By STATE REP. DAN GRIFFEY

The 2015 legislative session has just begun, and we are off to an exciting start. I have been selected to serve on the Education Committee, Public Safety Committee and on the Local Government Committee as assistant ranking member. I am energized and honored to serve you in a capacity that will make positive impacts in the lives of those living in the 35th District and beyond.

After being sworn in Jan. 12, I got right to work. My office was set up and opened to anyone who needed to share ideas, voice concerns and get results. So far, hundreds of constituents have dropped by and have been influential on proposed legislation — just as they should be. We have reached out to community leaders in every field to ask for their expertise on how legislation will affect you and your family. We appreciate the outpouring of community support and the interest that has been shown by so many in teaming up to do the very best for our citizens.

Together, in collaboration with community leaders and constituents alike, we seek to:

• Fund education first and promote positive reforms that will benefit our students while working to eliminate unfunded mandates;

• Consider hydroelectric power as an eligible renewable resource, which would reduce electric bills for businesses and residences;

• End the harmful effects that the Growth Management Act has had on our local communities and protect our private property owners from overreaching regulations;

• Use empirical science with reproducible results when making decisions related to the environment;

• End the violence imposed by repeat DUI offenders;

• Process all rape kits collected, and in doing so, expect to identify more serial rapists and stop them as other states have realized; and

• Enact Social Security identity theft protection for our process servers.

Our office in Olympia has hosted pages from all over the district, and it is great to see young people so engaged and involved in what is happening in state government. It has been great to hear their stories and to be able to share with them a little bit of our state’s great history.

As state representative, I will be here for you, listening and bringing your concerns to the forefront. I encourage you to contact me anytime, and to sign up on my website to receive legislative updates.

Together, we are doing better.

District 35 State Rep. Dan Griffey can be reached by email at Dan.Griffey@leg.wa.gov or by phone at 360-786-7966. For more information, visit www.RepresentativeDanGriffey.com.