In case you missed it: Amazon is pumping another $100 million into the City of Bellevue’s affordable housing scene! Announced at the groundbreaking for the Spring District’s Bridge Housing project, check out the full details at the press release linked here, and snippets from the 425... Continue Reading
News
The latest & greatest on all things Bellevue, Eastside, and Chamber-member-related.
This last week was fiscal week, which meant there were long days - going into the evening - of hearings and executive sessions to move bills out of fiscal committees by house of origin fiscal cutoff on Friday, Feb 28th. The committee meetings are marathons, sometimes having over 30 bill hearings... Continue Reading
In response to Gov. Ferguson’s Thursday, February 27 Press Conference “The Governor's focus on reform before revenue is a much-needed departure from the last several budget cycles in which the state has grown at over twice the rate of median household income growth,” said... Continue Reading
Friday, February 21st was house of origin policy cutoff where all bills referred to a policy committee had to be passed out of committee by that date. The week was filled with packed hearings and committee votes. Those that didn’t get out of committee are now considered dead. The exception... Continue Reading
The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce and the Northwest U.S.-India Chamber of Commerce, a subsidiary of the National U.S. India Chamber of Commerce (NUICC) are in the process of establishing a strategic partnership via a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to encourage and strengthen ties between the two... Continue Reading
One third of the 2025 session is done! This week committees were busy voting on bills before the first deadline next Friday, February 21st. If a bill has not moved out of its policy committee by this Friday, it will be considered dead (unless it’s deemed necessary to implement the budget).... Continue Reading
The Chamber's PLUSH (Permitting, Land Use, Sustainability, and Housing) Committee just submitted their feedback to the City of Bellevue's Planning Commission regarding its ongoing affordable housing strategy. Read the letter below. Continue Reading
Tale of Two Chambers? “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," at our most recent board meeting, as we not only met with our own board, but with our colleagues over at the Seattle Metro Chamber, too. The first meeting of its kind since, frankly, most of us have been working, we... Continue Reading
We are quickly approaching the first cutoff of the 2025 legislative session. This is the point in session where it will be harder (but not impossible!) for a bill that hasn’t already been introduced to be heard and passed before the house of origin policy cutoff on the 21st. This is also the... Continue Reading
Surprise, surprise: We have some new board members! Get to know them each below. David Winokur - Chief Administrative Officer, Overlake Hospital Medical Center David joined Overlake in 2014, and prior to being named Chief Administrative Officer, served as Overlake's Medical Imaging and... Continue Reading
Washington voters are in the know – they know why the state is facing a budget deficit and they are aligned on the solution, saying it’s a bad idea to increase state spending. Fulcrum Strategic and EMC Research conducted a statewide poll of 600 registered voters in January that also... Continue Reading
Week three of session continued with a focus on policy committee activity that again included work sessions, hearings, and executive session. The first cutoff of session is quickly approaching. All bills must pass out of their policy committee in their house of origin (in other words the chamber... Continue Reading