Governor Jay Inslee ran down a laundry list of things on his mind Wednesday, including his frustration with what he says is the failure of Congress to take action on one of the most important topics to him: the climate.
Inslee says Washington needs to take action on the climate, and that his west coast counterparts, California Governor Gavin Newsom and British Columbia Premier John Horgan, are ready to work with him, but he also says the President needs to take some executive action where he has the authority. “When your house is on fire, you grab every single bucket you can find,” Inslee says, “and now we will look forward for the President to grab every bucket that is available to him. Time’s a wasting, and in the next several weeks, we hope he will have more good news for us.”
On inflation, Inslee talked about the opening up of the state’s working families tax credit next tax season, and he pointed to rental assistance and expanded help for food banks, but that really only helps around 500,000 people – most of them not until next year. When he was asked about a special session to address the economy, he said he didn’t think it would be productive, nor would it do much to curb inflation in other parts of the country and the world.
He was asked about the latest statewide crime report, which shows a big jump in violent crimes in 2021, up more than 12% since 2020, with aggravated assault up more than 15%, murders up nearly 6% and nearly 600 hate crime incidents, which is an increase of 26%.
The report also shows the number of law enforcement officers in Washington down by 495 or 4.4%, with a per capita rate of 1.38 per 1,000 people. According to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, that’s the lowest per capita rate since they started recording it in 1980 and the lowest rate in the nation.
The Governor says he and the legislature have already taken action to expand training at the Criminal Justice Training Center, and he has an announcement planned for Thursday on expanding that academy training to other parts of the state so that not everyone has to come to Burien for the lengthy course.
The Governor also acknowledged the high COVID activity in many counties across the state, saying that more of us need to get boosters and that state employees still have to get vaccinated, but he says there’s no talk about returning to a mask mandate or other restrictions.