"The Public Works magazine's November cover story recognized Gregoire as one of "the most influential, high impact leaders in the public works community” for her work getting the high-performance green building bill passed in this state.
Working with Democratic legislators and a few courageous Republican moderates, she passed the best budget for K-12 education that this state has seen in more than a decade, including a targeted and permanent funding source for I-728 to reduce class size, and reinstatement of I-732 to increase pay for teachers. They also reinstated coverage for 23,000 children stranded without health care in the previous Republican/Rossi – led Legislature and extended coverage to 17,000 more children.
Again, working with legislative allies, she fought for and created the Life Sciences Discovery Fund, using the $350 million bonus from the federal tobacco settlement that accrued to Washington State because she was the chief negotiator. Those funds will support cutting-edge research and technology and create many new jobs.
She led a bipartisan group of state legislators and business-folk to Japan and China earlier this fall, focused on building relationships and creating jobs. She just doesn’t stop. And boy, are we lucky.
As we look forward to the next legislative session starting in January, it’s useful to remember how much was accomplished during this first year of the Gregoire administration. We are blessed to live in a state that is moving forward because we have a Democratic-controlled legislature, albeit just barely, and a Democratic governor. Whatever we can do to assist them and give them more recognition, we should do."-from Evergreen Politics.
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