KCTS 9 SPECIAL

Ask the Governor

Governor Chris Gregoire answered your questions during a live broadcast at KCTS 9 on Feb. 21.

Ask the Governor: February 21, 2012 Preliminary Transcript

Enrique Cerna: A little bit of good news came last week with the revenue forecast showing that we were doing a bit better.

Gov. Gregoire: Yes.

Enrique: Also up until that time, we had heard that not as many people were asking for state services. So a little bit of breathing room I take it.

Gov. Gregoire: No question about it. In the one area, about $333 million, in the revenue aspect of it, it's almost $100 million. So that's a good piece of news. Now, what that means is we're recovering, but I don't mean to suggest we're out of the woods by any stretch. We're still a fragile economy, worried much about what's going on in Europe and what that could mean to us if there was a default there.

Enrique: Greece and gas prices.

Gov. Gregoire: Right, exactly. But clearly, in our state, good signs of recovery. So I'm quite optimistic about our future and I'm glad the legislature has got some well-deserved good news. But they really have to leave a reserve. Again, we're fragile, so at any given moment, something can happen and trip us back, so we need to leave some reserve. I put in $600, I'm hoping they'll do something similar to that. So they've got about a billion to $1.1 billion of a hole that they've got to address over the next 2-1/2 years.

Enrique: When we talk about the fact that not as many people have been using state services and that brought down the caseload numbers, are we really saying that that's reflective of the fact that people have been cut from state services?

Gov. Gregoire: No question, no question. The one piece of it, some of it is driven by policies that we put in place, that those who are what we call unemployable people, single, we put in a lot of dramatic reform last legislative session. Many of them dropped from the rolls entirely. Because they weren't going to get a cash grant anymore. So our rolls went down in terms of the housing and the medical assistance we were giving, for reasons I don't understand our enrollment in our schools is down a little bit. So maybe our predictions were wrong. So clearly, it is the fact that we made cuts, people have exhausted themselves, have gone some place else, living with family members, they've looked at other means of subsistence if you will. So the results of which is $333 million now that can be put back in to avoid even more Draconian cuts.

Enrique: But those folks are then counting on local government?

Gov. Gregoire: Possibly.

Enrique: Local county governments to then help them out? We don't really know?

Gov. Gregoire: We don't, we do not know. Some of them in fact could have given up and gone homeless. You look at that segment of the population that is single and unemployed, who more often than not have a drug or alcohol addiction, they're not going to get a cash grant anymore. All they're entitled to is some housing assistance and medical care. And they have dropped completely from the rolls. It isn't as if they have any other source of income. So where have they gone? Have they found friends or family or have they just gone homeless?

Enrique: That's kind of difficult to...

Gov. Gregoire: It's just heart-wrenching. The cuts, over the last three years, we've cut $10.5 billion. I know that's a staggering amount but think of the people behind those cuts. We really have had to cut in areas we never would have anticipated, 46% in higher education, 26% in our community colleges and our K-12 system, shredded our social safety net. Really hurt our fundamental responsibility of public safety. So I'm looking forward to a recovery. Not that we're going to get all that back anytime soon. But if we could just right the ship and avoid any additional cuts, we could begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Enrique: I'm just curious, do you wake up every day wondering what's happening in Europe, particularly what's happening in Greece?

Gov. Gregoire: Yes.

Enrique: I know that we used to talk to the state economist, that he often pointed out those things, basically in control.

Gov. Gregoire: I pay more attention to that every single day, when I wake up, I check and see exactly what's going on in Europe. I can tell you for the last how many ever years, I really wasn't paying that much attention, but now, we are so linked economically, internationally, that you better pay attention. And this state in particular. So, for example, if there was an economic collapse in the Pacific rim, the implications for us would be Draconian immediately because we are so trade dependent, we're the most trade dependent in the entire country. And much of our trade goes to Korea, to Japan, to china. So we really, as a state, have to be acutely away of what's going on internationally.

Enrique: Want to take an e-mail question here. This is from Linda in Chehalis. By your advocacy of the right of same sex couples to marry, I would think that basic human rights are important to you. Then I must ask why that same effort isn't being put forth for teachers to have a living wage, if same sex couples have the right to marry, then why can't teachers have the human right to pay the bills and put food on the table?

Gov. Gregoire: So we have not been able to do the initiative 732 cola increases for teachers over the last three years. I was the first Governor to be able to fully fund teacher pay increases, which I was very proud of. So I'm no more disappointed than Linda is at the fact over the last three years we have not been able to do pay increases. But our choices were things like this. A pay increase for a teacher and no food for somebody. Or no housing for somebody. I mean those were the absolute terrible choices that we had to make. So I'm sympathetic, no question about it, to the fact that we have not been able to do pay raises. We've lost 10% of our state employment. We've watched as the private sector has gained employment, public sector has drowned that out by the amount of lay-offs that we've had to make. Our people have taken mandatory days off, they've taken pay cuts, they've had to pay more for their health care, more for their pension. It's a tough time, no question about it. We need to hang on, get through the difficult time, because there's a brighter future for us.

Caller: Hi. What will you do to help support the nationwide movement to amend the constitution to overturn the citizens united supreme court decision?

Enrique: Can you do anything?

Gov. Gregoire: Well... I can't override a supreme court decision. But I will tell you...

Enrique: Another e-mail question. And this one comes Kent from grandview in central Washington. He asks, I'm concerned about the one size fits all approach to raising revenues. With the equal sacrifice as seen with property taxes on the county level. Can't our state lawmakers extend this principle to some of their measures for revenue so that people on fixed incomes or who are near or below the poverty level aren't disproportionately taxed.

Gov. Gregoire: So the issue is, is the sales tax a regressive tax? The answer to that is yes, no question about it. So that's why I struggled in whether we should even consider raising the sales tax. But I have to tell you, I think the cuts that I was looking at are really regressive. And I realize when you look at the cuts we were looking at in education, and our developmentally disabled, and our senior citizen. Public safety. I believe those would disproportionately hit our lower income people. So we had to have money as soon as possible. We had to have something that we could implement readily. You don't look at very many options when those are your criteria. Sales tax was the one I felt I had to go to, we could raise it, we could put it in place by the first of July, we could avoid a lot of cuts, and a lot of I think really Draconian kinds of things that would happen to our lower income people. So I agree with what he's saying. But the voters have made it very clear, when they said we won't tax the high income earners in the state. They just did that as I recall here a little over a year ago. They didn't want to do that. So yet I have to listen to the voters as well.

Caller: Thank you, good evening. I was just wondering what your thoughts on legalizing marijuana in this state is and what that would do for the budget cuts and revenue streams that you've been talking about so far.

Enrique: And that's going to be initiative 502 that will be on the ballot for sure this year, and likely coupled with the possibility of a referendum on same tax marriage. Going to be an interesting ballot.

Gov. Gregoire: Right. So to Garrett, I would say he's assuming that if we legalize marijuana, we will tax it, and then we will get all this money into the state coffers. Until of course the federal government comes in and arrests us. [LAUGHTER] So I don't think it's going to work out very well for us. Still under federal law, it is a crime. Marijuana use is a crime. And we've seen our U.S. attorneys come in and take actions over the course of the last year, making it very clear that they were not going to use their enforcement power for those who are using it for medicinal purposes. But for anybody else, they were going to use their arrest power. And they did, and they did. So I don't think we can get in the business of taxing and getting revenue off marijuana and think that's going to solve our problems.

Enrique: So I take it by what you're saying, you're not going to be voting for initiative 502?

Gov. Gregoire: I'm not. This is, I made it clear, I want to do something for those who need medicinal marijuana. I understand that. I want to make it so that those folks don't have to think of themselves as a criminal, conduct themselves like they think they're acting like they're doing something illegal. I want them to be able to go to a pharmacy with a prescription and get it filled. And that's why I submitted a petition to the federal government to ask them to reclassify marijuana, reclassify it as a drug like opiates, which are much more harmful, and allow patients, legitimate medicinal marijuana patients, to have access legally to their prescription at a local pharmacy. And I'm hopeful that's going to happen. Going beyond that, Enrique, we will be in violation of federal law, and we will invite them to come in and exercise their police power.

Enrique: Other Governors have joined you on this?

Gov. Gregoire: Yep, uh-huh.

Enrique: Rhode Island, what other states? How many others? There.

Gov. Gregoire: There are about three states, but it's interesting what's happening. The medical community is now supporting in large part, many mayors, and it's going to be taken up at their national meeting. Our legislature passed a resolution in support. So it's really gathering a good head of steam. They now have written me and accepted the petition. They have to go through there's certain tests and so on.

Enrique: Department of justice?

Gov. Gregoire: It is. But they have to then consult with the department of health and human services for the testing of the drug, because it has to be done objectively, can it really be used to relieve pain and so on? And I'm really guardedly optimistic we're going to be successful. There will be the first time that anybody's ever asked it to be reclassified to the category I have. First time it's ever come from a Governor. So I'm optimistic that we're going to get some help.

Caller: I'm a student at the university of Washington and I am currently trying to pursue computer science and engineering. I'm on the dean's list at the university, but I still couldn't get in. That's because the limited funding, highlighted in a recent Seattle times article, and this is affecting many different departments in the, in the university. And so I wanted to know what are you proposing to raise funding, not just for U-Dub but for other schools in the region?

Gov. Gregoire: Well, the truth be known, we allowed tuition flexibility. So the university of Washington, in the legislature that was passed last year, has raised their tuition now, as you probably are aware, by 20%. They remain very competitive with like research universities around the country. But still, that's a stiff increase in tuition for people to be able to attend the university of Washington. So they've been able to keep their enrollments up, they had not cut enrollments, they've been able to keep their quality up. But we have far too many of our students who really want to get into the U-Dub or any of our other universities, and not be able to find room. So we need to increase capacity overall. We did in my first term, probably one of the largest increases in history, we created the U.W. Tacoma four-year school and WSU Tri-Cities, and WSU Vancouver. All of which brought us a whole lot more students. We're going to expand now in Everett. So that's all good news. But without the ability to find new revenue, and I don't think we can raise tuition anymore, I think we're done. I think we've gone as far as we can. Without the ability to find new revenue, we do not have any resource to put into our higher education institutions.

Enrique: This seems kind of a contradiction. On one hand, you hear business leaders and yourself and other lawmakers all say that we need a great higher education system in this state, we need to support it. On the other hand, funding has continually been cut for higher ed, tuitions have gone up, universities now have that opportunity to raise those tuitions up. Where is the give here?

Gov. Gregoire: So remember now, the legislature and myself have been steadfast on the state need grant. That's to help our low income students. There have been no cuts. And in fact, it's been increased. And if a university chooses to increase its tuition, it has to make sure that it contributes to that state need grant for those students as well. We created an opportunity scholarship program, our first two contributors to that program were Microsoft and Boeing, $25 million each. Over time, the state will match that. That's intended to get at that middle income student whose parents can't afford the pull and are not eligible for the state need grant, they're getting squeezed out. So unless and until however we find some steady long-term source of funding for higher education, we're not going to be able to put more money in. They have been able to succeed over the last three years, because they made up for the cuts that we took with increased tuition. But they have not been able to gain. We need to be able to gain, we need to have greater access to higher education and no loss in quality. The U-Dub is ranked, for example, the 16th best research university in the world, in the world. WSU is considered one of the finest in the country. Look around at our regional universities. We are blessed in this state to have the diversity that we do. And our community and technical colleges are considered among the best. We can't afford to give that up. That's why we're the home of so many international companies, because we provide that kind of education. But we're going to have to ask for some help. And if not a tax on high income earners, which was turned down by the voters, then what? We need to ask ourselves, what are we, the citizens of the state of Washington, willing to do, to invest in our K-12 system and invest in our higher education system, because it's really up to us now.

Caller: I am a volunteer facilitate for NAMI, the national alliance on mental illness, and I'm finding that people that come to my groups are having more and more trouble getting services from community resources. Because of the federal and state funding cuts. Do you have any ideas how we can restore that kind of funding? Because people are ending up in places like eastern, when before, they were taking advantage of less costly resources such as the community resources.

Gov. Gregoire: Well, no question, now, we have tried to avoid cuts in mental health. But what we have not been able to do is enhance funding for mental health. And when you take a cut, this is one of those situations where it goes downstream. It falls on our locals to be able to come up with the resources. So again, unless and until we can be on the path to recovery with additional dollars coming in, we're not going to be able to restore or enhance services for those suffering from mental illness in this state. I want to be clear about one thing before I go further about talking about restoring. We now have, just as we came into the legislative session, a new supreme court decision on funding in basic education. And the court, our state supreme court makes clear that the legislation that was passed here a couple of years ago is good. It sets the right course, it makes the right decisions. It now has to be fully funded. And we've got a very limited amount of time in which we can meet the requirement of the court to fully fund our plan. So if a dollar came in tomorrow unexpectedly, it's going to have to go into basic education. We now have oversight by our state supreme court to make sure that we're coming into full compliance with that decision.

Enrique: Let's talk about that. The house budget that came out today, the democrats' house budget. I guess by some we're looking at it as kind of kicking the can down the road here. Because some of the money that should go to pay for some public education, the system, is being pushed. What they want to do is delay it in order to be able to then save more money, I guess, in the budget. Isn't that what's really happening here? And is that really going to help meeting that mandate? That doesn't seem so.

Gov. Gregoire: There's no money. Candidly, there's no money to do it. They restored the cuts to, I was suggesting, we were going to not have a full school year, cut four days. The court said you can't do that, didn't say it directly, but that's clearly what the court meant. So that's $100 million. Levy equalization was $150 million, that's to help our property poor, but it's about 85% of the districts. That was not cut. Higher education, there was $160 million in cuts. They restored all But about $70 million of that. So you can see they're using up all of the new money that they found. And they still have cuts to make. So what they've proposed is there's a payment made at the end of the biennium, the last month of the biennium, and they proposed delaying it one day, which would mean it would be the beginning of the next biennium. We did it last time. I proposed it in my budget, so I want to take responsibility for this, but what I proposed is we put it in the reserve. So if we don't use the reserve, we pay for it. And only if it's not available do we then have to pay it the first day of the next biennium.

Enrique: And is that hoping that the economy then changes a bit more to...

Gov. Gregoire: Well, because they're aware that they're going to get a better forecast, at least it looks now, of $100 million in June. So they feel more confident even than I did that we won't touch the reserve and it will be able to make that payment. We need to be careful about that. I admit to you, Enrique. You can't kick the can down the road, you can't leave us with a bill that we have to pay day one of the next biennium. But I just, I don't think they feel that they can make any more cuts, particularly to education, with that case sitting before them.

Caller: Hello, Governor. I've been a fan for years. I've never voted any other way But democrat. I'm very concerned about the homosexuality and marriage between a man and two women, or two men. I think I was taught the birds and bees and I think, from my parents, and I think they understood how it is. I think no matter how much a sex change or whatever a person goes through, they're still a man, still a man no matter what he does or how he dresses. And I believe that, I support having a legal partnership between any two sisters or brothers or uncles but to change marriage, and call it something else, it just doesn't seem right. Maybe you can explain how you understand that.

Gov. Gregoire: Well, you know, I can tell you how I've come to understand my own personal journey and where I've come from. I'm a person of faith. And my faith really doesn't embrace same sex marriages.

Enrique: You're catholic.

Gov. Gregoire: I'm catholic. So I had struggled with this until finally I realized, after having listened to my daughters, and both our daughters' generation make it very clear they don't understand how my generation can discriminate. But I looked, frankly, at the role of the state of Washington. And the state of Washington doesn't marry anybody. The state of Washington gives you a license to marry. You actually go out from there and you can go to a judge, you can go to a priest, you can go to whoever by law is authorized to marry. And that's how you're married. So how is it then the state is allowed to deny a license to marry, to a couple because of sexual orientation? I could not accept that any longer. And when I know there are very loving couples who are raising children, who are integral parts of our community, who are a part of our faith community, who are contributing to the betterment of our state of Washington, and to say to them and somehow the state was not going to view them as equal to another couple, to say to their children, your parents are different, they are less, they are whatever. I can't explain that to those children. I just can't. So I have struggled with this, I admit that. I've been on my own personal journey. But I have reached a conclusion where, and I made it very clear in the bill, we will honor and we will respect religious freedom in the state of Washington. But I must honor and respect the role of the state to not discriminate against a same sex couple who are asking for a license, to go from there and to get married. I respect if you disagree, but I tell you, I feel better about where I am today than I have felt about where I have been the last 7 years. And I think it's right. If you could see the e-mails that I've received, a 16-year-old who said she thought about suicide and then she realized that I had said she was to be respected and accepted as an equal person in the state of Washington. Had made such a difference in her life. When you get those kind of e-mails and you know how thirsty our people in this state are for equality, that's who we are, that's what we're about. I respect and I admire and I love every human being in the state of Washington. That's my faith. I, as Governor, cannot see the state discriminating when it issues a license to marry. So I'm proud of what we did in the legislature. I'm glad that we were the seventh state in the country. If it goes to the ballot, I hope the people of the state of Washington will stand up for equality and send a message across the country, we, the state of Washington, believe in the respect of each of our citizens.

Enrique: And if it goes to the ballot, I take it you will be out there trying to preserve your decision?

Reporter: Absolutely, absolutely. We were the first state in the country to have the voters say yes to domestic partnership. And we've been on our own journey as a state, Enrique. We had fought for anti-discrimination law for how many years, and finally, we were able to do it in 2006. A very small domestic partnership in 2007, expanded in 2008, voted on by the voters in 2009. We've been on our own journey. We've come to realize there are people at work, they are our friends, our neighbors, they are our sons, our daughters, they are our moms and they are our dads. If you could have heard the speeches on the floor of the house and the Senate, republican and democratic alike, thoughtful, respectful, but saying that they had found, for example, in one instance their daughter had come out two years ago, that she had found the love of her life, and that mother wanted to put a wedding on for her daughter. Another who found that his father had been discriminated against terribly when he came out and recognized that he was gay. These are people who say, please, let our loved ones be recognized, let them be seen as equal, let them be able to express their love in front of their family and friends, take a vow of marriage in front of their friends and family.

Caller: My only income is social security. And I'm also on Medicare and Medicaid. And this year, the federal government gave all of us on social security a cost of living raise, and because I'm on Medicaid, the state took the entire cost of living increase. It's not a raise, it's an increase. So I was wondering, now that the state has some money, are we going to be able to get any of that cost of living increase back? Because food is outrageously expensive, as you know.

Gov. Gregoire: I do. I do. I understand what you're saying. We can't take your cost of living, so I'm not sure candidly how this has impacted you, what cuts there might have been that have impacted you other than the inflation costs of gas or the inflation costs of medications maybe that you're having to take. Or you know, taxes. I don't know what it is specifically with respect to you. But everybody who's been cut in the state budget believes now that we've got a dollar in the door, that that dollar needs to go to whatever cut impacted them the most. When in fact, we've cut $10.5 billion, $10.5 billion, we've gotten in the door in the last two weeks $433 million. $433 million. You can't restore $10.5 billion in cuts about $433 million. And it's very clear that the state has now a legal obligation under our state constitution, as interpreted by the supreme court, that first dollar, the second dollar, and the third dollar has got to go to basic education in the state. So I can't speak to your circumstances, I don't understand it by how you've described it, but I sure hope I'll tell you that the future and our economy will turn around. I can see really good indications. And that we'll be able to ensure that you get a cola and you keep your cola.

Enrique: State senator Karen keyser has suggested selling the state's art collection and the money going to higher ed.

Gov. Gregoire: Ah... Okay. [LAUGHTER] You know, one, I don't know that you're going to be able to sell it. Let me just say that. We have property, we have property in the state because we closed down several prisons. We've closed down a juvenile institution, we've closed down a D.D. institution. We've closed down more institutions than at any time in history. The last big institution was when dan Evans was Governor. So we put all that up for sale. And I've had it up for sale for sometime, but I made it clear, it's not a fire sale. The taxpayers are deserving of getting a return on those buildings. And some of them are in prime locations. Guess how many we've sold? Zero. Zero. We're sitting in an economy now where people are not willing to spend, I suspect on art work, or on a building, or on a piece of property, like they were a few years ago. So I don't know, and I'm a big fan of the senators, I don't know that it works. But I'm also very reluctant to start selling off our heritage. And I think the art collection the state has is a part of our fundmental heritage. I want my children and my grand children to inherit a state who has kept its heritage and passed it on into generations. So I hope we don't resort to this.

Caller: I'll make this as succinct as possible. A little background. In February of 2011, SSA marine, which is 49% owned by goldman sax, applied to the state and the county of Whatcom for a permit to build a port, an export terminal. It would become the largest export terminal in the United States. And about the same time, they announced they had a contract with peabody coal to export 20 million tons of coal per year to Asia. As you know, this has become a huge controversy for us in Bellingham. But not just in Bellingham, all along the corridor. People are concerned about the rail traffic, the coal dust, and the effects on the environment. And also to us in Bellingham, we're very concerned about the impact this will have on the development of our waterfront. Briefly, I know that you supported this project initially. You have since taken a step back and said it can't be reduced to a simple argument of, you know, jobs versus the environment. Given the outcry over this project, I'm wondering where you stand now and how you see your role for the remainder of your tenure as Governor.

Gov. Gregoire: So I never took a position on the facility at all. What was being asked is whether we would serve as co-lead as we went through the environmental review process. And we agreed at the request of the locals there to do precisely that. So as we do with anybody else who's asking for a permit, we're going to put it through the environmental review process. And we have to do it absolutely by the book. So that's the process we're in now. I will not prejudge it. And I am not going to get involved in it. I want it to be an objective scientific review. So that's what we're engaged in now. I have never taken a position for or against it.

Caller: The mud mountain dam, and I live in Kent, is there any problem with the mud mountain dam and possible flooding in the valley? Thanks for taking my question. Have a good evening.

Gov. Gregoire: Yeah, you bet. Thank you. So we've been very worried about it, but we were able to work with the army Corps of engineers, put in some fix, and I don't know of any reason now for you to be concerned. It would have to be a catastrophic flood, to be honest with you, because the problems that we detected here a couple of years ago, we had an initial fix, we've gone on to make sure it was fully done. We've worked with our congressional delegation and the army Corps of engineers and the local government there, and been able to do that. So at this point in time, I feel good about where we are. Again, mother nature can give us a twist here, give us a turn that we don't anticipate. But absent something unpredictable by us right now, I'm feeling good about where we are.

Enrique: All right. Let's take another e-mail question here from John in Blaine. Why hasn't our state done away with daylight saving time? Studies show that sleep deprivation in the week following the switch costs $480 million in lost productivity. Actually, I'm kind of with him on this. I have one of those sleep lamps, you know, or those light lamps because it's so dreary and dark here half the time. So anyway.

Gov. Gregoire: The question's never come before me, to be honest, as Governor.

Enrique: Well, that's why you come here! [LAUGHTER]

Gov. Gregoire: Exactly, exactly. You know, I think, actually, I think there are people who look forward to it.

Enrique: Really?

Gov. Gregoire: So I'm not sure what the people of the state of Washington would say. But I'm sure there would be a good number of them...

Enrique: I take it that doesn't really matter, but I like the question anyway.

Caller: I have a question about who's running at the helm of the good ship U.W. I see a massive construction project going on, they tore down the beautiful dorms, less than 20 years old, they trashed those, they're building a new stadium, there's construction going on all over the university. And I thought their mandate was to educate. And to provide opportunities for all the people that are qualified to get an education. So have you looked into this massive construction program that's costing, it losts a lot less to educate these students than to build this incredible building program.

Gov. Gregoire: As I understand it, the reconstruction of the stadium, husky stadium, is done by private donation. And I want to give a shout out also to WSU. They have done the same thing over there, but they have done it again with private donation. The U-Dub looked to the state, and we frankly said it was several years ago, and we didn't have the financial resources to help out. So they began a campaign to ask their alums if they'd be willing to step up. And they did. So out of that I think is going to come a really classy stadium, but it will not be done with state taxpayers' money.

Caller: Governor, I'm interested in teacher evaluation. As you know, we already have a teacher evaluation system that's being developed. Now, we're talking about legislation to develop a second system that includes student test scores and student evaluations of teachers. Now, how much more is this going to cost, and where is the money going to come from for that second system?

Gov. Gregoire: So this is a little bit longer question. Two years ago, we put in place a new evaluation system to be built from the bottom up. And this was to be really a coordination by teachers and administrators, and to be looked to as best practices that we saw around the country, experts that we brought in around the country. And I have to tell you, Enrique, it has far exceeded anybody's expectation, because the teachers have worked hard, the schools have worked, the administrators have worked hard. And they've come up with an evaluation system that I think is a model for the country. It replaces a system that had satisfactory and unsatisfactory. That's not fair to teachers. An evaluation is a tool to give people personal growth. So they can get better at what they do. Get better outcomes for our students. So out of this is a four-tiered system in terms of evaluation, eight different criteria. What was before the legislature this year was, okay, let's take it to scale all across the state because it's been so successful in the pilots. And are we going to use student data as a part of it? So yes, student data will be used in three of the eight criteria. It's being used in the pilots in at least three of the eight criteria as I understand it. So we've taken what we've learned from the pilots and we're putting it in place now. But the question that was raised is a good one. How do we make it work? You have to teach and train the principals to do a good job in order for the teachers to grow through the evaluation. So we are going to spend money on the training. We're going to spend money on training so that when we evaluate principals, the same thing. The goal here is a simple one. We want to make sure that teachers and principals are allowed to grow because we want the best teacher in front of the classroom, the best principal in front of the school, and if we can get these evaluations right, we think we can make that happen. Let me be clear, others who won the race to the top award decided that they would do evaluations from the top down. And they are failing as we speak. Failing as we speak. You don't do that without people working together. And it means those who are all teaching math in the fifth grade may come together collectively in an evaluation because they're partners and sharing and growing as they do. Our national board certified teachers are unbelievably doing well. We want to make sure we recognize that. So we want to give shout-outs to teachers who are doing great. We want to take those that are not to get them to grow. And we want to take those that should simply not be teaching to see for themselves that it's not their field, and they should move on and do something else. Because our kids really ought to have the best teacher and the best principal they can.

Enrique: Another e-mail question here. This is from Roger in Richland. Why do we provide benefits for undocumented people, children or otherwise, when we are cutting funding to aid documented people that are in need?

Gov. Gregoire: So if he's talking about, if Roger's talking about health care, which I assume he is, we don't check whether somebody is the child of an undocumented or a documented, we don't. As best said by doctors, they don't want to be the border patrol. Children who are here are here not because they made some choice in life and decided what they would do, they're here because their parents brought them here. And if they're here, we feel that they ought to have access to health care. So I accept this as the responsibility of the state to make sure that all of our children have access to health care. And that we don't serve as the border patrol to check whether they have documentation or not.

Enrique: Want to go back on the question about, that you just answered from the previous caller. You had, in your state of the state address, you had four things that you wanted from lawmakers. One was to pass the budget. The other one was your sales tax increase, which probably didn't gonna happen. The other being...

Gov. Gregoire: That would be nice if it did by the way. It's not necessarily a loss. If we had new revenue.

Enrique: Okay. Two things. One is education reform. Of what you wanted, are you getting that out of this session?

Gov. Gregoire: We are. Here's what I asked. I asked for evaluations. And we brought in four corners we call them. So I had a republic and democrat from the house and the senator. Senator litzow, senator Mcauliffe, representative danmeyer. And we reached an agreement on what would be the right thing to do on evaluations. They were thoughtful, they were good faith in their negotiations. They respected the pilot projects. They wanted to make sure this worked. And my hat goes off to them because I think we did a very good job. Second one is higher education governance. And that bill is moving through. Part of that bill is going to make sure that when our students graduate from high school, that they transition easily into college. We're losing far too many students who are coming out of high school, ready to take remedial courses. They need to come out and their high school diploma needs to mean something. So we're doing well there. And then the last idea is what we call the lab school. For those schools that are struggling academically, how do we do that? So we're going to take our schools, we're going to go into one of those schools, kind of adopt that school, they're going to be responsible for that school. They're, I hope, going to be able to show us how to turn it around. They're going to better be able to teach their own teachers, going out of our colleges of education. I think it's one of the most significant and interesting and exciting reforms that we've come up with in a long time.

Enrique: The other thing you asked for is you wanted this major transportation bill. Now, as I understand it, the Senate transportation committee in a bipartisan effort has come up with something. Is it what you wanted?

Gov. Gregoire: No, not at all.

Enrique: Not enough money?

Gov. Gregoire: No, not at all. Over the next 10 years, we need, at minimum, about $3.7 billion, about $360 million a year, for maintenance and operation of our highways, bridges, and ferries, for the state and for local governments. We don't have a steady, reliable source of funding for our maintenance and operation of transportation in the state of Washington. We've done these new projects, we've done them on time and under budget. That's great. But now, we need to maintain them. Failing to maintain is much more costly in the long-haul than it is if you just maintain along the way.

Enrique: So are you putting in for more there or what?

Gov. Gregoire: We're going to kick the can down the road, unfortunately. I think senator Haugen and representative Clibborne have tried, and they haven't been able to get it done this session. So they're using it as an opportunity to educate, so everybody understands the consequences if we don't invest in maintenance and operation. I put together a task force, about 30-some people state-wide. The number 1 priority, you got to invest in maintenance and operations. So I hope to put in a down payment and education in the next year or two.

Enrique:Another question here. What do you see as anything that could potentially derail the lawmakers from getting done by March 8th?

Gov. Gregoire:We've got some tough bills that are very contentious that don't have resolution on yet. And of course, we could have something very unlikely I hope happen in Europe, where Greece would default or Italy or Spain, and that would put us back to ground zero again.