East King Chambers Coalition: Retirement Savings, Road Costs, and a Grid Under Pressure

Bellevue Chamber  |  June 25, 2026

The East King Chambers Coalition gathered in June for a wide-ranging session that put three forces shaping the regional economy in front of delegates from across the Eastside: a new state-facilitated retirement savings program, the climbing cost of maintaining Washington's transportation network, and an electric grid that may not keep pace with the region's growth.

A New Retirement Option for Employers

Cal Barker of the Department of Financial Institutions walked the Coalition through Washington Saves - the state's new facilitated retirement savings program set to launch July 1, 2027, with compliance deadlines expected in 2028. The program targets the roughly 1.2 million Washington workers who currently have no way to save through their job, and it is built to lower the barriers employers cite most often for not offering a plan.

"Washington Saves isn't here to replace the private sector plans, but rather to help address the issues that are reasons why people might not have a private sector plan currently." — Cal Barker, Washington Saves, Department of Financial Institutions

Washington Saves is a public-private partnership. Employers that have operated in the state for at least two years, have about five or more employees, and lack a qualified plan will be required to facilitate access. The employers face no fees, no matching contributions, and no fiduciary responsibility. Employees are enrolled automatically into a portable Roth IRA and keep full control to adjust their contribution or opt out at any time.

Transportation Costs and Aging Infrastructure

Senator Marko Liias gave the Coalition a candid read on the state's transportation budget, where heavy highway construction costs have risen more than 75 percent since 2020. With dozens of bridges in poor condition and ferries dating to the 1950s, he said preserving what the state already has is now priority, even as projects like Bellevue's Grand Connection and the US 2 Trestle replacement stay on the table. He also framed the work as both a safety mission and a budget one, noting that traffic fatalities hit a 30-year high in 2023 before recent investments began bringing them back down.

"We want to make sure that when people leave, they come back safely at night, whether they're commuting or biking or whether they're one of our road workers. We want everyone to come back safe." — Senator Marko Liias

The discussion turned urgent on SR 18, where the Snoqualmie Valley Chamber pressed for near-term safety fixes on a stretch with no median barrier. Liias called the corridor a case study in inflation, with cost estimates climbing from about $600 million in 2019 to $1.6 billion today. This forced the project into phases, and he committed to revisiting interim safety measures with state partners.

"We just had two more deaths on 18 the past month, and the safety is a really, really big concern." — Kelly Coughlin, Snoqualmie Chamber

Pressure on the Power Grid

Diana Leo closed with an update from the AECOM study for Bellevue and Redmond: the region is on track to run short of electricity as housing, mixed-use development, and data centers all draw more power while permitting for new substations can now stretch decades.

"Based on the new requirements of the housing, of mixed-use areas, and also data centers coming in, we're going to be coming to a shortfall in electricity." — Diana Leo, Bellevue Chamber

Members raised related concerns about local moratoriums on battery storage, the safety of lithium battery parks, and whether fusion projects underway in Everett and Wenatchee will arrive in time to matter. The Coalition agreed to bring an energy subject-matter expert to its next meeting and to develop a clear energy position paper to guide its advocacy in the months ahead.