After running in the most expensive legislative race in the state’s history — and coming out victorious — Sen. Andy Hill of the 45th Legislative District is returning for a second term humbled, heartened and ready to work.

During the campaign trail, Hill (R-Redmond) raised almost $1 million for his campaign and his opponent, Matt Isenhower, brought in about $500,000. In addition, outside groups contributed more than $1.4 million to the race. Despite the big numbers, Hill said one thing he learned from his experience this past election is that, “you can’t buy elections.”

Hill has also learned a few things from his first four years in office, the biggest takeaway being that the easiest thing to do is to say “no.” Whereas, getting to a “yes” is a much more difficult task. Part of that difficulty is working across the aisle to get to a solution everyone can agree on without sacrificing their principles.

This bipartisan work has been something Hill has focused on as he said he heard that people like it when legislators come up with bipartisan results. And as his second term in office is set to begin, Hill is prepared to continue that work.

One way he plans to do that is as chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and chief Senate budget writer — for which he has been reappointed. This is a role Hill takes seriously because he is working with taxpayers’ dollars.

“It’s their money,” he said. “It’s not my money.”

While Gov. Jay Inslee released a two-year budget of $39 billion on Dec. 18, Hill said he is looking at closer to $37 billion as that $2 billion or so difference will come through proposed taxes.

Hill said raising taxes is an easy but lazy way to balance a budget.

“We’ve got a challenging year in front of us, but it’s not insurmountable,” Hill said.

For Hill, writing a budget means sitting in a windowless room with his democratic counterpart for two months and going over things line by line. He noted that the budget is usually the most partisan issue legislators vote on, but the budget he wrote for 2013-15 received the most bipartisan votes in the state in 64 years.

“It can be done in a bipartisan manner,” Hill said.

Sen. Joe Fain of the 47th Legislative District said as a lawmaker, Hill understands that process matters and his process is one that crosses the aisle — pointing to his colleague’s work on the budget as an example.

Fain (R-Auburn), who was elected in 2010 just as Hill was, serves on the transportation budget-writing team and is the Senate Majority Floor Leader and works closely with Hill.

“He’s my favorite member of the Legislature to work with,” Fain said.

He added that Hill is a wealth of knowledge and very detail oriented. Hill focuses on the reality of how things will work when ideas and policies are put into action, Fain said.

Fain said it is important that when someone gives their word, that they live by it. Hill is that way, he said.

“For me, I want to work with people that I can trust…that share my values,” Fain said. “Nobody embodies it more than Andy Hill.”