Lot’s of Rhetoric from Republican, not Action

Lot’s of Rhetoric from Republican, not Action

To the Editor:

This year's legislative session proved one important point: the Working Washington Agenda that we brought to Olympia is very different than that of the Republican controlled state Senate.

Surprised?

Well, all of the early talk about bipartisanship had me hoping we could move forward on issues that actually had bipartisan support like the DREAM Act, the Reproductive Parity Act, and fixing our transportation system.

Unfortunately, the Senate Majority Coalition was big on bipartisan rhetoric and short on action. None of these bills were ever brought to the Senate floor for a vote! Luckily we were able to prevent the state Senate from going backwards on many key funding and policy issues.

(We) said, "no" to continued cuts to our most vulnerable citizens. And, together we said, "no" to policy that would have hurt working families and our environment.

In order to succeed, we're going to have to face down the inertia and inaction we fought against during this past legislative session. They're already gearing up to stop us from delivering on critical issues our state needs -- like closing unnecessary tax loopholes, creating good paying jobs, and fully funding public education.

I'm proud that, in spite of resistance from the Senate Republicans, we expanded Medicaid. I'm proud that we delivered an additional $1 billion in funding for our schools -- a down payment required by our constitution to fully fund our children's education. And I'm proud that we stopped our opponents from sneaking their out-of-step ideas into the budget.

Having our grassroots community standing with me made that possible. But not everyone's happy.

I will continue to fight to close unnecessary tax breaks in order to fund education for the long haul. Oil companies and Senate Republicans both know that I will continue to press on until we get it done.

As you know, political campaigns do not end when you get elected. The grassroots movement we built during the campaign is essential as we work to build innovative industries that benefit all Washingtonians.

Jay Inslee
Governor