
ALT Mr. Garbett and I agree - our air quality is unacceptable. I have an eight-year history of supporting air quality policies. I had the full support of O2 and Mr. Garbett in 2020, with O2 staff, volunteers and resources aiding my campaign. In anticipation of the same support against the same opponent this year, I reviewed O2’s Prosperity 2030 draft this past March. I raised concerns with Mr. Garbett about how this legislation would impact low- and middle-income individuals and families. The mandated vehicle upgrades would cost individual car owners in the tens of thousands of dollars – or, at a minimum, owners would be hit with a stiff penalty on their existing vehicles. I looked forward to continuing dialogue on how we could overcome this barrier to our families and aggressively move forward on improvements in air quality. To my knowledge, O2 has made no effort to address these concerns.

ALT My expressed concern about Prosperity 2030 is the tailpipe emissions requirements on communities designed for automobile dependence. I have been advocating for eight years to reduce people’s dependence on automobiles through higher impact, less costly solutions including active transportation, better transit, and walkable communities. Our efforts to make these improvements have fallen short in our westside communities. Punitive damages for people who are only trying to get their kids to school, get to work and the grocery store are not the solution. I often wonder if Mr. Garbett and the folks on Capitol Hill really know what it's like for working families. I have an obligation to share their perspective–and to make every bill better

ALT I raised a practical problem with Mr. Garbett. In response, he chose to revoke the O2 endorsement. While I am committed to advancing air quality measures that will improve our community, I will not rubber-stamp bills that may harm our working class families; we can do better. Some legislators are okay advancing bad bills that may harm our neighbors. I am not. I am committed to doing things right even when it’s harder to do so. To avoid disproportionately impacting people, I offered to bring stakeholders together, identify our opportunities, and realitycheck our best solutions for a successful air quality bill. We will exceed the objectives of Prosperity 2030 if we do this hard work together. We must face issues directly and collaboratively find solutions. We cannot simply ignore the legitimate concerns of stakeholders. But let there be no misunderstanding. I am fully committed to improving our air quality– No endorsement required.















