Senate Hearing Session Testimony Portrays a Unified Message for SR167

Last Wednesday's Senate hearing session on transportation was an experience in endurance. With over 300 people attending, the three hour time allotment allowed for only 75 speakers from the audience. 

                                                                     Photo courtesy of Port of Tacoma
But those 75 speakers included local business owners, electeds, chamber representatives and community members, all impacted by transportation in our region.  

A common theme among those testifying is that 30-40 years is long enough to wait to complete a major freight corridor like SR167 which ends in a field in Puyallup, that without an investment in our region's transportation infrastructure between the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle we will begin to loose our competitiveness in the global economy, and that state finance and construction project reform is necessary to maximize and leverage all transportation revenue received. 

All three of our legislators in the 25th District, Senator Bruce Dammeier, Representative Hans Zeiger and Representative Dawn Morrell, were present to hear testimony.  Representing the Puyallup Sumner Chamber business interests, Chairman of the Board, John Rader, and myself spoke to the legislators in attendance to explain how completion of SR167 would positively impact our local business communities, and again left a list of the more than 100 chamber members who signed letters requesting our state legislators to support a transportation package that completes SR167.  A big thank you to all our members who participated in submitting letters.  Our Chamber has gotten a lot of "mileage" out of them this year.