Legislative wins for Federal Way include keeping money

Published 8:30 am Friday, April 17, 2026

While the budget deficit this year’s short legislative session in Olympia made it a challenging session, there were still wins to celebrate for Federal Way.

30th District State Rep. Kristine Reeves (D) and city lobbyist Luke Esser presented some updates to the Federal Way City Council and the public on April 7.

Many of these wins focused on protecting money from being cut rather than on allocating new money this session, Reeves said.

The Federal Way City Council’s top priority this session was a request for a policy change to modify procedures for releasing sexually violent predators to less restrictive alternative placements.

Reeves co-sponsored HB 2533 to achieve this goal, which is currently being reviewed by the Community Safety Committee. This means it wasn’t passed, but Reeves said if the city prioritizes this again next year, it could keep moving through the process.

The city also asked for investments in the development and preservation of affordable housing and funding for childcare services, along with several transportation projects and a capital budget request for Emergency Operations Center funding.

“In the affordable housing space you asked for some very specific items … these weren’t specific bills that I passed, but they were bills that we did vote on and we were able to pass to support some of the affordable housing requests that you’ve all made,” Reeves said.

City lobbyist Esser went over some affordable housing and shelter related bills that will have an impact on Federal Way, including HB 2266: STEP Housing and Affordable Housing Limitations On Cities, and SB 6026: Commercial Zoning and Ground Floor Retail Limitations On Cities.

The city also requested $150,000 in specific childcare grants. Although Reeves said they were not able to give the city that money directly, “we were able to preserve childcare grant funding at the state level that the city would be eligible for.”

Part of what is making this childcare access funding available is that the state partnered with the Balmer Family Foundation to receive $170 million in annual support to ensure that the state’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) and Head Start programs have capacity, Reeves said.

When it comes to transportation project requests, Reeves celebrated protecting previously allocated funding even though they were not able to get any new funding.

“We went into a pretty big billion dollar budget deficit, but I am proud to say that we were able to protect…over $50 million in state appropriated funding that has been awarded to the city of Federal Way for these transportation projects,” Reeves said. “You all may not feel like that’s a win, but I feel like in a year when people were actually taking money back from projects, being able to protect that money on behalf of the city was a win.”

The city also requested an $82,583 investment in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in the city, and Reeves shared lawmakers were actually able to get slightly over the ask at $86,000.

While not specifically asked for by the city, Reeves also shared that funding was secured for the Federal Way Pediatric Outpatient Surgical Clinic and to increase dental care capacity at Healthpoint.

$1 million was secured each for the following projects: Highline College HUB (a satellite campus of Highline College in Federal Way), dual language at Highline, YMCA Camp Kilworth, FUSION Family Center Expansion and the El Centro Mercado Project.

$258,000 was also secured for youth and young adult shelter planning by FUSION and $766,000 for Pacific Bonsai Museum renovations.

As a representative for the communities of Pacific and Algona as well as Federal Way, some focus of the 30th District delegation was on flood response funding and water system improvements for those areas. Pacific in particular was “the most drastically impacted municipality in our district” by flooding this year, Reeves said.

Lengthy debate

For the first time in state history, the Legislature participated in a 24-hour round-the-clock debate this session. The topic: the so-called “millionaires tax.”

For Reeves, this meant she was awake for 30 hours, then had only a few hours of sleep before heading into another long legislative day.

Reeves actually voted against the tax “for a variety of reasons,” and said that her experience with the 24-hour debate was “a bit different” from her colleagues because of the amendments she introduced.

“I introduced 15 amendments trying to ensure regressive tax relief for middle class families. Things like a child tax credit, a dependent care tax credit … I’m all for progressive tax reform. I’m all for taxing millionaires. I just want to make sure if we’re going to add another tax that we do it by taking taxes that you’re already paying away … and that just did not happen,” Reeves explained.

Mayor Jim Ferrell expressed gratitude to Reeves for her efforts, saying “thank you … on behalf of everybody, not only here and in the audience, but everybody that lives in the 30th District in Federal Way.”

The full legislative update from Reeves and Esser can be found on Youtube and their presentations can be found in city documents.

More 30th District legislative updates will be coming soon from Rep. Jamila Taylor (D) and Sen. Claire Wilson (D) at an upcoming council meeting.