The Lewis County Board of Commissioners hosted a legislative roundtable meeting Tuesday afternoon.
It was the first of a series of meetings in the community with local lawmakers ahead of the state's 2026 legislative session, which is set to begin Jan. 12.
Lewis County Commissioners Scott Brummer, Lindsey Pollock and Sean Swope welcomed state legislators from both the 20th and 19th Legislative Districts as well as county staff and the county’s contracted lobbyists.
The commissioners and staff during the meeting advocated for legislative priorities focused on funding county infrastructure projects and policy changes that could help relieve a strained county budget.
Legislators spent the meeting voicing optimism on policy issues, many of which are in line with current legislative efforts. Their attitude was not so rosy for the funding side of things. The group of five lawmakers attempted to manage expectations around funding requests, reminding all in attendance of the state's grim budget outlook going into 2026.
The state enacted sweeping tax increases during the 2025 legislative session to combat a projected budget shortfall, and now tax revenues are projected to come up more than $500 million short for the biennium, creating a continued shortfall for the state.
The state's entire 20th Legislative District delegation — state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia; state Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Chehalis; and state Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama — attended the meeting.
Two out of three lawmakers from Washington state’s 19th Legislative District — state Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, and state Rep. Joel McEntire, R-Cathlamet — also showed up. Together, the two delegations represent all of Lewis County, with Interstate 5 roughly marking the border between the two.
“The budget is now $400 million in the hole for this biennium. That puts us in a really difficult spot trying to advocate for additional funding,” Orcutt said. “Having said that, it doesn't mean we’re not going to try to get these as priorities, because we know how important they are to our communities.”
Despite the grim budget outlook, the bulk of the county’s priorities were centered around a need for funding for large-scale infrastructure projects in the area.
For the county’s transportation needs, it asked first and foremost for additional funding for the North Lewis County Industrial Access project, a years-old effort to improve roads and infrastructure for accessing the Port of Centralia from Interstate 5. The plan includes a range of large infrastructure road improvements for Harrison Avenue, North Scheuber Road and others in the area, culminating, the county hopes, in an additional highway interchange north of Centralia.
Other transportation projects include additional funding for the more than 200 bridges in Lewis County and a closer look at improving Interstate 5 Exit 72. Pollock and Lewis County Public Works Director Geoff Soderquist drove home that the county needs more than money for specific bridge projects. It needs a better way to secure funding for bridges in the future without requiring legislative intervention.
“We're doing repairs on a 105-year-old bridge out near Morton, designing those right now because the cost to replace a bridge across the Tilton is not feasible for us right now,” Soderquist said. “It's more of a general starting to understand the age and the lifecycle that we’re reaching with a lot of these bridges for the first time and that fiscal responsibility that's going to come with repairing or replacing these bridges with the costs continuing to escalate.”
Outside transportation infrastructure, the county is also looking for funding for a range of capital projects and two general infrastructure projects specific to two smaller communities in rural Lewis County.
The capital projects include funding for improvements to the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds, including a new drainage system and changes to the 4-H barn, an update of the Lewis County Water lab and updated HVAC systems for the county’s Law and Justice Center and Public Health and Social Services building.
The specific rural county projects receiving attention are the Packwood sewer, which has been on the legislative priorities list before, and the Carlisle Lake dam in Onalaska. Delays to the Packwood sewer led to a missed federal funding deadline. The project is now in need of more than $3 million to stay on track. The Carlisle Lake dam was recently downgraded in quality, with the state warning of deterioration and safety concerns at the dam.
After hearing the presentations on different funding needs, the legislators generally gave similar feedback, urging the county to provide as much detail on sites, funding amounts needed and how the projects could be phased.
“On the capital stuff and budget stuff, generally, the more you can provide specific dollar amounts and prioritize that, that's always helpful, so we can do the best we can,” Braun said. “It’s a short session, supplemental year. Some of these will be very difficult. But if we understand your priorities, we’re going to do the best job to get it done.”
Moving on to larger scale statewide policy priorities, the county is looking to throw its weight behind four issues that are impacting counties across the state. First, the county spoke on the need to expand the uses for public health services funding. The commissioners have frequently decried the limitations of public health funding in recent months, especially when discussing housing and homelessness. Grants such as the Consolidated Homeless Grant from the Washington state Department of Commerce come with strict rules on what expenses can be covered.
Two other funding issues deal with reimbursement for jail medical providers and increasing funding for public defense. A recent decision by the state supreme court to enact public defender case load limits has caused alarm for counties that worry they will have to pay the same sum for less labor and hire additional defenders to fill the gaps. Another major expense for the county is providing medical services in the jail without enough reimbursement from the state or Medicaid to make up the costs.
The final concern was over tort and liability claims, which have increased in recent years as the state has extended statutes of limitations for such claims. The state itself has also seen an increase in claims recently, leading to rising costs to settle those claims.
Braun attempted to ease concerns, assuring local officials that the policy issues are all areas where work is already being done to ease a difficult financial situation for many counties across the state. Abbarno added that strong communication with the county has already made the legislative delegation aware of major issues.
“Your policy and budget priorities are no surprise,” Abbarno said. “I think that's a testament to the collaboration the commissioners have with the delegation both the 19th and the 20th, and I think as we continue to move through this budget session, this legislative session, we’ll just continue to collaborate.”
