Published August 2004

Big issues in big election
As primary nears, candidates Sims, Gregoire and Rossi talk jobs, education, leadership

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

The major challenges facing Washington state’s next governor are clear: economic development and employment growth, a friendlier business tax environment, more education funding, an improved transportation system, reduced health-care costs and providing strong leadership.

Democrats Christine Gregoire, the state’s attorney general, and Ron Sims, King County executive, are campaigning hard for the Sept. 14 primary balloting, with the winner to face Republican challenger Dino Rossi, who left his role in the state senate to campaign full time in the race for the governorship in the Nov. 2 election.

Democrats Christine Gregoire (top), the state’s attorney general, and Ron Sims (middle), King County executive, are campaigning hard for the Sept. 14 primary balloting, with the winner to face Republican challenger Dino Rossi (bottom), who left his role in the state senate to campaign full time in the race for the governorship in the Nov. 2 election.

It appears the gubernatorial race this year may pit the Democratic choice against the strongest Republican contender in 20 years, political observers are predicting. An Elway Research Inc. poll in December showed 24 percent of the respondents chose Gregoire for the post compared to 5 percent for Sims and 8 percent for Rossi. In March, a second Elway poll showed tallies of 26 percent for Gregoire, 9 percent for Sims and 25 percent for Rossi.

To explore the three candidates’ positions on critical issues, the Snohomish County Business Journal interviewed each one in separate meetings in Olympia, Seattle and Everett. Here is a brief summary of their views on some of the major issues facing the state:

Economic development and jobs
Ron Sims has distinguished himself from his opponents by taking a bold stand in favor of a graduated state income tax, a position that in past years would doom any candidate who suggested it. But Sims believes voters are ready for it.

“The state’s tax system is a punitive one. People know this,” he said. “A 4 to 10 percent graduated state income tax (on net income) would enable us to get rid of the business and occupation tax on gross revenues, which is paid whether or not a business is making a profit. Businesses will invest that money in growth and creating new jobs.”

“I’m recommending a tax system for the 21st century, one that will attract new business to this state and keep existing businesses here,” he said, noting that his tax plan calls for replacing the tax on gross revenues with one focused on a business’ net income instead.

Sims’ plan also calls for eliminating the 6.5-cent state sales tax and reducing property taxes. Eliminating the state sales tax also would reduce business investments in constructing new facilities, he said.

One of Christine Gregoire’s strategies for economic development is to use $500 million from the state’s tobacco settlement funds — together with business investments and matching funds — to create a $1 billion public and private “Life Sciences Discovery Fund” to finance innovative research and infrastructure to create new high-tech and biotech businesses and jobs across the state.

She told Association of Washington Business members in Olympia that she expects to create change rather than maintain the status quo, including turning the economy around and creating new jobs. She has published “Putting Washington Back to Work,” a 12-page plan to overcome the impact of losing 100,000 private-sector jobs in the state since 2001.

“I think we can create 250,000 new jobs in Washington state in the next four years,” Gregoire said. “We must look at every region of the state for ways to develop local economic engines, such as the wineries in the Walla Walla region where the winery, tourism and hospitality industries have seen a lot of growth recently.”

Challenger Dino Rossi believes not only in his state and himself but in the opportunity for Washington to install a Republican governor for the first time in 20 years, noting that six states have recently elected Republicans in usually Democratic strongholds. He already counts prominent members of both parties among his supporters.

“For more jobs, we have to be competitive on all fronts, as much with other states as with other countries,” Rossi said. “Raising taxes hurts our economy and throws more people out of work. I’ll especially support smaller businesses and those ready to risk their own capital for their dream of starting a business. That’s where many of the future jobs will come from.”

Reducing government bureaucracy and constrictive regulations that hamper business growth is also on Rossi’s agenda, along with making new director appointments to state agencies that deal with business, part of his plan to create a friendlier business climate in Washington.

“From the top down I will initiate a new attitude of service in our agencies that will improve the state’s economy for businesses as well as citizens,” he said.

More education funding
“We’ve reduced education funding in this state for the past 13 years. There is no such thing as a strong economic policy without a strong education policy. Real tax reform would provide additional funding for education,” Sims said, noting that major education institutions are in dire need of an infusion of new dollars to meet enrollment demands.

“By 2010, we expect there will be 34,000 qualified students who will be told there is no room at the inn,” he said.

Sims calls for increasing tuition for those who can afford to pay, providing more scholarships for others and partnering with employers in the private sector.

Gregoire wants to make early-childhood education a priority, improve the states’ WASL test for students, revise school levy passage requirements to a simple majority and create an education cabinet “to bring all education voices under one roof.”

Her published education plan, “Making the Grade,” is designed to improve achievement and opportunity in the public education system, including reducing the high school drop-out rate, accelerating gains in rigorous academic standards, increasing enrollment opportunities at colleges and universities, creating a more balanced source of funding and improving teacher, principal and school personnel salaries.

Rossi wants to provide university presidents with more power to set tuition and find innovative funding for education, saying education financing doesn’t depend entirely on the Legislature. He also believes that the state’s higher education research institutions need more support to attract more biotech and medical professionals.

“We will have the largest class of graduating seniors in 2008 in the state’s history. We have to prepare for their future by expanding higher education opportunities,” he said.

Leadership
As for leadership qualities, Gregoire said that her role in heading a multi-state lawsuit against the nation’s largest tobacco companies — and winning billions of dollars in settlements for Washington state — shows her strength as “someone who can bring people together ... and someone with the courage to do the right thing ... not the political thing.”

“Hard work, being on top of the issues ... managing 460 lawyers, a staff of 1,200 and 24,000 (active) cases on any one day, that’s leadership,” she said.

Sims, who characterizes himself as “the only one of the three candidates who has actual governing experience as an executive,” points to his leadership in managing King County’s $3 billion annual budget and a work force of 1,600 employees. “I have a track record that they don’t have.”

“It’s critical to raise people’s expectations,” Sims said, characterizing himself as a candidate who promises “real tax reform” that he believes people are ready to accept and that will improve employment, economic growth and the state’s quality of life for its residents.

A dynamic speaker, at a microphone and one-on-one, Rossi weighs in for the state executive’s race with his track record in the state Senate, his skills as a negotiator and his reputation as a “fiscal conservative with a social conscience.”

As chairman of the state Senate’s powerful Ways and Means Committee, he traveled the state to meet in legislators’ hometowns to work out a bipartisan agreement that turned a $2.7 billion shortfall in the 2003-05 budget into a balanced document without raising taxes, while protecting important social programs.

“I’ll use those same bipartisan negotiating skills in working with the Legislature as governor,” he said.

For more information about the gubernatorial candidates and their views, go online to www.dinorossi.com, www.ronsimsforgovernor.com and www.gregoire2004.com.

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