Governor Gregoire spoke at the Law Enforcement Breakfast on June 25, 2010. Here are some of my rambling notes.
She said we've got lots of challenges with the economy just as was experienced during the Great Depression. What got us through those hard economic times was volunteerism and community outreach. And those acts of helping others will get us through these challenging times. There are some signs that our economy is improving. For example the Port of Seattle is booming with business. But she cautioned that the public sector recovery is flat and will be so for the next three to five years.
Regarding the state budget she said it's a "new day" and that we can't continue to take across the board reductions. We need to instead ask what are the core and critical services and fund those first. She says at the state level they will be asking eight questions to determine what is most important for the state to do.
Sounds like something that many governmental entities might be able to use to rethink and resize services and delivery systems.
With the value of the U.S.D. going down the tubes the port of Seattle would be booming with exports.
ReplyDeleteThe governor is right. Maybe we need to discontinue tax credits, offsets and outright hand outs to businesses like Adage and re-focus our funds and energy on those individuals who need them to survive and who will circulate those funds immediately to our small local businesses and back into employment and state coffers. Afterall, 60% of all employment comes from small businesses, not giant top heavy corporations, their over-paid executives and stock holders. We need to focus on domestic businesses. This is a global recession and all currencies are experiencing quantitive easing and devaluation, which makes exporting difficult for everyone. This is why we hear all of the talk about trade tariffs and currencies from the G-20. The answer is domestic growth from the grass roots. It is the only way to exit the world wide currency race to the bottom.
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