ISSAQUAH, WA – State senate candidate Chad Magendanz is calling out newly appointed Sen. Victoria Hunt for helping author, and then voting for, sweeping funding cuts to the next phase of State Route 18 improvements, turning her back on one of the 5th District’s most urgent and long-standing safety needs.

“Victoria Hunt didn’t just forget SR-18,” said Magendanz. “She helped gut its funding. She was in the room when these cuts were written and then voted to pass them. That’s not representation, that’s negligence.”

Hunt served on the House Transportation Committee, which proposed and passed the program reductions, as part of this year’s $15.5 billion dollar transportation budget, the largest in state history. The largest single cut in the entire budget? The SR-18 corridor. Legislators gutted $33.5 million dollars in planned funding over the next two years for widening the two-lane stretch between Issaquah-Hobart Road and Deep Creek.

The transportation budget was propped up by $3.2 billion dollars in new taxes and fees, anchored by a six cent per gallon increase in the state gas tax. Yet none of that revenue went to completing SR 18, despite years of bipartisan agreement that it remains one of the most dangerous and congested roadways in the region. Victoria Hunt didn’t even fight to secure just 1.04% of that new funding for our district.

“The 5th District got the worst of both worlds: higher taxes and less than nothing to show for it,” Magendanz said. “We pay more and get less.”

Magendanz pledged to make restoring full SR-18 funding a top priority if elected, promising to work across the aisle to reverse the damage.

“The job’s not done, but it can be,” he said. “The people of this district deserve a senator who will fight for their infrastructure, not vote for it to be gutted.”

Chad Magendanz is a former state representative, Navy veteran, teacher, and Issaquah resident running to represent the 5th Legislative District in the Washington State Senate.