City lobbyist briefs council on 2025 session; Airway Heights wins $906,000 for public safety campus

Emily Shea, the city’s state lobbyist, briefed the Airway Heights City Council on the 2025 Washington legislative session and highlighted a local budget win: "Ultimately, the final budget included 906,000 for the Public Safety Campus," she said.

Shea told the council the 105‑day session produced final operating, capital and transportation budgets after lawmakers addressed a large projected shortfall. She said the operating-budget package finalized at the end of the session totaled about $77.8 billion, left roughly $2.3 billion in reserves and relied in part on new taxes and fees. Shea added that the capital budget preserved funding mechanisms cities use to secure local construction grants.

On items that matter locally, Shea said the capital budget included money for PFAS investigation and monitoring and that the city’s requests for water‑system grants were affected by the larger funding gap in the Maca capital account. She also said the state’s transportation package included funding allocated to the Sandy Williams connecting‑communities pilot program and that the US‑2 active‑transportation project (phase 1) remained eligible for full funding under that program.

Shea said she will distribute a comprehensive end‑of‑session written report to council members later in the week that will include a detailed budget summary and descriptions of bills that may affect city priorities. "I will be sending out an end of session comprehensive written report later this week," she told the council.

The presentation prompted no formal action; council thanked Shea for the briefing and moved on to staff reports.