Bob Ferguson will be sworn in later today as Washington’s 24th Governor. He’ll take over the helm from one of the longest-serving governors in the state’s history, at a time when Washingtonians are voicing concern about the future of the state.
Ferguson started his political career in 2004 as a member of the King County Council, and before being elected governor in November, had served as the state’s Attorney General since 2013. Ferguson spoke with Cascade PBS’s Paris Jackson about the initial budget plans he’s laid out and some of the challenges he expects to take on as the state’s new chief executive.
Paris Jackson, Cascade PBS: What are you envisioning for your first few months as governor of Washington? Ferguson: Well, we have some big challenges that [we’ll] have to get right to it with the state legislature, and we’ll be talking about those. But we face a big budget shortfall, multibillion-dollar. We have a lot of work to do on that. But a key mission for me is making life more affordable for Washingtonians and also making government more efficient. Where it really centers the people in the work that we do, not getting bogged down in bureaucracy, fixing things like our ferry service. We have a lot of work to do as a state in that regard. So that’s our focus. My transition team — we’re having our final meeting this week — we’re focused on those first hundred days, on all those issues and issues like public safety as well. So that’s been our focus and that’s what we’ll be working with the state legislature.One thing that you mentioned is the budget. And as we know, Governor Inslee’s outgoing budget proposed nearly $10 billion more than what the state currently operates on. Do you think it’s necessary to increase spending when the state faces such a huge budget shortfall? Yeah, it’s a great question. And in fact, I released today my budget priorities for the upcoming session, and it includes $4 billion in cuts. Right. And that’s across-the-board cuts for state agencies, about 6%, because we’ve got a big shortfall. At the same time, though, we need to make the right kind of investments. One of those investments that I’m proposing is additional resources to hire more police officers. Washington ranks last per capita across the country in the number of law enforcement officers we have. That’s not good enough, we need to change that. So we do have some investments in those areas. And I want to make clear that those cuts will not impact K-12 education or public safety. And we will have greater investments in more housing for the people of Washington state. So I think we have to have a budget that right-sizes our government — we get more streamlined, but also prioritize the most important things we do as a state. And can we dig into that? Because you mentioned public safety, that was top of mind as you were campaigning. Any more specifics — you just talked about investment — anything else that people can just be mindful of that you are looking into? Yeah. So I’m excited that [state] Sen. Jeff Holy, Republican from Spokane, is working with me and my team on this proposal to invest $100 million. That’s a grant program that local jurisdictions — you know, the cities, the counties who hire the bulk of our law enforcement officers — that they can turn to that grant program for additional resources for greater salaries or hiring bonuses. So we’re working in a bipartisan manner to get those resources. Now we have to get that bill through the state legislature, get them the budget. But I really appreciate Sen. Holy working with us in a bipartisan proposal. And I think that’ll have a lot of support. You spoke with another publication, and one thing that you were mentioning is maybe cutting an agency or two. Any specifics? Is that something that you’re still cutting because you are going to make this massive reduction? Any additional details? So as we’re having this conversation, I haven’t yet taken office yet, but in the budget priorities I put out there, that expectation is each agency needs to propose these cuts across the board. It won’t be 6% for each agency. Some might be more, some might be a little bit less. We need to make sure we’re preserving core services for the people of the state of Washington. But from a budget standpoint, there’s no sacred cows from my standpoint. OK. One thing I proposed doing in this in our budget priorities was taking some dollars from the office of the Attorney General, right? An office I care a great deal about having spent 12 years there. But hey, they have some dollars there in a fund that we can utilize for other core services, and it will not adversely impact the work of the AG’s office. That’s my approach for my own agency. That’s what I’ll be communicating to other agency heads across state government. We’ve got to get leaner. We’ve got to get more efficient and prioritize. And you alluded to, as we all know, your work as attorney general. One component of that was filing lawsuits against the Trump administration. We know the incoming administration has laid out its policies. What do you think Washington’s role is in keeping that administration in check? Yeah, it’s a great question. And so, a relatively short answer to a complex question is, you know, I was attorney general for those four years of his last administration. And during those years when we felt that the president violated the law, when he overstepped his authority and we felt those actions harmed Washingtonians, then we brought litigation. And we won all but two cases that we brought against him, we won over and over and over again. Those were cases to preserve clean air and clean water in Washington state. Those were cases to make sure that DREAMers, right? — where this is the only country that they know — could stay in Washington state. These are really important cases for the people of the state of Washington. So my approach as governor is the following. Hey, we’ll work with the Trump administration when we can, and we will stand up to the Trump administration when they’re harming Washingtonians and exceeding their lawful authority. So I’m looking forward to working with Nick Brown, the incoming attorney general. You know, obviously, I’ve got a close relationship with the AG’s office and with Nick, so I think it’ll be a great partnership. But the key for us is to be focused and disciplined. Elections have consequences. President Trump won. He was not my candidate. But presidents can do things and have a lot of legal authority. And when he’s not exceeding that authority, you know, folks have to understand that election had a consequence. But when he exceeds that authority, that’s where the state needs to step in: when Washingtonians are being harmed. Washington is known for the laws and initiatives that we propose to fight climate change. Governor Inslee has had a slew of successes in getting laws into place that protect our state. Is there anything that you are interested in tackling as the chief executive with regards to climate change? Yeah. First, I’ll say that I’m convinced that future generations of Washingtonians will only appreciate his service in this particular area even more as time goes on. That he really tackled what’s a huge threat, right, to our whole way of life here in Washington state. That clean air, that clean water, the beautiful outdoors, the beautiful environment we have — and so I think he deserves our thanks for his leadership, not just here in Washington, but nationally and really even internationally. Things like the Climate Commitment Act, which voters overwhelmingly approved in red jurisdictions and blue jurisdictions, they preserved that because they know it’s important to address these issues. So my goal will be, as incoming governor, … to make sure that we’re continuing that leadership. I think folks look to Washington state for that leadership. Governor Inslee set with the state legislature some really important policies. So implementing, for example, the Climate Commitment Act, making sure we make that transition to a clean-energy economy — that’s not just good for our environment, that’s not just good for climate, that’s good for jobs. You know, I was at training facilities in Eastern Washington and Wenatchee, and it was training for workers, hundreds of them. And what they’re being trained for is the clean-energy economy. That’s jobs for those people all across our state. So I’m excited about that and looking forward to making that happen as Governor. Cascade PBS and Stuart Elway conducted a poll recently, and some 50% of Washingtonians essentially said that they have feelings that things are going to get worse in terms of leadership here in the state. And what I’m trying to say is, we’re known as a blue state, but there is still some division here within our state in different pockets of our counties. What is your message to those who may have not been considering you as their candidate? How are we going to bring folks together, so we are of one accord? Sure. So I’m mindful that, well, I know it’s easy to think of Washington as a blue state. You know, I’m mindful of the fact that, you know, 44% of the people who voted in the election did not vote for me. Right? They voted for my opponent. So, yes, we won a fairly decisive victory, but still a lot of folks supported somebody else. So I’m mindful of that. And I think it’s important to keep that perspective in mind when one takes an office like governor. So I would say to those folks who might have voted for my opponent is, number one: You’ll be seeing me over the next four years. I’ll be in all 39 counties. Right? I’ll be going to communicate to folks all across the state, because I think the most important thing for any elected official is showing up and listening to folks, whether they agree with you politically or not, because we have challenges all across the state. Whether it’s public safety, whether it’s affordability, that’s not a blue issue, that’s not a red issue, that’s an everybody issue. And so I take that part of the job very seriously. And I also would say to them that, you know, I have a history of working with the Legislature on legislation as attorney general that was bipartisan. Many of the bills that I proposed that got passed by the legislature and signed into law, the prime sponsor were Republicans, folks I reached out to to be the prime sponsors of the bills that I was working on. And I mentioned Sen. Holy earlier from Spokane. We’re working together on this really important initiative to hire more law enforcement officers in Washington state. So for me, I look forward to that part of the job. To work in a bipartisan fashion, to show up in communities all across the state and make sure I’m working hard to be a governor for everybody, whether … they voted for me or not. Final question. Housing and affordability remain other factors that people are concerned about. As you take office soon, what can you share with Washingtonians about your plans for fixing something that’s been an issue for a while? Yeah. I’m glad you asked about this, because the issue of affordability generally and affordable housing specifically, you know, is not just important. But I can tell you, in running for governor, I went to all 39 counties and I’m often asked, what issue did you hear most frequently in going to every corner of the state? And the answer is this: affordability, and affordable housing specifically. We need much more investment in housing, housing of all kinds, by the way. And so [as] part of our budget priorities that I’m releasing today … we’re proposing cuts across agencies but also investments. And one of those investments [is] hundreds of millions of dollars in housing. We’re going to work with the private sector. We’re going to streamline government, to make permitting more accessible and timely for folks who want to develop housing. That’s going to be important for Washingtonians no matter where you live, because that’s a huge, huge issue. We need to be able to have a workforce that can be here and work and live close to where they do their work. And that’s going to be important, a key priority for us. The good news on this is a lot of issues can be partisan, right? And I think to your question earlier, the good news is — my experience so far has been — when it comes to more housing, that’s a bipartisan issue. You know, that’s not just folks in blue jurisdictions who are facing those challenges. That’s people across the state. So I feel optimistic we can make those greater investments, get more housing developed. But we’ve got to streamline our government. We’ve got to work with the private sector and work in a bipartisan fashion, but I’m convinced we can make progress on it.
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