Covington is ready for the 2012 legislative session.

In early November the City Council adopted a legislative agenda that tackled a range of issues from transportation to state-shared revenues to commuter and passenger rail to unfunded mandates to economic development funding.

Covington officials will actively lobby on four issues.

First, in cooperation with the cities of Black Diamond and Maple Valley, Covington will “continue to advocate jointly for federal and state funding for state Route 169 and state Route 516 improvements and for transit alternatives in the three rapidly growing communities,” stated the city’s legislative agenda document.

Second, city staff will work with the legislature on discussions of state-shared revenues, particularly the retention of revenues including liquor profits and taxes.

Third, Covington has a trio of project-specific funding requests, and will look to retain, enhance or seek money for the Covington Community Park soccer field as well as for improvements from Jenkins Creek to 185th Avenue Southeast east on Southeast 272nd and for a Covington Town Center Impact and Infrastructure Cost Study.

Fourth on the city’s list of issues it will actively advocate for is infrastructure funding, specifically “support increased funding for cities’ infrastructure design and construction needs,” in a variety of areas.

Covington officials will support the efforts of others to lobby the legislature on a variety of other issues such as legislation enabling medical marijuana use, proposed state constitutional amendments and/or legislation to create pure tax increment financing as well as “state funding programs that are simpler, more flexible and user-friendlier” for economic development, the legislative agenda stated.

Covington also supports the efforts to replace the current supermajority threshold for local government bond and levy elections, which currently require a 60 percent ‘yes’ vote to pass, with a simple majority, of 50 percent plus one for approval.

The city will also support efforts to oppose unfunded and under-funded mandates on local government.

In addition, Covington will back efforts to provide cities time to annex land after a county classifies it as urban but before development may occur.

Covington also backs Auburn’s work to secure an Amtrak stop, as well as supports other “rail advocacy efforts when helpful to Southeast King County’s rail and transit advocacy efforts,” the document stated.