We have two media clips to pass along to you today, both of which are compliments of the News Tribune.

The first discusses Friday's Tacoma-Pierce County Economic Development Board's annual meeting, in which Pierce County's leaders had a chance to learn about the business community's most urgent needs.

"Even as Pierce County’s top economic development group ticked off the business achievements of the last year at its annual meeting Friday, both Gov. Jay Inslee and Port of Tacoma Chief Executive John Wolfe warned of difficulties ahead," wrote John Gillie. Inslee said "that without a new comprehensive transportation funding package, Washington’s highways, bridges, ferries and bus systems could suffer decline. And Wolfe said that Puget Sound is losing shipping market share to Canada and Southern California ports."

With these threats in mind, it was good to hear that Senate Republicans appear to signal a willingness to compromise on a transportation package. Jordan Schrader reports that Sen. Curtis King plans to introduce legislation Monday that finally puts a transportation tax plan in bill form. Schrader also reports that King claims the bill "makes major concessions" to Democrats. "It is my hope that we will have a public hearing in the near future on this new package and the important reform bills that have been a priority for our caucus," King said in a statement.

We'll know more on Monday when bill language becomes public, but let's hope those compromises are real. Let's hope that House Democrats are willing to compromise as well. Because as Wolfe noted at the EDB lunch, the state’s maritime shipping industry is in crisis. “The job is ours to respond,” he said. “I don’t want to look back in 10 years and ask what happened."