TVW Air ScheduleOn today’s edition: Gov. Chris Gregoire’s State of the State address, the Republican response and a briefing on the McCleary case. Watch it all here.
Tags: Gregoire, McCleary, Republican
Gov. Chris Gregoire just announced that she’s introducing legislation to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington.
Watch the full video of the press conference here.
“As a wife, a mother, a student of the law and a lifelong Washingtonian committed to equality and justice … it is time, it is the right thing to do and I will introduce the bill to make it happen,” she said.
After the governor spoke, she took questions from the press as supporters in the room clapped and cheered. Sen. Ed Murray was asked whether the Senate has the votes to pass the bill. He said the Senate is a few votes short. Gregoire interrupted: “We got a very important vote today. We’ll get the rest we need to get it to my desk.”
Asked about the political reality of getting the bill through in a short session, she said everyone is capable of multitasking. “This is about our values. This is extremely important in the history of our state,” she said. “They’re going to get the job done.”
Gregoire was asked what the title change will mean — from domestic partnerships, which are currently legal, to marriage. She said when she thinks of her marriage, she doesn’t consider it a contract. “It’s love, it’s responsibility,” she said, not just a contract. “To deny that equality is just wrong.”
She said this has nothing to do with elections, politics — or her decision not to run for re-election. She said in the past, she’s questioned same-sex marriage because of her religion. But she’s come to understand that individual religions can decide whether to recognize each marriage, but the state shouldn’t discriminate.
With that, she ended the Q&A period as supporters clapped. Then, several legislators, including Sen. Ed Murray and Rep. Jamie Pedersen, took the podium to answer additional questions.
First: There isn’t going to be an emergency clause in the bill — that means that it can go to referendum. “I think we need to be prepared” with the idea that supporters will need to fight it at the ballot, Pedersen said.
“This bill will not pass unless there is a bipartisan vote for this bill,” Murray said. He said he’s having conversations with legislators in every district, “but again, it’s about where people are personally.” He said he’s optimistic that the bill will pass this session and he knows of “a few” Republicans in the Senate who support for the bill.
As for the timing: “The time is just right,” said Rep. Marko Liias.
When asked what would happen with existing domestic partnerships, Murray and Pedersen said they haven’t ironed out all the language just yet. “We’re still in some discussion with the governor’s office,” Pedersen said, but the goal is ending the inequality in the existing law.
There were a lot of questions about how this legislation would politically affect the effort to balance the budget, which may involve an effort to raise taxes. The legislators repeatedly said in different ways that this is an issue of equality and shouldn’t have anything to do with budget talks.
“Suddenly, gay marriage has become easier than raising taxes,” Murray said, to laughs.
Tags: Gregoire, same-sex marriage
Gov. Chris Gregoire is unveiling her preferred cuts budget now. Watch live on TVW.
“Another $2 billion in the hole and citizens will get a lot less of what they expect,” she said. “This morning, it’s not about cold, hard numbers: This is very personal. We’re talking about real Washingtonians.” She said these cuts will hurt many in the state, including seniors who won’t be able to afford prescriptions, those just out of prison with nowhere to go — tempted back into crime, a community corrections officer who worries about the safety of neighborhoods, and the homeless mentally ill who won’t be able to get help, among others.
“The people of our state are not spending. Businesses are not hiring. We need to cut $2 billion more,” she said. “We’re done with what I call the Pac-Man budgeting approach,” she said, where the state has taken bite after bite of budgets. Now, it’s time for full program eliminations. She said these cuts, on top of the $10 billion in cuts over the past three sessions, will hurt.
Gregoire was asked repeatedly about new revenue. She said she hasn’t done the work on revenue ideas, but she has been asked by all four caucuses about the issue.
Gregoire’s office just sent out a list of some of the cuts:
- Eliminate the Basic Health Plan, ending subsidized health care to 35,000 low-income individuals.
- Cut off medical services to 21,000 people enrolled in the state’s Disability Lifeline and ADATSA (Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Treatment Support Act) programs.
- Trim 15 percent from the support the state provides to colleges and universities.
- Reduce levy equalization, which helps property poor districts, by 50 percent.
- Cut the length of supervision for all offenders, based on severity of offense. Sex offenders will be supervised for 24 months, and all other offenders, for 12 months.
DSHS Secretary Susan Dreyfus will leave at the end of this year to lead Families International, Inc., the nonprofit parent organization of three national nonprofit organizations: Alliance for Children and Families, United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA), and Ways to Work. The group also inclues one for-profit company, FEI Behavioral Health.
DSHS is the largest state agency. In a statement sent out by Gov. Chris Gregoire, it says Gregoire is “expected” to name an interim replacement by the end of special session.
“I want to thank Governor Gregoire for the opportunity to serve in this beautiful state. I have come to love Washington and to respect and admire its people and those who have devoted their lives and their careers to public service,” Dreyfus said in the press release. “My life is forever blessed for the time I have spent here.”
Dreyfus, who was appointed to her current role in mid-2009, will continue to head the agency through the special session that starts Nov. 28.
Gov. Chris Gregoire said in the statement that her departure “is a loss to our state and to my team,” but that she understands and respects her personal and professional decision to return to Wisconsin.
The plan to consolidate state agencies is moving forward: Gov. Chris Gregoire announced her transition plan today that will take five state agencies down to three and move some responsibilities around, too. The transition, which her office said in a press release is the “most significant transformation of state government in the past 20 years,” will take an estimated 11 weeks.
A brief outline: The Department of General Administration, Department of Personnel, State Printer and the Department of Information Services will be merged to create the “Department of Enterprise Services” and the “Consolidated Technology Services.” Both of those new agencies will replace the previous four. Other departments affected include the Office of Financial Management and Personnel and Information Services — portions of those operations will be swapped around for efficiency’s sake.
Joyce Turner, General Administration director, Mike Ricchio, Information Services director, Marty Brown, OFM director, and Eva Santos, Personnel director, will all serve on the transition team — and Turner will lead it. Work begins immediately.
“This team will help guide state government through its most significant overhaul in 20 years,” Gregoire said in the press release. “We saw Joyce’s skill at overseeing major transitions when she helped form the Department of Early Learning. She has worked in nearly every agency affected by these moves and served as my deputy chief of staff. Joyce’s experience will be valuable as we blend workplaces and cultures. Mike’s previous experience with the Department of Information Services and extensive knowledge of state government make him a perfect fit for the state’s new information technology agency, Consolidated Technology Services.”
The remainder of the press release is after the jump. (more…)
Tags: consolidation, Gregoire
Last month, Jay Manning announced his resignation from the role of chief of staff for Gov. Chris Gregoire. And today, she’s announced that Marty Loesch will replace him. He begins next Monday, July 18.
Loesch is currently Gregoire’s director of external affairs and senior counsel. He’s held that position since January, 2009. He has also worked for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community and has practiced law privately.
“With his strong legal and policy background, Marty is a natural fit for the office’s chief of staff,” Gregoire said in a press release. “We have an aggressive agenda for the next 18 months. I’m glad to have Marty by my side as we work through these unprecedented times.”
Loesch said he was honored to have the opportunity to serve the governor and the state in an effort to climb out of the recession.
Tags: Chief of Staff, Gregoire, Jay Manning, Marty Loesch
The Seattle Times is reporting that Congressman Jay Inslee will announce early next week that he’s running for Governor. You can read the full story, which was verified via someone with “direct knowledge” of Inslee’s plans, here.
Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Republican, has already announced his candidacy. When Gov. Chris Gregoire announced she won’t run for a third term, she said she’s support Inslee’s bid for her job.
Earlier today, Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law the bill to allow universities to set their own tuition — but she also signed a bill to create a new higher education endowment, funded by Boeing, Microsoft and (hopefully) other businesses.
Watch the whole thing here:
Gov. Chris Gregoire today signed a long list of bills into law. Here’s the list, courtesy of her office:
Gov. Chris Gregoire and Eldon Vail just held a very brief press conference on the correction officer killing in Monroe.
The takeaway: Gregoire says there had been no staffing reductions there, but that’s not the issue. “This is not about budget cuts, this is about are we adequately staffed,” she said.
She only took a couple of questions and then left.
Tags: correction officer, Gregoire
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