Woman in Bremerton: “On top of everything else, these gas prices really hurt. I’m worried about our economy.”

No doubt, we are in a serious downturn. With our strong economy Washington is doing better than many other states. In fact, recent national surveys declared that we were one of the five best-managed states and one of the seven best business climate states. But that doesn’t change the price of gas.

We have a double task ahead: We need to cut the cost of government to the bone. And we need to make sure that we come out of this downturn stronger than ever.

As a strong fiscal conservative I am working with our House leadership on both problems: I am insisting that we get much tougher on agency budget proposals. I know we can find savings without hurting basic services.

This economic turndown is not like anything our country has experienced before. I am proposing a new strategic planning group to make sure the legislature is thinking way down the road. We need to set careful priorities so we come out of this quicker and stronger.

Our number one economic get-well priority must be education. We have lots of smart, hard-working people. But they need education and training to compete. More than ever, this new, high-tech economy rewards people who have higher technical skills and extra years of education. No matter what else we do we must, must, must keep pressing ahead on reforming our education system so that every Washingtonian will gain meaningful, well-paid work in our global economy.

Retiree in Gig Harbor: “Property taxes are really hurting. This year wasn’t too bad but last year was a huge jump. I’m worried that we won’t be able to stay here in our dream home.”

I will keep voting to hold the line on taxes. I sponsored the tax deferral for lower income homeowners. And I will try again to raise the property tax exemption for lower income seniors.

The best way to cut taxes is to cut spending. As a resolute fiscal conservative and someone with a lot of budget-cutting experience, I know we can trim agency budgets. At my insistence we cut the DOT staff assigned to the new Narrows bridge from 23 to 8, saving more than $3 million in tolls every year. At my suggestion, we cut $5 million in excess staff funding out of the ferry system headquarters.

Now I’m insisting that we streamline the entire ferry system headquarters. You can count on me to continue to hunt down these places to cut. Next year I’ll ask that the state ban all on-site consultants. Outside consultants should not be doing routine in-house staff work. And we can tighten up on staff travel. The Internet and the phone are going to have to substitute for driving or flying to meetings.

Teacher in South Kitsap: “Our students are making real progress on their WASL scores. But I worry that because the test itself takes so much time the kids are missing out on other things they ought also to be learning.”

We can’t back off on high standards. If anything, we need to raise the bar even higher. But the test we are using – the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, or WASL – is hugely expensive. Every year special companies get big contracts to write and to score the test; in the classroom weeks are devoted to getting ready for and taking the tests.---

We can do better. Day after day, students take many different kinds of tests. We should be able to find a way to collect all of that test data and teacher assessments to give every student meaningful feedback. I’ll propose this “virtual WASL” in the next session.

We will still have high standards. And we can use the tens of millions of dollars and the classroom hours we save to improve instruction and add classes.

Stay-at-home father in Bremerton: “My wife has good health insurance at work, but it is so expensive we can’t afford to have me and our two kids fully covered. I know I should go see a doctor, but we can’t afford it right now.”

Our health care system – our sick care system – is in trouble. Those who can afford it get good care. But way too many people can’t afford to see a doctor when they should, way too many businesses are being hurt by high health care costs, and way too many health care professionals are unhappy.

We have to change, starting with cost. I am working now to gather a bi-partisan group insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, health care professionals, and the different political organizations that have a stake in health. I’m asking each of them to come up with practical ways we can start cutting costs now.

Last session I passed a bill that will start increasing the number of family doctors. Next year I’m going to ask our state employees to take more responsibility for their own health through enhanced wellness and prevention programs.

My goal: A family doctor for every family at a price every family can afford. I’m going to need everyone’s help to get there. Reforming health care is the “Mount Rainier” of public policy problems – our state’s biggest challenge.

Southworth commuter: Service has really gone downhill. The schedule is worse, the ferries are unreliable, and fares are high. When is this going to get better?”

Although we are at an all-time low point, I am hopeful we are about to turn the corner. We are in contract now with a pair of shipbuilders to design and build a major new class, the “144s” – a new 144-car boat. The ferry system also hopes to be in contract by this fall for a couple of a smaller “Island Home” class boats.

That building program is important but it fixes only one part of the problem. We still need to figure out what the whole ferry system ought to look like and how to pay for the boats we’ll need to get there. And we need to figure out a better way of pricing. The ferry system is our marine highway; we cannot run the whole system just on the backs of the riders alone.

I’m one of the members of the Ferry Policy Group that is working through the summer and fall to figure out solutions to those problems. We will have a set of key decisions ready for the legislature to take up next January.

In my view, one of those key decisions must be the downsizing and reorganization of the ferry system headquarters. WSF has more than 320 people – 20% of the total staff – in their downtown Seattle office building. We need that overhead cut to 10% or fewer. That will save us $25 million or more a year, money we can use to build new ferries and keep fares down. It is more than saving money. A smaller staff can focus on operating the system and supporting the outstanding professionals aboard the ferries who keep the fleet running safely.