said these decisions are best left up to his constituents to decide.
The last conversation topic involved transparency and updating/reforming the state’s Public Records Act, of which Rep. Eslick said she “doesn’t know what that looks like,” but she “would support it,” adding that she only has one phone knowing its contents would be subject to a PRR but has “nothing to hide.”
Concluding the panel, the speakers were given a “lighting round” of questions on a variety of topics where they had just 30-seconds to answer each.
Wednesday’s Legislative Kickoff event was sponsored by Puget Sound Energy and the Boeing Company, with other sponsors including Community Transit, WSU Everett, Desimone Consulting Group, Heritage Bank, Astound, Herald Media, North Sound Media, Imagine Children’s Museum, and Navi’s Catering Kitchen – who provided the delicious breakfast.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
