Jobs: Tina is committed to helping our local economy.
Tina knows strong local economies are the backbone of our state. She realizes that during these unprecedented times, that it is critical to support families and small businesses as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Government needs to make strategic investments and policies to help our economy recover.
Tina supports public education at all levels to make sure our students are receiving quality education capable of preparing them for future professional opportunities. This includes STEM, funding apprenticeship and other workforce training programs, to give local workers the training they need to fill high-quality living-wage jobs. South King County is home to many companies offering highly technical jobs and Tina wants local workers to be qualified for those jobs
Education: Tina believes that every child deserves a high-quality education and a pathway to be successful.
From early learning to secondary education, Tina remains committed to providing access to a quality education for all. Understanding the importance of early learning on child development, she works hard to promote policies that protect and expand early learning programs. Tina went to Olympia to fully fund education and has advocated for budgets that retain funding for early learning, K-12, and higher education.
Tina has teamed up with schools, families, and local nonprofits to improve language access so that all families can participate in their student’s education. She also advocates for behavioral health/mental health resources for our schools to help struggling students and families.
Affordable Housing: Tina has been advocating for homeowners and tenants.
One of the most important things we can support struggling families is to help them stay in their homes. Tina has sponsored and passed the Foreclosure Fairness Act, to ensure that every homeowner has a fair and transparent process to ensure that all options have been explored so that they can stay in their homes whenever possible. This law, one of the strongest in the country, has helped thousands of homeowners throughout our state. This is a critical time to expand these services which includes housing counsel and mediation services.
Tina believes everyone deserves a safe and affordable place to live. She is a strong supporter of the Housing Trust Fund to create affordable housing for those most in need. Prior to becoming a legislator, Tina worked as the Washington State Taking Health Care Home Coordinator where she helped set up the funders group which consists of public and private partners that have developed over 1,000 units of housing for homeless families, people with disabilities, and veterans. It is more important than ever to help families who are homeless become rapidly rehoused.
Health Care: Everyone deserves quality and affordable health care.
Tina believes all adults and children should have access to health care including mental health, chemical dependency services, and support for persons with developmental disabilities. Having access to quality healthcare services is more critical than ever. This needs to include access to COVID-19 testing and interventions as they become available. She has shown unwavering commitment to providing resources to Washington’s most vulnerable individuals.
Environment: Tina believes everyone deserves a healthy place to call home.
South King County is a beautiful place to call home and Tina wants to keep it that way. She believes that all families deserve a healthy Puget Sound, both now and for future generations. Tina works closely with community groups, local, state, and federal leaders, UW researchers to address noise and air quality issues. She works collaboratively to find solutions to these complex issues that will improve the health of our community.
Military and Veterans: Tina supports our troops.
Our service members and their families have made enormous sacrifices for our country and deserve our support in their transition back home. Tina works hard to support veterans. She serves on the Joint Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs and she sponsored legislation that requires further suicide assessment and treatment training by health professionals, including those who work with military members. The new training requirement will ensure that mental health professionals know the best practices to recognize suicide warning signs and interventions. Tina also sponsored legislation to help counties streamline services for veterans and their families who live in communities across our state.
Social Justice: Tina is committed to equality and fairness.
Tina’s background in social work and human services has only increased her commitment to social justice issues. Her priorities are to improve the quality of life of the individuals and families that live and work in her district and Washington state. In 2015, she became aware that our state had over 10,000 untested sexual assault kits. Each of those kits represented a survivor whose voice was never heard and left many serial rapists in our community. Since that time she has worked closely with law enforcement, AG, providers, community advocates, and survivors to create a more responsive system. Our state now tests every kit, has a statewide tracking system where a survivor can check the status of the kits, provides trauma-informed training for law enforcement and a new high throughput lab to rapidly test all kits in a timely manner moving forward. Thanks to our state lab and law enforcement we have already had many of these kits tested and some perpetrators identified and arrested.
Tina is passionate about protecting victims of commercial sexual exploitation, which are overwhelmingly women and children. Law enforcement have stated that SeaTac has one of the highest rates of child trafficking in the United States. The surrounding areas also share this tragic issue where many young women are sold into the commercial sex industry. The average age of entry is 13 and many of these young women are runaways or have been recruited from local schools. Tina works closely with our local law enforcement officers to make sure they have the resources they need to combat these issues in our area including reducing the impact of the commercial sex industry and helping young victims rebuild their lives.
Additionally, Tina is deeply concerned about the repercussions individuals who have been wrongly convicted of crimes face when exiting the prison system. When DNA evidence does exonerate an individual, they may have already spent years in prison, putting them at a great disadvantage upon re-entry into society, including years spent without a job, missed family memories, and mental and physical health issues. Washington State does not provide compensation to those who are incarcerated and subsequently exonerated of the crime and released. Tina sponsored legislation to provide monetary and restorative compensation to individuals exonerated in Washington State.