Presidential hopeful and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee visited The Columbian’s offices Friday to discuss what he called the most productive legislative session in his 30-year political career.
Inslee defended the state’s new $52.4 billion biennial budget — an 18 percent increase over the last one — as a necessary investment in education, infrastructure and clean energy.
“Look, we’re a growing state. We have the best economy in the country,” Inslee said, citing a recent Commerce Department report that showed Washington had the fastest-growing economy last year. “As a result, people are flocking to the state of Washington, and that means more services.”
Despite a surge in the state’s existing revenue and a roaring economy, the 2020-21 budget includes an uptick in business-and-occupation taxes, expected to raise $133 million, and the elimination of the sales-tax exemption for shoppers from Oregon and Canada, expected to raise $53 million.
Much of that increased revenue will go toward salaries and benefits for public employees, including teachers. The budget also allocates nearly $4 billion to public schools, the second installment of funding linked to the McCleary decision.
“It couldn’t be done on fairy dust. We had to come up with the revenues. These were investments worth making,” Inslee said.
Even so, Inslee said, he would have preferred implementing a capital gains tax over eliminating sales-tax exemptions and raising B&O taxes.
Pressed on whether the new taxes would ultimately depress businesses in the state, Inslee stood firm.
“It certainly hasn’t,” he said. “Do you hear them saying they’re leaving? No.”
But is there a breaking point where that could happen? Where overtaxing could hurt the state’s economy?
“Sure, there is, but it’s not where we’re at right now,” Inslee said. “It’s hard to argue with success.”
No consensus, no bridge
Though the tone of Inslee’s meeting remained upbeat, he took state legislators to task over their inability to come to an agreement on a new bridge over the Columbia River.
“We have to be able to forge a consensus across the river to be able to move forward,” Inslee said. “I cannot dictate that. I would love it if they gave me that authority, all problems would be resolved — in fact, we would have had this bridge under construction two years ago. So it’s really regrettable that (former Sen.) Don Benton killed this bridge. I still harbor some frustration about that.”
The new budget reserves $17 million to revive an office to study a replacement of the Interstate 5 Bridge. An additional $17 million is also reserved for the project, but without consensus between Oregon and Washington lawmakers on the best way to move forward, Inslee said, he’s unsure how to spend it.
“We’re not really sure that there’s anything we can really use that money for right now, because we don’t have enough agreement with Oregon to figure out what the parameters of the design (are).”
Inslee said he’s hopeful that the current crop of legislators will be more successful deal-makers, but he hasn’t seen negotiations go far enough yet.
“The fundamental issue here: Oregon wants to have particular types of public transportation options on the bridge,” Inslee said. “One half — or 60 percent — of Southwest Washington wants to join Oregon in that effort. Maybe 40 percent of Southwest Washington does not. As long as that 40 percent can throw a monkey wrench into this bridge, we can’t get a bridge.”
Country ready for climate message?
If there’s one issue that sets Inslee apart from the rest of the crowded Democratic field of 2020 presidential candidates, it’s climate change. Since his election in 2013, the governor’s been loudly trumpeting that the environment should be the most crucial issue on every lawmaker’s radar. His presidential campaign slogan is, “Our Moment.” His tagline reads: “This is our moment to defeat climate change.”
“Climate change isn’t a single issue. It’s all the issues,” he said on Friday.
Earlier this week, Inslee signed a bill for Washington to run on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity by 2045. The law ends coal use entirely by 2025.
He said the only thing keeping the rest of the country from clean energy is a lack of political willpower.
“In 1940, the United States made exactly 77 Jeeps. In the next four years, we made 640,000 Jeeps,” Inslee said. “That’s the type of mobilization we are capable of.”
Whether voters across the country share his passion for climate issues remains to be seen. According to Real Clear Politics, Inslee’s polling around 0.6 percent in the primaries — tied for 12th.
But Inslee said environmentalism isn’t limited to the Pacific Northwest, especially as other regions around the country start to feel the affects of climate change. As he campaigns around the nation, he said he sees it firsthand.
“We’re not as unique as you might think,” Inslee said. “It’s hard to be against doing something on the climate crisis when you’re standing knee deep in the Missouri River five miles from where the riverbed used to be.”
