News

Friends, Thank you, for this opportunity to serve our business community in this exciting new role. I so appreciate the warmth of your welcome and your enthusiasm for growing this organization. This is an important time for our city and for our region. An active, thriving, and influential Chamber... Continue Reading

Bellevue Hires New City Attorney Late last year, longtime Bellevue City Attorney Lori Riordan retired from public service. Now the City has announced her successor, Kathy Gerla. After decades of experience practicing law in our state, including stints as an assistant state attorney general and... Continue Reading

Chamber Day 2019 at the State The Legislature has convened in Olympia for a 105-Day Session and elected officials need your feedback. Here’s your opportunity to get out of the office or off the production line for a day and join fellow business leaders from ten East King County Chambers of... Continue Reading

East King Chambers Coalition Legislative Agenda The East King County Chambers of Commerce Legislative Coalition has adopted its policy agenda for 2019, just in time for the upcoming 105-Day Legislative Session. Business leaders tell us that housing affordability and transportation solutions that... Continue Reading

The Eastside, and indeed the entire Seattle Metropolitan area, future economic and community success is at great risk due to lack of housing affordability. The time to act and address with appropriate policy improvements to fix this crisis is now. We at the East King County Chambers of Commerce... Continue Reading

Employers in East King County and across the state struggle to fill available jobs with Washington state residents. Education is the key to closing this gap, beginning with early education (ages 3-4), and ending with the completion of post-high school credentials, including college degrees, career... Continue Reading

Effective transportation of employees, customers and goods is essential to sustain continued health of our state’s growing economy. The complete and timely implementation of the $16 billion Connecting Washington transportation funding package will help improve our transportation... Continue Reading

The cost of liability insurance is an increasing burden on the business community. The overall economy suffers when productivity and growth are slowed by excessive litigation, which discourages risk-taking and slows the introduction of new products and technologies. We urge the legislature... Continue Reading

We must reassess our environmental priorities to ensure that we are receiving the most environmental benefit in a way that truly promotes long-term job creation and prosperity. Mandates drive costs up and a blanket approach on environmental policy often creates undue or extreme hardships in local... Continue Reading

The legislature can help Washington businesses create jobs and help our economy get back on track by doing the following: Preempt municipalities around Washington from enacting individual minimum wage laws or other employment laws that will require employers to administer different human resource... Continue Reading

Magic Season in Bellevue Street Closures & Traffic Map The Holidays have arrived and with them, Magic Season in Downtown Bellevue. Whether you plan to experience the Snowflake Lane At The Bellevue Collection, take a turn on the ice rink in Downtown Park, experience the beauty of Garden... Continue Reading

This year’s Economic Forecast event was very informative, and yes, even entertaining! We got an insider look on the year ahead including the Eastside Business Leader outlook, insights on the Eastside housing market, and the global and national economic pulse. We know it takes lots of time... Continue Reading