Gregoire seeking a state of success
OLYMPIA – Saying that “the status quo in Washington is not good enough,” Gov. Chris Gregoire on Tuesday night called on lawmakers to give the state’s children the inheritance they deserve: good schools, a vibrant economy and a healthy environment.
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” Gregoire told a crowd of state lawmakers, tribal leaders, former governors and nearly a dozen foreign consuls. “We have turned the corner, but we have work to do.”
In an annual State of the State address sprinkled with Eastern Washington references, Gregoire touted last year’s successes, including more jobs, rising exports, farm and timber tax cuts and a sharp reduction in methamphetamine labs.
Much of the Democratic governor’s speech, however, was a review of a long list of initiatives that Gregoire has been promoting for weeks: a math-and-science push in schools, including 750 more teachers in those fields; thousands more children on state-paid health care; better reimbursement for pediatricians; training in Spokane for doctors, nurses and dentists; thousands more college students; tuition-increase limits at universities; and a freeze on tuition at community colleges.
“In too many cases, we are using 20th century tools to solve 21st century problems,” Gregoire said, calling for change.
If so, Republicans said, it sounds like it will be an expensive century.
“I think tonight what we really saw was a classic speech from a big-government liberal,” said Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Bellingham. “Every solution that she offered required new government programs or massive new spending to get it accomplished.”
Republicans say Democrats should put more money into savings and the under-funded pension system while the economy is healthy.
“Not once in this speech tonight did she ask us to make any kind of sacrifice. Not once,” said Rep. David Buri, R-Colfax.
In her nearly hour-long speech, Gregoire decried the “partisanship, bureaucratic inertia, political caution and business as usual in Olympia” that she said had clouded leaders’ vision for the future. She said the real measure of Olympia’s success or failure this year will be whether the state’s families are better off as a result of the budget and legislation.
Gregoire repeatedly cited Eastern Washington examples. She cited Spokane-raised Shannon Depew, an Everett math teacher who forged a new program to help struggling students. She touted Washington State University’s nursing school. She proposed opening a new small-business development center in Pullman.
The governor also mentioned Clark and Charlene Kagele, Odessa farmers worried about the sinking water table. She talked about summers spent working on her uncle’s wheat ranch in tiny Windust, in southeastern Washington. And she urged lawmakers to act fast to pay for “mega-projects” like the North-South Freeway in Spokane.
Republican Rep. Mary Skinner, R-Yakima, said that Gregoire’s emphasis on education this year largely boils down to putting more money into the system rather than major reforms.
“Frankly, this is the same approach we’ve seen from Democrat governors for the past 22 years, with disappointing results,” she said.