(gentle music) (thrilling newsy music) - Welcome to "The Newsfeed," I'm Paris Jackson.

As Washington State faces a double-digit, billion dollar deficit over the next four years, new executive leadership is taking over.

We went to Olympia to speak with then Governor-elect Bob Ferguson days before he was officially sworn in.

Ferguson shared his vision for the first 100 days, plans to fix the state's challenges, and improve public safety.

Governor, thank you so much for joining us today on "The Newsfeed."

- Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

- It's a pleasure to have you.

We're gonna get right into it.

- Yeah.

- And talk about what are you envisioning for your first few months as governor for Washington State?

- Well, we have some big challenges that we're gonna 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 dollars.

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 and 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.

My transition team, we're having our final meeting this week.

We're focused on those first 100 days on all those issues and issues like public safety as well.

- And one thing that you mentioned is the budget.

Governor Inslee, his outgoing budget proposed nearly 10 billion more than what the state currently operates on.

Do you think it's necessary to increase spending at this time when the state faces such a huge budget shortfall?

- Yeah, it's a great question.

In fact, I released 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%.

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 wanna 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.

- We're known as a blue state, but there is still some division here.

How are we gonna bring folks together so we are on one accord?

- 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?

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, 'cause 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, 'cause 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 be the prime sponsors of the bills that I was working on.

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 or not they voted for me or not.

(gentle music) - As Californians deal with a massive destruction from the wildfires in Los Angeles, more than 400 American Red Cross workers are helping tens of thousands to ensure they're not facing these heartbreaking times alone.

The American Red Cross is working with partners to provide food, shelter, and other critical aid.

If you wanna help people affected by the California wildfires, go to redcross.org or call 800-733-2767 to donate.

I'm Paris Jackson, thank you for watching "The Newsfeed," your destination for nonprofit Northwest News.

Go to cascadepbs.org for more great local coverage.

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