1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,360 Welcome to County Connection, the official podcast of the Washington State Association 2 00:00:07,360 --> 00:00:12,200 of Counties, where we dive into the legislative issues shaping the future of our communities. 3 00:00:12,200 --> 00:00:17,080 From budgets to public safety, infrastructure to elections, we'll break down what's happening 4 00:00:17,080 --> 00:00:21,360 in Olympia and how it impacts counties from across the Evergreen State. 5 00:00:21,360 --> 00:00:30,280 Stay informed, stay engaged, and join us as we amplify the voice of Washington's 39 counties. 6 00:00:30,280 --> 00:00:34,960 Welcome back everybody to our first episode of the County Connection podcast. 7 00:00:34,960 --> 00:00:38,280 I'm Paul Jewell, the government relations director at the Washington State Association 8 00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:39,280 of Counties. 9 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:40,640 And I'm here with a new guest this time. 10 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:45,680 I've got Axel Swanson, the managing director of the Washington State Association of County 11 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:46,680 Engineers. 12 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:51,920 Now, that's at times been called Wasase here at Wasack, but I think the preferred name 13 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:55,000 now is Wasacky, and I don't know why. 14 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:59,280 So I'm going to let Axel introduce himself and maybe tell us why they like to pronounce 15 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:00,280 their acronym that way. 16 00:01:00,280 --> 00:01:01,280 Axel, how you doing? 17 00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:02,920 I'm doing all right. 18 00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:04,400 We're rounding out a long week. 19 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:09,600 It's what, Thursday afternoon, and we're heading into Friday, first week of session, and it's 20 00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:12,080 been stacked up and sort of back to back. 21 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:17,320 So the Wasase versus Wasacky is a, I guess it's been settled. 22 00:01:17,320 --> 00:01:21,200 I have to say it's been settled because my board president is very clear that it's been 23 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:22,200 settled. 24 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:23,800 It is Wasacky. 25 00:01:23,800 --> 00:01:27,680 There was a vote taken at a county leaders conference a couple of years ago. 26 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:29,680 You actually took a vote? 27 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:30,680 Yeah. 28 00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:31,680 Yeah, they took a vote. 29 00:01:31,680 --> 00:01:38,120 I thought it was Wasase and kind of was in that camp, and that's not the way the vote 30 00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:39,120 went. 31 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:40,280 It was close, but. 32 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:46,280 Is there, did the people who voted for Wasacky over Wasase, did they say why they preferred 33 00:01:46,280 --> 00:01:47,280 Wasacky? 34 00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:53,120 Because I mean, if you look at it spelled out W-S-A-C-E, right, makes total sense. 35 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:54,600 Why the switch? 36 00:01:54,600 --> 00:01:59,720 Because that's the way the vote went, Paul, and you're asking me to explain on a recording 37 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:03,320 why some of my board members went a certain way and didn't, and I'm not going to do that. 38 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:04,320 I'm not going there with you. 39 00:02:04,320 --> 00:02:06,200 Okay, I was just wondering why. 40 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:10,360 It's been very, it's been clear clearly told to me that we're Wasacky right now, so that's 41 00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:11,360 where we're at. 42 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:12,360 All right. 43 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:14,200 Okay, well, that's good enough for me, I guess. 44 00:02:14,200 --> 00:02:16,960 Well, thanks for joining us, Axel. 45 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,320 Glad you could take a few minutes out of your busy day. 46 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:22,120 I know that you, I know we're all busy here at Wasack. 47 00:02:22,120 --> 00:02:26,000 There's a ton going on in Olympia right now. 48 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:27,600 You mentioned it was day four. 49 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:28,720 It's Thursday. 50 00:02:28,720 --> 00:02:30,680 We started recording some of these yesterday. 51 00:02:30,680 --> 00:02:32,080 It's hard to believe it's only day four. 52 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:37,000 It feels like it's already been deep into session as busy as it's been. 53 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:41,680 And with everything that's been going on, you must be expecting a few things this year. 54 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:45,640 I'm curious to know what those are and if any of them have started to emerge. 55 00:02:45,640 --> 00:02:48,440 What do you think is going to happen with transportation? 56 00:02:48,440 --> 00:02:54,680 Well, like the rest of what's going on with the legislature and the state budget, both 57 00:02:54,680 --> 00:03:00,360 operating, I just got back from testifying on the Governor Inslee's, outgoing Governor 58 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:02,600 Inslee's proposed capital budget. 59 00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:04,400 But yeah, the transportation budget is similar. 60 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:07,600 They're seeing these large gaps between revenue and expenditures. 61 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:11,560 And there's, as we know, having worked as long as we have for counties and worked on 62 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:15,220 county budgets, there's only so many options you have, right? 63 00:03:15,220 --> 00:03:17,460 So it's pretty straightforward. 64 00:03:17,460 --> 00:03:20,600 You either increase revenue or you cut expenditures. 65 00:03:20,600 --> 00:03:25,760 And so they're going to be looking at that in the transportation budget, not to as large 66 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:27,240 of a degree as in the operating budget. 67 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:33,080 I think last I heard operating budgets looking at $10 billion or so in terms of the gap between 68 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:34,200 revenue expenditures. 69 00:03:34,200 --> 00:03:41,000 But the transportation budget has similar challenges, mainly around the revenue forecast 70 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:45,920 that's most recently come out related to our largest revenue source, not county's largest 71 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:49,720 revenue source, but the state revenue source for transportation, which is motor vehicle 72 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:50,720 fuel tax. 73 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:54,600 And that is projected to flatline and even decrease a little bit in the coming years, 74 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:59,800 which given the cost increases and inflation that we're seeing, creates a massive problem 75 00:03:59,800 --> 00:04:04,840 in both the capital side, capital projects, as well as ongoing maintenance. 76 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:09,680 So on the operating budget side, a lot of these, well, the deficit is being driven a 77 00:04:09,680 --> 00:04:14,680 lot by rising costs because revenues are still going up, just not at a fast enough rate. 78 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:17,800 Is that really what you're also seeing on the transportation side? 79 00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:22,800 How much of it is rising costs in materials and projects versus what you just mentioned, 80 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,720 which was this flattening or even declining of the major revenue source? 81 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:30,960 You know, this is my opinion, but I think I've seen presentations that would back this 82 00:04:30,960 --> 00:04:31,960 up. 83 00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:35,000 I think it's more significant on the transportation side, right? 84 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:39,680 So we know because we've been doing this a long time and tracking the state budget, roughly 85 00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:43,800 half of the state operating budgets funded by sales tax and sales tax has been doing 86 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:47,000 pretty well, I think by anybody's account. 87 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:52,240 If you switch over to the transportation budget, again, most of their transportation budget 88 00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:55,920 is motor vehicle fuel tax. 89 00:04:55,920 --> 00:05:02,600 And if you look at that, right, just we've been working hard to limit emissions and working 90 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:03,940 on climate initiatives. 91 00:05:03,940 --> 00:05:09,000 And so as cars become more fuel efficient, more electric vehicles are on the road. 92 00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:12,480 They're not putting fuel in the tank and therefore they're not paying gas tax. 93 00:05:12,480 --> 00:05:17,720 So it's sort of this strange thing where, you know, it's associated with a good thing, 94 00:05:17,720 --> 00:05:22,000 a goal, less emissions, less use of fuel. 95 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:24,880 But when your revenue source is tied to that, it creates a structural problem. 96 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:27,580 So that's kind of what we're seeing. 97 00:05:27,580 --> 00:05:33,960 So I think when you look at the inflation or increases in costs related to construction 98 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:40,080 and capital projects, those are going up significantly at the same time that, you know, that major 99 00:05:40,080 --> 00:05:41,360 revenue source is flat. 100 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:42,960 So it's a combination of the two. 101 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:43,960 Yeah. 102 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:44,960 Okay. 103 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:45,960 So that's the budget. 104 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:48,320 Looks like you got some challenges there that you're expecting to have to deal with. 105 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:51,000 What about on the policy side related to transportation? 106 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:55,240 What do you think is going to be the big talked about issues this year? 107 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:57,200 Yeah, they're tied together. 108 00:05:57,200 --> 00:06:01,240 I mean, I can definitely touch on some policy bills that have come up as, you know, as recently 109 00:06:01,240 --> 00:06:05,140 as this week already had hearings or are scheduled for hearings next week. 110 00:06:05,140 --> 00:06:09,900 But maybe to close the loop on the local side for us at the county, most of our road fund, 111 00:06:09,900 --> 00:06:12,280 our largest revenue sources from property tax. 112 00:06:12,280 --> 00:06:19,780 And so property tax is capped at 1% plus new construction, very low, slow to no growth. 113 00:06:19,780 --> 00:06:23,640 And then you couple that with what I just talked about with the increase in costs for 114 00:06:23,640 --> 00:06:27,880 capital projects and materials, staffing. 115 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:33,840 I would say it's fair that, you know, it's fair to say that we're in a worse, if not 116 00:06:33,840 --> 00:06:37,580 the same position as the state on our transportation revenue and funding. 117 00:06:37,580 --> 00:06:44,500 And so we're going to from a policy perspective, we're always going to be looking at that first. 118 00:06:44,500 --> 00:06:48,360 So whether several local revenue ideas out there. 119 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:55,560 We've got a bill filed already to improve the county road administration boards grant 120 00:06:55,560 --> 00:06:56,560 program. 121 00:06:56,560 --> 00:07:00,640 So we're looking at new funding and a new grant program through them for local access 122 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:02,020 roads. 123 00:07:02,020 --> 00:07:06,080 There is a draft bill that we've talked about with our legislative steering committee around 124 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:10,560 a retail delivery fee that would raise revenue and come back to local roads. 125 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:15,080 And then we have a stakeholder meeting tomorrow afternoon on all the work that's been done 126 00:07:15,080 --> 00:07:20,360 around the initial bill for a road usage charge, which would work to replace the gas tax. 127 00:07:20,360 --> 00:07:23,880 That wouldn't be new revenue, it would be a replacement of gas tax, but it wouldn't 128 00:07:23,880 --> 00:07:28,480 have that structural deficit or challenge that gas tax does. 129 00:07:28,480 --> 00:07:33,400 So the road usage charge is something we've heard a lot, kind of batted around for many, 130 00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:39,140 many years, really for the last decade, but it seems to be kind of coming to a full crescendo 131 00:07:39,140 --> 00:07:43,640 maybe, you know, soon, maybe even this year. 132 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:45,360 Do you think that's going to be the hot topic? 133 00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:49,160 Is that going to be the big policy issue this year in transportation? 134 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:54,400 Or do you think this other idea around a retail delivery fee might get better traction? 135 00:07:54,400 --> 00:08:00,560 Yes, I think the road usage charge bill, I expect we will see it in the coming weeks. 136 00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:01,560 We've seen an outline. 137 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:03,560 There's a meeting tomorrow. 138 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:07,960 The chair of the House Transportation Committee has said he's going to file the bill. 139 00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:15,200 But you know, I think that'll be one piece of the question, because like I said, the 140 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:19,960 road usage charge, if it gets to the finish line and it is implemented, it doesn't come 141 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:21,560 in fast. 142 00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:27,080 It's more of it starts with electric vehicles and then it moves on to hybrids and then, 143 00:08:27,080 --> 00:08:34,400 you know, eventually gets to where it would be the replacement of gas tax for even vehicles 144 00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:37,160 that are still using fuel. 145 00:08:37,160 --> 00:08:39,920 So it's implemented over a number of years. 146 00:08:39,920 --> 00:08:41,520 It doesn't happen right away. 147 00:08:41,520 --> 00:08:48,440 And again, it's just meant to exchange or, you know, take over for the gas tax, no new 148 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:49,440 revenue. 149 00:08:49,440 --> 00:08:56,060 So while I think a road usage charge is somewhat more controversial or could be controversial 150 00:08:56,060 --> 00:09:01,700 compared to the current system of paying gas tax, and they'll have that conversation, 151 00:09:01,700 --> 00:09:03,640 it doesn't solve their revenue problem. 152 00:09:03,640 --> 00:09:09,440 So they're also going to have to have a secondary conversation around where to find other new 153 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:15,000 revenue for current transportation priorities and or make cuts or delay projects. 154 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:21,160 And so I think there'll be multiple revenue conversations going on as it relates to transportation. 155 00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:24,720 So even though the road usage charge has been getting a lot of the headlines and a lot of 156 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:30,440 the attention, you don't think that's going to be the solution that really they need to 157 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:34,120 have fully in place for the future of transportation. 158 00:09:34,120 --> 00:09:38,120 There's going to be have there's going to have to be other revenue options on the table. 159 00:09:38,120 --> 00:09:40,240 And those are likely to be discussed this year, too. 160 00:09:40,240 --> 00:09:41,240 Yeah, yep. 161 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:42,480 I think that's true. 162 00:09:42,480 --> 00:09:47,600 And I think that's why you're seeing, you know, a number of revenue ideas put forward. 163 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:52,560 And I think there'll be conversations about if or how the state operating budget can help 164 00:09:52,560 --> 00:09:54,560 the state transportation budget. 165 00:09:54,560 --> 00:09:59,480 Well, talking about ideas that are being put forward, we've touched on a few things that 166 00:09:59,480 --> 00:10:04,040 you think are likely to be discussed this year, things that you're expecting to have 167 00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:08,480 to deal with on behalf of counties. 168 00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:11,400 We also have a transportation priority this year, right? 169 00:10:11,400 --> 00:10:14,600 Counties are pushing for some solutions. 170 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:19,080 Tell us a little bit about that strategy and kind of what what your plans are there. 171 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:25,480 Yeah, our strategy for transportation funding falls largely in line with the overall association 172 00:10:25,480 --> 00:10:28,600 of counties revenue strategy. 173 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:29,640 That's for an obvious reason. 174 00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:34,280 The County General Fund is primarily funded with property tax, and so is the road fund. 175 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:41,720 And so we'll we'll be there on trying to talk with legislators again and more about the 176 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:48,880 impact of having, you know, our major revenue source capped at one percent along with the 177 00:10:48,880 --> 00:10:49,920 association. 178 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:55,000 I don't know that that solves all of our our issues, though. 179 00:10:55,000 --> 00:10:59,000 And so I think we're we're content, you know, we have brought forward the retail delivery 180 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:03,320 fee to the members as a potential new revenue source. 181 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:06,640 There are two other states that do that. 182 00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:11,400 And there was an extensive study done on that over the over last year in the interim, and 183 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:13,560 it showed that it would be a real source of revenue. 184 00:11:13,560 --> 00:11:19,280 And the current draft bill would split that 40 percent with cities, 40 with counties and 185 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:22,880 then 20 percent back to the state. 186 00:11:22,880 --> 00:11:26,600 And I don't know that that alone solves all of our issue either. 187 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:32,880 And so the primary aspects of our priority are to fix the structural revenue problem 188 00:11:32,880 --> 00:11:36,160 that we have with funding and preserving our our road system. 189 00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:41,020 And so it could include all of those things or one of those things or other things. 190 00:11:41,020 --> 00:11:48,840 And then specifically beneath that or in alignment with that, we've got budget, you know, budget 191 00:11:48,840 --> 00:11:54,600 priorities that also go to our budget problems, which, you know, we have significant amount 192 00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:58,480 of fish barriers that we're responsible for and we're working to replace. 193 00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:02,000 And so we work with the Brian Abbott Fish Barrier Removal Board. 194 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:06,160 And so we'll be working to get their priority list funded in this next biennium. 195 00:12:06,160 --> 00:12:09,640 And that's one of our priorities, too, is funding for fish barriers. 196 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:10,640 Yes. 197 00:12:10,640 --> 00:12:12,040 Yeah, absolutely. 198 00:12:12,040 --> 00:12:15,880 So the state's been working hard on replacing their barriers. 199 00:12:15,880 --> 00:12:20,760 But we you know, we have thousands of barriers, as you can imagine, with, you know, counties 200 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:24,560 are responsible for almost half of the roads in Washington state. 201 00:12:24,560 --> 00:12:26,480 That's seventy eight thousand lane miles. 202 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:30,040 And when you have that many lane miles, you have a lot of water crossings. 203 00:12:30,040 --> 00:12:34,840 What's important to talk about in that discussion, though, is, you know, if you look at the state, 204 00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:40,200 they don't have nearly the lane miles we do, but they have a lot of ADT, which average 205 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:41,200 daily traffic. 206 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:45,720 Well, what else about our legislative priority have you not touched on? 207 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:47,160 There are definitely other things. 208 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:50,200 So I already touched on the County Road Administration Board's request. 209 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:53,680 I touched on the Fish Barrier Removal Board request. 210 00:12:53,680 --> 00:12:58,520 So the governor's proposed budget funded that at forty six million to fund the whole list 211 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:00,240 over the biennium would take seventy. 212 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:05,040 So we'll be looking for a larger number than what's initially out there. 213 00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:09,480 And just as a reminder, those are just the the highest level, highest priority projects 214 00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:11,760 that have been someone's applied for them. 215 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:15,060 They've been vetted through a criteria and put on a prioritized list. 216 00:13:15,060 --> 00:13:18,940 We have many, many more barriers out there that that aren't on that list, obviously. 217 00:13:18,940 --> 00:13:20,740 We will also be looking at safety. 218 00:13:20,740 --> 00:13:23,600 So we haven't touched on safety in this conversation. 219 00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:31,040 And if you look at the Washington State Traffic Safety's dashboard, the the data there is 220 00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:33,260 alarming and it's sad. 221 00:13:33,260 --> 00:13:36,720 We are we are in a traffic safety crisis in terms of the fatalities. 222 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:41,960 We're seeing a program that was started recently in the move ahead package. 223 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:47,720 So two years ago in the biennium, that biennium, it started a new program for reducing rural 224 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:49,160 lane departures. 225 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:55,580 So if you look at the data, often if there's a fatality, a high percentage of those crashes 226 00:13:55,580 --> 00:14:00,200 happen when a vehicle leaves the roadway or crosses a lane. 227 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:03,800 And there are a number of things that you can do to try to prevent that, whether it's 228 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:08,280 guardrails or illumination or, you know, other other safety mechanisms. 229 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:14,600 And so there is a program, a new program started up with state funding to try to improve some 230 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:15,600 of those roadways. 231 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:16,840 And we certainly supported that. 232 00:14:16,840 --> 00:14:20,720 And we're that's one of our big initiatives is to try to double the funding from that. 233 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:24,400 So that's part of our legislative priority list on transportation as well. 234 00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:28,280 Yeah, we're trying to get at least eight million in that program. 235 00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:29,480 It started out at four. 236 00:14:29,480 --> 00:14:34,720 Oh, well, well, we got a lot of big, a lot of big asks this year, but a lot of important 237 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:38,280 a lot of important reasons for those asks, seventy eight thousand lane miles not being 238 00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:40,520 the least important part of it. 239 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:45,440 Well, anything else that you want to add, Axel, when you're looking forward to this 240 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:49,360 session as far as things that you expect or maybe a few surprises out there that we haven't 241 00:14:49,360 --> 00:14:50,360 heard about? 242 00:14:50,360 --> 00:14:53,680 I would add because you mentioned the lane miles and we talked about that. 243 00:14:53,680 --> 00:15:00,320 Another thing for the maybe the new listener to keep in mind, we we did discuss water crossings 244 00:15:00,320 --> 00:15:04,300 and fish barriers, but counties, because of that number of lane miles, own the most bridges 245 00:15:04,300 --> 00:15:05,960 in the state as well. 246 00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:10,760 So it's just something to always keep that front of mind and think about that. 247 00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:12,200 Bridges are expensive. 248 00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:18,040 They're aging and we have a number of them that, you know, are not in great shape and 249 00:15:18,040 --> 00:15:19,600 need either repair or replacement. 250 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:24,280 So that's another area we look for funding both from the federal and state government 251 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:25,600 to help us with. 252 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:30,580 And then to close maybe or just talk about kind of what's keeping us busy this week is 253 00:15:30,580 --> 00:15:35,160 we never can anticipate or know fully what legislators have in mind and what they're 254 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:37,080 going to file or what they might want to change. 255 00:15:37,080 --> 00:15:42,100 And so we've been reacting and responding, or I have at least mostly this week to that, 256 00:15:42,100 --> 00:15:48,720 because in our job, we see a lot of really good ideas and well intentioned policy, but 257 00:15:48,720 --> 00:15:51,980 we have to drill down and focus on what the implementation means. 258 00:15:51,980 --> 00:15:53,240 Can we actually achieve it? 259 00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:54,240 Can we make it happen? 260 00:15:54,240 --> 00:15:55,240 How do we make it happen? 261 00:15:55,240 --> 00:16:01,320 What will the cost be or the inefficiency be if our members have to carry that out? 262 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:05,440 And as you know, we've had some discussions this week, number of bills, and we're kind 263 00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:12,520 of working on amendments around just that understanding that someone has good intentions 264 00:16:12,520 --> 00:16:17,200 is well meaning and actually maybe has a good policy goal. 265 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:22,600 But the implementation and execution for our members is really challenging maybe without 266 00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:24,400 some word changes in the statute. 267 00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:30,120 Yeah, sometimes it's a long distance from a really great idea that's shaped to achieve 268 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:34,080 a really good outcome to actually implementing that and making it work on the ground, which 269 00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:36,640 is what counties do, right? 270 00:16:36,640 --> 00:16:37,880 That's what counties do. 271 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:38,880 That's what county commissioners do. 272 00:16:38,880 --> 00:16:41,480 And that's what our county road departments do every single day. 273 00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:44,520 That's why I've been doing this for 18 years. 274 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:51,320 It's hard working for counties, but it's exciting because counties are where things happen. 275 00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:54,560 We do a lot of good work every day. 276 00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:59,360 Well thanks for joining us, Axel, on our first episode of County Connections. 277 00:16:59,360 --> 00:17:03,440 As we mentioned at the beginning, this is only day four of a 105 day session. 278 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:05,280 It's going to be a long one this year. 279 00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:09,000 It goes all the way through nearly the entire month of April. 280 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:10,920 And once it starts, it doesn't stop. 281 00:17:10,920 --> 00:17:15,980 We were kind of talking at the very beginning here a little bit how little of the weekend 282 00:17:15,980 --> 00:17:19,440 oftentimes you get when you're working during the legislative session. 283 00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:25,400 So it's a bit of a marathon that started on Monday. 284 00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:29,720 And we'll be giving quite a few updates as we go along. 285 00:17:29,720 --> 00:17:34,320 I hope you'll be willing to come back and inform our listeners as things progress. 286 00:17:34,320 --> 00:17:35,440 I will be. 287 00:17:35,440 --> 00:17:38,760 And maybe you can invite me earlier in the week so I'm not so tired. 288 00:17:38,760 --> 00:17:40,320 Well, we'll try. 289 00:17:40,320 --> 00:17:42,880 But as the weeks go on, you never know. 290 00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:43,880 All right. 291 00:17:43,880 --> 00:17:44,880 Well, thanks, Axel. 292 00:17:44,880 --> 00:17:46,200 And thanks everybody for listening in. 293 00:17:46,200 --> 00:18:08,640 We'll see you again soon.