State of State: We must look for taxes, Gregoire says

OLYMPIA — We’re reforming, Gregoire says, but that won’t be enough.

State work force is down. State pensions have been reformed. So have Workers comp and unemployment insurance systems.

“Unlike other states, we have not used the recession to undermine the environmental protections that provide what we value, clean air, clean water and healthy natural resources.”

We must cut … But we must look for new revenue for the state of Washington.”

Send the temporary half-cent sales tax to the voters to save vital services, Gregoire said. Democrats moslty applauded; Republicans mostly did not.

Cuts to education, social services and public safety would be more regressive than the sales tax.

“The last time that we raised the state sales tax was in 1983, under a Republican governor, in the midst of the worst recesssion before theis one,” she said.

“Without the half penny, we lose far more than we gain. We lose our future, our values and our way.”