³ÉÈËXÕ¾

The first gubernatorial debate in Washington between Democrat Jay Inslee and Republican Bill Bryant was held yesterday.

While the debate did cover issues pertaining to the Eastern Washington region around Spokane, two statewide issues did dominate the conversation — the economy and Education.

Economy

-Bryant-

Given all the assets we have in Washington state it’s unnecessary that we have so many people without work … We have trade and transportation, tourism and recreation, we have technology, we have medical science, we have manufacturing, we have military, we have agriculture, we have forestry, fisheries and energy.
We need to have a governor to take the regulatory power of the state, and the budget of the state, and use it in a way that will help the private sector generate jobs in each of those sectors. And what I’m hearing from CEOs and small businesses alike is that we have a culture of ‘no.’ That every time you are trying to expand there is someone telling you why you can’t do it … In a Bryant administration, I’m going to work in the private sector to generate jobs, not just between Bainbridge and Bellevue, but in communities all across Washington state.
What I’m hearing from a lot of small businesses … is that the accumulative effect of regulations coming from Olympia is crippling them. They want a champion of small business to help them survive. On day one I will have a moratorium on all new regulations until departments can justify the ones we want. Let’s make this a much more business-friendly state, not just from Bainbridge to Bellevue.

-Inslee-

We have a stronger economy (than when I started). We’ve created 250,000 jobs. Unemployment is down in every single county in the State of Washington. One of the reasons for that is, having lived in Central Washington for almost two decades in Yakima, I focused on Eastern Washington and rural Washington as much as I did urban Washington. Look at the Aero-Flite company here, which has brought their business to Spokane because I worked with them to remove a regulatory burden on taxation … why did they come to Washington? It’s because I started a program called Work Start where we train their people.

Education

-Inslee-

We continue in the course we are on, and make improvements … Look what we have accomplished. We have put $2.3 billion in our McCleary investment and $5.5 billion on every single rung of the educational ladder. This is not talk, this is action – early childhood education, full-day kindergarten. That’s never happened before in the State of Washington. We’re reducing class sizes from kindergarten through third grade. We’re increasing compensation for teachers so we can recruit and maintain teachers … it was a bipartisan success to give better ability to afford college education. We are moving the ball big time … I’m glad I was successful getting the legislature to make a commitment to do that in 2017, even though Bill’s party resisted at the beginning.

-Bryant-

Governor Inslee, when he was a candidate, said we need to come up with a plan to fund education for every kid – no excuses. For four years all we’ve gotten is excuses … After four years, Governor Inslee has failed with the state’s paramount responsibility. That makes him a failed governor. Part of the reason he hasn’t dealt with it is because we look at this problem very differently. I think the governor looks at McCleary and thinks it is a problem. I think of McCleary as an incredible opportunity for us. It’s a great opportunity for us to step back and ask ourselves: what does a public school system looks like in the 21st century?
Right now we are spending about $12,000 per student. Some of those kids in rural districts aren’t having $12,000 spent on them. That is not only unconstitutional and it’s morally wrong. I want to pull together teachers and educators and put together a plan to fully and equitably fund education. I will dedicate my four years as governor to do that.

Two questions

The two candidates were each offered an opportunity to ask each other a question toward the end of the debate. Bryant asked what would be Inslee’s biggest failure in his past four years.

“Taking that check you contributed to me when I ran for congress in 1994, maybe I should have given that back,” Inslee quipped, before continuing:

I’m not sure it’s a mistake, it’s regret. It’s the homelessness problem that we have. Even though our economy is booming we have a 30 percent increase in homelessness in King County … there were 1,200 vets that needed housing so we 1,800 beds. But guess what, there are still over 1,000 vets because more vets have poured into the system because of opiate abuse, poverty and everything else. So I’m not done.

Inslee’s question focused on a topic he has brought up many times before — Donald Trump. Inslee listed off many of Trump’s controversies from insulting vets like John McCain or a gold star mother of a fallen soldier, and to monitor people of a certain religion. He said that Bryant remained silent on Trump for more than 242 days he was a candidate for governor. He asked what virtues Bryant believed Donald Trump had that caused him to remain silent in order to support his Republican party, instead of standing up against cruelty and divisiveness.

Bryant responded:

I’ve taken a position on Mr. Trump and I’ve made it very clear that I will not be voting for Mr. Trump or Secretary Clinton. We live in a state where 20-25 percent of our 9th graders will not graduate from high school. We just had new tests come out that show more than 70 percent of 11th graders are not passing their math tests. Our icon, the salmon and the steelhead; runs are plummeting. Traffic congestion continues to get worse. We live in a state where our mental health system is rated 50th in providing care to adults. We live in a state where our foster care system is in shambles. Governor, you have hidden behind the shield of Mr. Trump for months. That ends today. Today we are going to start talking about your four years of failure. And you’re going to have to defend your record.