Christine Gregoire has worked for state government for 39 years, previously as head of the Department of Ecology, then Attorney General and now Governor.
Dino has earned his living in the private sector – knowing what it’s like to sign the front of a paycheck.
Christine Gregoire has increased spending by 33 percent since taking office and raised your taxes by half a billion dollars -- that's over $4000 in new spending per family.
Dino is committed to responsible state spending and efficient use of tax dollars.
As state senator in 2003, Dino chaired the committee that wrote the state budget. Despite facing a multibillion-dollar deficit, Dino wrote a budget that paid for state services and protected the most vulnerable citizens – without raising taxes.
Gregoire also supports a state income tax. She told the Spokesman-Review this in April 2007, and said the public has not been sufficiently educated on its merits. Gregoire said it will take time to “persuade the public.”
Dino opposes a state income tax.
Gregoire re-instated the death tax in Washington state.
Dino opposes the death tax, believing that it chases entrepreneurs out of our state.
Gregoire has increased the state payroll by thousands of new bureaucrats – 6,111 new state employees since taking office.
Dino will only hire new employees when there is a clear need.
Gregoire has done nothing about high taxes in our state. Under her leadership, Washington comes in as one of the highest taxed states in the country. In particular, the B & O tax negatively affects thousands of small business owners.
Dino wants to reduce the B & O tax burden for business in Washington.
Dino supports increasing the B & O tax credit for small businesses.
Gregoire continues to advocate that Washington state is a great place to do business.
Dino knows that Washington state’s business climate must be improved. While we have one of the highest business start-up rates, we have a high failure rate as well.
She signed paid family leave legislation in 2007, likely to be funded by a new payroll tax.
Dino opposes a payroll tax to pay for this new program.
Supported and signed legislation to expand workers’ comp benefits.
Dino supports reducing workers comp rates.
Gregoire pushed through a 9.5 cent gas tax increase, the largest in state history, yet has no plan to reduce congestion or fund important statewide transportation projects.
Dino has released a comprehensive, statewide transportation plan that addresses our worst traffic choke points without raising taxes.
Gregoire supports universal health care and supported and signed legislation in 2007 that expands state-run health care.
Dino believes the number of heath care mandates must be reduced.
Dino supports offering tax incentives to companies that offer health insurance to their employees.
Gregoire has a long record of opposing efforts to make government more open and transparent
Dino has pledged to make open government a top priority of his administration
Dino publicly called for Tom Carr to be replaced as head of the
Sunshine Committee.
Gregoire’s practice of releasing felons early has led to the deaths of three law enforcement officers and attacks on other citizens.
Dino will end the practice of early release for violent felons.
Under Gregoire’s leadership, overworked community correction officers have been asking for more resources to monitor offenders who have served their terms and been released.
Dino has pledged to give community corrections officers the tools they need to do their jobs and keep our neighborhoods safe.
Under Gregoire’s leadership of the state’s school system, two-thirds of 10th graders do not pass all parts of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) and around 16,000 students dropped out of our high schools in 2005.
While Dino supports reform of the WASL, he supports the use of standardized testing to make sure that every graduate from high school is competent in reading, writing and math.
When a school or school district consistently fails, Dino wants to empower principals and communities to be able to select better teachers and new school board members.
The current system does not give school districts the flexibility to pay qualified math and science teachers higher salaries.
Dino believes we must reward success. Where we see teachers and principals succeeding consistently, Dino wants them to be paid more.
Dino wants to make it easier to allow talented people to teach part-time by changing the rules on accreditation.
“Dirty politics of highest order”
October 31st, 2008Another newspaper has denounced the Gregoire team’s efforts to create a legal scandal in the final days of a neck-and-neck race for Governor. The Chronicle (Centralia/Chehalis) points out that the “connection between this case and Gregoire is direct and says: “Voters should be repulsed that the Gregoire campaign allows such activity.”
Click here to read the entire editorial.
BREAKING: Times calls deposition “a farce”
October 30th, 2008The Editorial Board of the state’s largest newspaper this morning denounced the legal stunts of pro-Gregoire, activist attorneys aimed at wasting Dino Rossi’s time during the final days of the campaign. From the editorial: “THE deposition of Dino Rossi was a farce. For four hours in Seattle Tuesday, two pro-Democratic lawyers took turns jabbing the Republican candidate for governor with questions mostly irrelevant to the legal matter for which he was required to be there.” Read the rest here.
Future leaders of Washington want Rossi
October 27th, 2008WSU’s student newspaper endorses Dino Rossi with this headline: It’s the economy, stupid: Vote for Dino Rossi.
The college writers argue that “Dino Rossi, coming from a business background, is better equipped to face our economic troubles. If he runs Washington state like a business, perhaps we can crawl out of this hole – to the benefit of all Washingtonians.”
Read the entire endorsement here.
Yesterday, Christine Gregoire made the statement that hard hitting ads accusing her of losing track of 1,300 sex offenders have marked the “worst day of her political career.”
Really? Does Gregoire really mean that?
For most people, the worst day of their political career might be realizing that three law enforcement officers had been killed by offenders they neglected to track. According to Gregoire’s prisons chief, “mistakes were made.”
Or maybe this day, last year, which marked another tragic loss of life resulting from the Gregoire administration’s inability to keep track of violent criminals.
What about this day, in 1995, when it was revealed that Gregoire’s office improperly withheld documents about boys abused at the O.K. Boys Ranch group home in Olympia. The scandal resulted in lawsuits and legislative hearings in which Gregoire was held accountable – and the state was ultimately fined a record of $417,500 concealing these documents.
Also at the top of the “worst day” list – one would think – was this day, when Gregoire finally settled the case of Linda David, acknowledging that her office made shocking mistakes — mistakes that included waiting 18 months to transfer to prosecutors the abuse file of Ms. David, who was battered for years by her husband who had her locked up on a sailboat — while the state was paying him to care for her.
Does Gregoire want to re-think her comment?
Gregoire’s history of broken promises
October 20th, 2008As sparks fly back and forth over the budget deficit, now might be a great time to read this story from early 2005 where the Seattle Times compares what Gregoire did after being elected with the promises she made during the campaign. She says now, just like she did during the 2004 campaign, “Now is not the time to talk about raising taxes.” But Gregoire broke her promise immediately after getting elected last time. How can voters trust her word this time around?
As Election Day nears, newspapers’ editorial pages are filled with letters to the editor for and against various candidates — some letters more creative than others, of course. This one, from Lyn Allen in Spokane, ran recently in the Spokesman-Review, and deserves a read for its thoughtfulness.
It starts:
“My husband and I are retired with limited monthly income. We are watching the stock market plummet along with Wall Street and mortgage bailouts. Our investments, which we need to supplement our income, have gone down the toilet.
We can’t afford more taxes. Now that the election is near . . . continue reading here.
Click here if you’d like more information on submitting your own letter to the editor!
Gregoire’s Lies about the Economy Exposed
October 13th, 2008Today the Editor of a non-political website about the Seattle area housing market (Seattle Bubble) issued a scathing commentary on the egregious claims being made by Christine Gregoire about her role in creating the massive budget deficit projected for our state. This well-documented report demonstrates that Gregoire ignored repeated warnings about state spending from Washington’s Chief Economist ChangMook Sohn, and continued to increase spending by $8 billion.
Gregoire, the report states, now faces the consequences of her failed economic policies, despite her best efforts to blame George Bush. In November, 2005, Sohn indicated that the housing market was peaking. He cautioned Gregoire again in June, 2006. In November, 2006, Sohn and others called for budget restraint. And in September, 2007 he cautioned budget leaders to be fiscally responsible. Gregoire ignored the advice of Sohn and other economic experts and continued to spend wildly beyond our state treasury’s means. Now that she faces the consequences of her spending spree, she’ll apparently say almost anything to avoid taking responsibility. Is this the kind of leadership Washington deserves?
Gregoire’s “system” fails — again
October 10th, 2008A high-ranking member of the Gregoire administration admitted that the state is failing to track dangerous criminals.
In a P-I story about a repeat violent offender under state supervision who murdered a woman in Seattle last New Year’s Eve, Department of Corrections official Cheryl Strange said, “What we do know is it is possible many times for offenders to be totally off our radar.”
This is just the last in a long line of stories about criminals under state supervision who have killed innocent people. Gregoire’s answer: more studies and task forces.
L & I directed to give benefits to illegals
October 8th, 2008In the Seattle P-I this week, a vocational rehab counselor for the state Department of Labor & Industries got an opportunity to tell his story about the state providing benefits to illegal workers. Mr. Harvey — who has worked for the state for 18 years — claims that Labor & Industries management and supervisors have intentionally thwarted efforts to develop a clear policy, stating:
“It is so important to L & I to not have an official policy on that issue that when management and supervisors met in 2007 to discuss it, they were told to not even record the discussion in meeting minutes.”
Comments responding to the article confirm the author’s statements that L & I staff has been directed “from the highest levels of the agency” to violate federal laws regarding job placement for illegal workers:
“A responsible state agency complies with the law, takes responsibility for its work and lets the sun shine on its actions. On the issue of job placement to illegal immigrants, L & I has not acted as a responsible state agency.”
The Department of Labor & Industries has enough problems as it is. See this, this, this, and this. Why would Christine Gregoire direct L & I managers to intentionally create more?
Gov. finally admits budget problem…kind of
October 7th, 2008After the beating she has taken in the press and on the campaign trail for her steadfast denial of the state’s projected $3.2 billion budget shortfall (the 6-year outlook reveals a staggering $6.3 billion in the red), Christine Gregoire has finally started tackling the state’s budget crisis. Oddly, while announcing her new cost-cutting measures, Gregoire still sidesteps acknowledging with certainty that the state is facing a looming $3.2 billion deficit—rather only admitting, “we will likely face a deficit in the next two years.”
In response to this “likely” deficit, Gregoire has announced a 1 percent, across-the-board spending cut for state agencies. The 1 percent cut is expected to save $45.6 million. Added to her previous measures of saving $90 million via a hiring freeze and 5 percent reduction in state travel and gas consumption, along with the projected couple of million for moving some state workers to a 4-day work week, the state will still be significantly in the hole.
Of course, the 1 percent cut comes on the heels of Gregoire negotiating with her labor union supporters to give state workers a 2 percent pay raise. No cuts there.)
Responding to Gregoire’s new cuts, ranking minority member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee Joe Zarelli asked, “…where are the sizable spending decreases that are going to make the difference?”
Excellent question.