To the editor:

As Senator Christine Rolfes recently wrote in the Review, for the first time ever, Washington State has earned Moody’s highest credit rating. And that rating was achieved when the state had, at last, made historic increases in K-12 education funding in line with the McCleary ruling from the state Supreme Court.

Those are great bragging rights for the state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature. But there is more. The Legislature passed a four-year balanced budget on time for the first time ever. And it passed a whopping 469 bills that the governor signed into law. These included among many others a climate change package to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions; a first-in-the nation long-term care benefit; a measure preventing insurance carriers from rejecting people due to pre-existing conditions; a reduction in the crimes that count toward the three-strikes and you’re out law; an extension from three to 14 days in the time required for a landlord’s eviction notice; a transition to a progressive real estate tax; and establishment of net neutrality in the state.

Despite the heavy legislative load, the session ended on time — another remarkable record. Hats off to our state legislators and to our own state Senator Rolfes, who, as chair of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee, kept everything moving.

FRAN KORTEN

Bainbridge Island