"Gregoire, clearly pissed, gave an uncharacteristically tough defense of her "demoralized" state workforce" (with video)

Eli Sanders (SLOG) with video (46:54):

After she announced her drive for a half-cent sales tax increase yesterday, Governor Chris Gregoire was asked the above question by a reporter.

In response, Gregoire, clearly pissed, gave an uncharacteristically tough defense of her "demoralized" state workforce.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute," Gregoire said, leaving the podium to grab a large chart that she could hold over the reporter's head. "I don't know how you can say that."

State workers are already sitting next to empty desks and having to do more because so many of their colleagues have been let go, Gregoire said. Now she's proposing to lay off another 1,500 state workers to deal with the current $2 billion budget shortfall. Plus, out of the $10.5 billion that's been cut from the state budget over the last three years, 19 percent of those cuts—almost $2 billion worth—have come out of salaries and compensation for state-employed K-12 workers. "They have stepped up," Gregoire declared, returning to her point that it's now time for voters to step up and approve a small, temporary revenue increase to pay for basic state services.

Watch the video and see a new Gregoire emerging, finally, as she heads into her last year in office.

Howie P.S.: ‎"Why should the voters be willing to sacrifice for themselves if the state worker unions are not willing to do the same?" was the original question Gregoire was asked. Gregoire's defense of state workers comes at about 38:00 in the embedded video above.

(Updated) "Wash. governor proposes temp sales tax increase"

AP:

However, $282 million of her recommendations would require two-thirds support from the Legislature or would have to go to a public vote.

Those recommendations include a business and occupation tax on oil companies and financial institutions with windfall profits. MORE...

Howie P.S.: This proposal is a little something to be thankful for but it's deader than your Thanksgiving turkey and it hasn't even reached the table. If you want to hear about this in Seattle from The Governor today, you're in luck!: "Governor Gregoire visiting SSCC on Tuesday, Nov. 22; Education cuts are on her agenda"

WA: Gregoire says she is “worn out”

Joel Connelly (SeattlePI.com):

Gov. Chris Gregoire said Friday that she is “worn out” from all the budget cutting she has been forced to do the last three years.
(SNIP)
Gregoire had already departed the luncheon when she received a stern message in return. A husband-wife team, Tom and Sonya Campion, received an “Outstanding Philanthropists” award at the luncheon.

Sonya Campion spoke her mind. “I hope when the governor presents her next budget next week, it is not just cuts but revenues that she proposes,” Campion said. She received a strong ovation.

“Expanding philanthropy is not replacing government,” argued Campion, who helps non-profit groups tell their stories, and led a fund raising campaign to preserve open space and crucial wildlife habitats and migration corridors in the Methow Valley. MORE...

Danny Westneat (Seattle Times): "Companies enjoying tax breaks should 'give three' percent back"

Danny Westneat (Seattle Times, op-ed):

The state workers' union meant to be combative. But last week, in throwing down the political equivalent of a schoolyard taunt, I think they hit on an idea with legs.

The backdrop was our grim-reaper governor, once again at the mike to say she must throw poor people off health insurance, jam the public-school classrooms with 30-plus kids in each and gut the universities.

I have no choice, she kept saying. My pocketbook is empty.

Both Democrats and Republicans nodded gravely and then dipped into their stock of times-are-tough clichés. We've looked under every rock. It's all on the table. Nobody is spared the pain.

Bull, said the union. MORE...

Chris Gregoire on Thom Hartmann on Green Energy (video)

thomhartmann, video (07:14).

H/t to Darryl.

WA: "Gregoire is among least popular governors"

The Stand (WA State Labor Council):

Gregoire has unmistakably shifted rightward politically in both her words and actions. In a 2011 legislative session dominated by a challenging budget and business-backed workers’ compensation reform, Gregoire defied calls from her Democratic base to close tax loopholes and oppose lump-sum buyouts of injured workers. The commercial media lauded this shift as a fresh “bipartisan” approach that took guts. But the polls suggest Gregoire’s political shift alienated some Democrats while failing to impress either Republicans or independents. MORE...

"The Democratic Disappointment" with Chris Gregoire

Josh Feit (publicola):

At issue: Two of the biggest disappointments from the 2011 legislative session for the Democratic base—and by Democratic base, I mean labor unions and social service advocates. MORE...

"Big tuition hikes a ‘cold,’ ‘ugly reality’ in Wash."

Chris Grygiel (SeattlePI.com):

At a news conference where Boeing and Microsoft announced a $50 million pledge to a college scholarship fund, Gov. Chris Gregoire was asked whether the deep cuts to higher education in the most recent state budget would have been as severe if voters had passed an initiative that would’ve imposed an income tax on the wealthy.

“No,” she said.
(SNIP)
The Boeing and Microsoft scholarship monies are a welcome addition, but there are still hard feelings in some quarters that the companies have called for improvements to higher ed on the one hand while opposing tax mechanisms that could support students and schools. The new scholarship money from the two biggest private employers in the state is generous, but Boeing’s profit for 2010 was $3.3 billion. Microsoft’s profit last year was $18.7 billion. They’re not going to be sweating $5 million annual payments for the next couple years. MORE...

"Gregoire, Microsoft and Boeing ‘transform’ higher ed (You’ve got to admire the chutzpah)"

Chris Grygiel (SeattlePI.com):

Indeed, those two companies, which employ thousands of well-educated, smart people, have been pressuring Olympia for years to make higher education a priority. But at the same time they’ve been railing against new taxes – they apparently think Olympia can adequately pay for a top notch higher education system on positive thoughts and good cheer. The Daily Beast recently listed Microsoft and Boeing as being among the nation’s top 15 corporate tax dodgers.

And the two companies were among those formally opposing Initiative 1098, the measure voters defeated last year which would’ve imposed an income tax on the wealthy to pay for education.

You’ve got to admire the chutzpah. MORE...

WA: "Getting a Second Opinion" on Gregoire and Medical Marijuana (with video)

Lee (HorsesAss.org) with video (15:00):

Fifteen State House Representatives, led by Roger Goodman, have sent Attorney General Rob McKenna a letter asking him to weigh in with his opinion on the recent furor over Governor Gregoire’s partial veto of the medical marijuana bill. The legislators would like to know McKenna’s official opinion on the following three things: MORE...

Joel Connelly on "The real reefer madness: Medical marijuana regulation"

Joel Connelly (seattlepi.com):

"I support allowing the medical use of marijuana," Gregoire said. Almost in the next breath, however, she noted that possessing cannabis to relieve pain is "still a federal crime," adding that this is an issue of "extreme complexity."

But a few basic truths need recognizing: Medical marijuana users cause no pain to society. They are about relieving pain. Pain knows no boundaries of political climate or geography. Does one set of policies apply in the city where Gregoire went to law school, and another on this side of the Cascade Curtain?

We still see about 800,000 drug possession arrests in America each year. The "War on Drugs" is a miserable failure, perpetuated only by the bureaucracy it spawns. The 40-year war hasn't stopped people from smoking cannabis -- use among teenagers is up of late -- and succeeds only in wounding reputations. MORE...

(Updated) WA: "Gregoire Guts Medical-Marijuana Bill" (with audio)

Photo by Cienna Madrid-Gregoire: "I am acutely aware of how important this is for medical patients."

UPDATE: The story in the seattlepi.com adds a few details. For example:

The Washington Federation of State Employees said in a letter Friday that workers were concerned they could be subject to federal prosecution under the law and asked Gregoire to veto the bill, The Associated Press reported.

The Seattle Times story picks up another angle: "Gregoire vetoes bill but vows to push feds on medical marijuana." In an editorial, the Times says:

"Gov. Chris Gregoire needs to be reminded why Washington voters overwhelmingly approved a 1998 law to allow the regulated use of marijuana. People wanted relief from grievous medical conditions and treatments.

Her artful veto Friday of the Medical Use of Cannabis Act stranded those citizens, and their loved ones, who sought to play by the rules. MORE...

Dominic Holden (SLOG-The Stranger)

Nixing far more of a medical-marijuana bill than she had telegraphed that she would, Governor Chris Gregoire vetoed nearly every section of an omnibus bill today that was intended to clarify a messy tangle of ambiguities in a 13-year-old law for sick people and their care providers. Arrest protection for patients (who can currently be arrested and only raise a defense in court), cultivation licenses, and dispensaries were all scratched by the governor. In explaining her decision, Gregoire reiterated her concern that the bill's edict to license dispensaries would subject state Department of Health employees to federal prosecution. But, in addition to vetoing dispensaries, she ultimately removed a patient registry and its ensuing arrest protection because it "is intertwined with the other parts of the bill," she said in her Capitol Building office.

What's left is "window dressing," said Alison Holcomb, the drug policy director of the ACLU of Washington.

Gregoire added a twist to her familiar argument—that federal charges "would" be raised against state employees, an argument that has been roundly debunked—by saying, "The landscape is changing." She cited letters from federal prosecutors in Rhode Island, Colorado, and Oakland in recent months similar to one issued in Washington this month.

Gregoire was resolute. "We cannot assure protection to patients in a way that subjects another group to prosecutions," she said. "That is not acceptable to me." Asked three times if she had any example of a state employee being prosecuted for administering one of the many medical-marijuana licensing programs in the US, Gregoire said, "No, no, no."

Her position was immediately denounced. Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes announced that Gregoire's argument was a "red herring at best" and added, “I am profoundly disappointed that at the 11th hour and 59th minute Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed the central operative sections of the medical cannabis legislation." Meanwhile, Mayor Mike McGinn said in a statement that the veto would "leave us with the same problems that we currently face: too many patients have to take unnecessary risks to obtain their medicine, confusion for law enforcement, a proliferation of dispensaries across Seattle, and an inability to regulate dispensaries properly."

What remains in the bill? Permission for patients to grow up to 45 plants in collectives of up to 10 people. Gregoire said her veto allowed 20 days for the legislature to pass another medical marijuana bill—perhaps one that allowed for arrest protection.

Wearing disdain in her expression, Gregoire insisted that she hadn't vetoed the bill as an appeal for future work with the Obama Administration but was based on her—again, frivolous—argument that state workers would be prosecuted. "This is about me being the governor of the state of Washington," she insisted. "It has nothing to do with me or my future or anything else."

Holcomb, who is also a former defense attorney handling medical-marijuana cases, is intimately familiar with the current medical marijuana law and the memo issued by federal prosecutors. She says the landscape hasn't changed. "On the one hand, Gregoire wants to provide patients safe access to medical cannabis. But on the other hand, she offers an excuse for gutting the legislation that holds no water."

"What is concerning to me is Gregoire's repeated statement that patients would remain exempt from prosecution," Holcomb continues. "Under state law, that has never been the case. By stripping out the regulatory section... patients continue to be subject to arrest and prosecution under state law."

Is there any hope that a Democratic governor wouldn't veto a bill so broad?

Dow Constantine, the King County Executive who may run for governor next year, "supports the purposes of the bill," says his spokesman Frank Abe. "He agrees we need to bring the production and distribution of medical marijuana above ground and into the light of day."

Howie P.S. Here's a detailed analysis of the "partial veto" by the Cannabis Defense Coalition. There is also a link there to audio (22:27) of Governor Gregoire's statement on the medical cannabis bill.

Gregoire and the Legislature (WA): "Cuts, not closings, used to close budget hole"

The Olympian (WA):

Last December, when an emotional Gov. Chris Gregoire announced a budget proposal even she said she hated, she proposed to lop whole limbs from government.

Largely, lawmakers didn’t take her up on the idea.

“I think the governor wanted to terminate; we were able to cut back,” said Sen. Steve Conway, a Tacoma Democrat who said the partial cuts would allow programs to rebound once the economy does.

Others, mostly Republicans, wanted the Legislature to make more permanent changes instead of “trying to continue to do everything at a lower level,” Rep. Bruce Dammeier said. “We are saying we need to prioritize for the future, which means we need to jettison some of the things,” the Puyallup Republican said.

Much remains to be decided on the state budget – eyes and ears are tuned to the special session of the Legislature that opens Tuesday and could run 30 days. The House and Senate spending plans both contain deep cuts to schools, services and the social safety net. But unlike Gregoire’s plan, neither of them would:

• Mothball the state history museums in Tacoma, Olympia and Spokane.

• End aid to people whose disabilities have left them temporarily out of work.

• Eliminate the program that subsidizes health insurance coverage for working adults who can’t afford it.

• Cut kids whose parents don’t prove their legal residency off of the rolls of children’s health insurance.

• Completely suspend bonuses for nationally certified teachers.

• Remove 3-year-olds from state-funded preschool. MORE...

WA: "The Governor Gins Up a Federal Controversy Over Medical Pot"

Dominic Holden (The Stranger):

So why did the Feds send a letter specifically mentioning state employees?

Because Gregoire specifically asked the Obama administration, in a letter sent on April 13, if state employees would be "immune from arrest or liability." Naturally, prosecutors would never provide blanket immunity—and they made that clear.

At issue is the difference between what the federal government can do and what it actually will do. US attorney general Eric Holder issued a memo in 2009 that indicates, in essence, that the Feds won't intervene in medical marijuana cases that are in compliance with state laws. (Of course, Holder said that the Feds reserved the right to prosecute those cases.)

So, this line of thinking goes, when Gregoire asked the Feds if they could—technically, possibly, even though they never have—charge state employees, she got the answer she wanted (and as the former attorney general of Washington State, Gregoire already knew what the answer would be). Now Gregoire is leveraging the letter to bully the legislature into watering down the bill this week—asking them to gut key protections for sick and dying patients and complicating access for their caretakers. MORE...

"Change we can believe in?’ Not when it comes to medical marijuana policy"

Paul Armentano-NORML (AlterNet):

It was just three years ago when President Obama (then candidate Obama) famously pledged to no longer use federal “Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws” regulating the physician authorized use of medical cannabis. And it was in the fall of 2009 that the administration issued the Ogden memorandum to federal prosecutors directing them to not “focus federal resources … on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.”

Yet in recent days the administration has seen fit to interject itself in the ongoing legislative debate to establish and regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington state. Last week, on the eve of a final House vote regarding Senate Bill 5073, the U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington issued a statement warning landlords that they could face forfeiture of their properties if they rent to licensed medical marijuana facilities. Undeterred, the House passed SB 5073 (the Senate had previously passed an earlier version of the bill), setting up a potential showdown between lawmakers and Democrat Gov. Chris Gregoire. MORE...

NPR: "Gregoire leads by example" (with audio)

Darryl (HorsesAss.org) with audio (04:01):

...Walker could have had all the budget savings necessary simply by negotiating compensation adjustments with the unions.

You know…like Gov. Christine Gregoire (D-WA) did!

This morning on NPR’s Weekend Edition, host Liane Hansen spoke with Gregoire (who is suffering laryngitis) about public employee unions and the Washington state solution:

Last fall, Gregoire was elected Chair of the National Governors Association, establishing that she has the trust and respect of her peers.

So in this forth year of the Bush Recession, when almost every state is struggling with budget issues, maybe newly elected gubernatorial nut cases like Scott Walker should study and emulate the successes of the more experienced and respected Governors in the nation. MORE...

Gregoire: "“I hate my budget. I hate it because in some places, I don’t even think it’s moral.”

The Columbian:

The curtain rises Monday on a 2011 Washington Legislature where hard questions are sure to elicit painful answers.

Legislators must adopt a state spending plan that covers a $1.1 billion deficit through June 30. Then, write a budget that trims another $4.6 billion, perhaps even more, through mid-2013.

Every state program is up for scrutiny, Olympia leaders pledge. The budget ax will be relentless and will spare few causes or constituencies.

There’s no salve for the wounds, either. MORE...

Howie P.S.: Too bad any option with the word "taxes" in it is off the table. I'm talking about all the loopholes, breaks and gimmicks that the well-heeled in our state now enjoy.

"Seattle Times Riffs Off GOP Talking Point"

Josh Feit (Publicola):

The Seattle Times’ Andrew Garber has a good introduction to this year’s legislative session in Olympia.

This year’s 60-day session starts tomorrow under the cloud of an unprecedented budget crisis. With a $2.6 billion budget shortfall on top of last year’s $9 billion shortfall—and it’s likely to get worse in coming months—legislators are fretting over painful cuts and dreaded taxes.

Summing up, Garber’s succinct lead paragraph goes like this:

OLYMPIA — Last year was bad. This year is worse. The future won’t be much better.

I do have one quibble with Garber’s report, though. Riffing off the GOP mantra about the Democratic-controlled legislature, he writes:

The state landed in this jam because the Legislature used a rapid rise in tax revenue, fueled by booms in housing and consumer spending, to increase spending 31 percent during Gov. Chris Gregoire’s first term.

That’s accurate, but it makes it sound like state government ran amok during the Gregoire years.

Here’s a more detailed perspective: The “rapid rise in tax revenue” that Garber cites did not come from any tax increases. The 31 percent increase in spending tacks precisely to a 31 percent increase in revenues Revenues were $22.5 billion in 2003 and they grew by 31 percent to $29.5 billion in 2007. The 31 percent growth in government supported the expanding infrastructure and workforce accordingly and followed the post dot-com crash years when services had been cut and demands for services were pent up.

As the (left-leaning) Washington Budget & Policy Center has pointed out time and time again—in relation to the state’s economy, over the course of Gregoire’s run as governor, the state budget has remained static and has actually gotten smaller.

Howie P.S.: At first, I thought the headline said "rips off."

"Grim numbers, dire budget prediction from Gov. Gregoire" (with video)

KING5 News, with video (02:44):

Drastic cuts to education, basic health care and the prison system. That's the bottom line in the new budget announced by Gov. Chris Gregoire Wednesday. And that will likely mean raising taxes.

Gregoire, looking grim-faced, is not a big fan of the budget she herself rolled out.

"Let me be very clear. I do not support this budget. As required by law, it is balanced. For me, it is unjust," said Gregoire.

After filling a $9 billion spending gap last year, the state now has to find an additional $2.6 billion. By law, she has to balance the budget using only existing revenue streams.

"That amount of money has to come out of a very narrow slice of the budget," said Gregoire.

Most state spending is protected. Only about $7.7. billion is available for cuts. That's made up of K-12 education, higher education, corrections, medical assistance and human services covering a wide range of programs. Of that, $2.6 billion – about one-third – needs to go.

"In short, we can only cut what makes us Washington state," said Gregoire.

In an open letter to Washingtonians, the second-term Democrat said she can't let those deep spending cuts stand.

But in this economy, everything is on the table. And while she can't quite say the word, the concept of new taxes is very much alive in Olympia.

"And fifth, proposing additional ta… uh ... state revenues," said Gregoire.

State Republicans respond that any new taxes will slow economic recovery. They want more government reform and a move towards privatizing some state services.

Representatives from the education and social and health services sectors say this budget would be catastrophic.

"The budget unveiled today will be a disaster for the state's elderly and it will eventually be a disaster for the state's budget," said Jerry Riley, chairman of Eldercare Alliance.

Keep in mind, this is far from the final word on the supplemental budget. This is the budget the governor is required to submit within current revenue projections.

Translation: it has no new taxes.

There will be new tax proposals and revenue sources identified in the budget the governor will release next month - what she calls her budget. The second budget will still have major spending cuts, she said, but it will also propose new tax sources to rescue several state programs from the chopping block.

Gregoire did not propose a specific way to finance the programs on Wednesday. But included in her proposed life raft were key programs including:

-- The Basic Health Plan, which provides subsidized health coverage to about 65,000 poorer Washingtonians.

-- General Assistance, a state welfare program for disabled people who can't work or qualify for federal disability payments.

-- Levy equalization, a system that doles out money to school districts that have a lower-than-average base of property taxes.

"These important and integral services do not come free," Gregoire said. "No one likes to pay more taxes. And no one likes to raise more taxes, no matter the state of the economy."

The decision to go to the tax well was not a surprise; Gregoire had talked repeatedly in recent weeks about her unwillingness to run with an all-cuts budget. But the move carries some political risks for the Legislature's Democratic majority, which is heading into a busy election year.

Raising taxes would require changes to Initiative 960, the voter-approved tax-limiting measure passed in 2007. That initiative effectively kept a lid on any tax plans during the last legislative session, but its two-year expiration date arrives this month.

After that, the Legislature can amend the initiative with a simple majority vote. Democrats have enough votes to take that step on their own, although threats to a rural-serving program like levy equalization could attract some Republican votes.

Gregoire has not said which tax sources she might favor for a potential revenue package, although she has sounded dubious about the idea of general increases in sales, property or business and occupation taxes during the nascent economic recovery.

Finding another tax source that can attract enough political support while also raising sufficient money to stave off cuts, however, could be a very difficult job.

Gregoire also announced Wednesday that she was taking administrative action, and would close all or part of several institutions, saving the state at least $70 million. Gregoire said that Ahtanum View, Larch, Pine Lodge prisons will be closed, as well as one wing at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla. Parts of the juvenile institutions at Naselle Youth Camp, Maple Lane School and Green Hill School will also be closed.

Also closed would be two institutions for the developmentally disabled, Frances Haddon Morgan Center in Bremerton, and Rainier School in Buckley, though savings on that won't be known until Rainier closes in 2014, said Gregoire spokesman Glenn Kuper.

"The actions combined will result in millions in savings for state government now, and even more in the future," Gregoire said.

"Gregoire, in the 36th, on the budget." (video)

strangervideo. video (05:34):

Governor Christine Gregoire speaks about the state budget shortfall at a fundraiser for Jeanne Kohl-Welles in Seattle's 36th District.