Democratic Assembly Speaker John Perez says he’s satisfied with what the legislature accomplished this year. He cites a beefed up budget reserve and the creation of economic development tools as big wins. But he also pointed to the increase in minimum wage.
“The ability to fundamentally, positively impact the lives of people who are working poor, surviving on minimum wage, (that’s) huge,” he said.
And as Perez enters his last year in office before being “termed out”, he has his sights set on finally passing water quality legislation.
“There are so many people in this state that deal with substandard water, significantly in rural parts of the state, but also in urban parts of that state,” he said. “Two years in a row we’ve attempted to do it, it’s failed in the Senate. We hope that that’s going to be a priority next year.”
He said the state also needs to invest in water infrastructure.
Perez will probably not hold the title of Speaker for too much longer. The Assembly is likely to elect a new speaker next session.
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