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Which way forward?

A conversation with Governor Inslee FairVote, Washington is bringing more choice, more voice and more.

Say to Washington voters through ranked choice voting.

Learn more at FairVote A dork finally , thank you to our founding sponsor, the Kerry and Linda Killinger Foundation Hello, and good morning.

If you're watching this live, welcome to the cross-cut festival.

I am Bill Raki with KUOW Radio.

I host Week in review there.

And if it is possible for something to be an unsurprising bombshell that happened this week at the US Supreme Court, we learned about a potential ruling that, of course, would affect our whole nation.

It would also be another red state blue state divide in a state that has both lots of Democrats and Republicans.

So we're going to talk about that.

We're going to talk about vaccinations and mandates and emergency powers and pocketbook issues, and I know a lot of that is heavy.

Can we also talk about unity and hope with my next guest, the governor of Washington?

We're also going to take your questions.

I still get your question in the chat section right now, and I will put some of them to my guest.

Washington State Governor Jay Inslee.

Governor, welcome and thank you for doing this.

You bet.

Good morning, Bill.

Thanks for having me on.

So starting with with the news, that's what I that's what I do in the news business We had the U.S. Supreme Court appearing ready to make abortion rights State by state decision.

And the day after that news leaked , governor, you said quote We are going to fight like hell to keep Washington a pro-choice state.

Why is that a hellacious fight Is there any chance of Washington not being a pro-choice state?

Well, as you know, we were the first state in the country to actually vote to establish this right of choice, and it has been jealously guarded since But yes, it is a risk.

Look, there is one of our parties that is intent to the extent humanly possible to take away the right of choice from women in the state of Washington and across America.

It is clear it is a statewide and national effort of that party.

And if they would obtain a majority in our Legislature and or a governorship, they would take an action to the extent humanly possible to remove this right And we can't allow that.

So that's one of the reasons why it's important to vote.

But we also have to do the things now that can be helpful.

I think we should consider a constitutional amendment so that the Republican Party would not be able to do that, even if they did get control of our Legislature at some point.

I think we should do the things that are necessary to make sure that people here cannot be criminally prosecuted in other states.

And make sure that services are available.

So those are the things we do need to do.

And I'm really sad to say that this this has been, you know, there are certain things that we thought were well established that you'd be able to marry people of a different race , that you'd be able to have access to birth control.

These things have been a well-established law for decades, and now we have a party that wants to go backwards.

I think it's very unfortunate we have to be alert to this.

Yeah, you're referring to the draft opinion from Justice Alito saying that the U.S. Constitution does not spell out a right to privacy to protect abortion rights.

And a lot of people, as you just said, are drawing a line there saying, Well, then by that logic, lots of other legal protections could go.

So what are the what are the votes in the Washington state legislature for a constitutional amendment codifying a protection to abortion rights?

I don't know yet, but I will be talking to legislative leaders to find out.

We have to have a supermajority to get that to the ballot.

And you know, it might take another election cycle to get there.

But this is one of the reasons it's important to vote for anyone who says voting does not have an impact on lives.

This is it.

So anyone who knows anybody out there who thinks it is not worth voting?

Well, this is a privacy right of important dimension.

Mention our state.

There is an effort our state and in the nation to remove this in total from the women of our state.

We need to defeat that.

We need to to be active at the ballot box.

Governor, you're giving your opinion on this controversial issue and I'm I trust that that is a majority opinion in Washington state.

But as you very well know, we have millions of people in the state who oppose abortion rights.

And how do you think they're going to react?

And how are you going to govern that situation of these people who feel that they're living on the wrong side?

of a cultural divide in Washington state?

Well, hopefully people continue to want to be committed to democracy in making decisions based on our democratic traditions of people voting , and then we follow the democratic principles.

Now there is a risk we saw of a defeated president stage attempt to stage a coup to avoid the ramifications of democracy We are now seeing criminal prosecutions by the hundreds of people who were involved in that coup.

So yes, it is a concern of people who want to neglect democracy and throw it over as as a failed experiment.

I think we need to resist that and be very strong to follow the democratic principles of making decisions based on democratic systems And sometimes it doesn't roll your way.

You know, there's a number of things that I have advocated that have not been have not won public support, but I accept democracy and God help us all if people abandon that principle.

You know, Vladimir Putin doesn't belong in democracy.

We believe in democracy.

And look what happened.

So I guess what I'd say is, yes, we have disagreements that are there strong on occasion , but I hope that we all remain committed to this gift.

that we have been given by our ancestors of democracy.

Well, you mentioned President Trump, who's not going to be around forever.

Do you How much do you worry about division and a lack of unity in Washington state versus an acceptance of sometimes you win in a democracy and sometimes you lose?

What's what's your state of mind?

What are you seeing in the state of Washington on that score?

Well, I'm going to start on the positive.

What I've seen is a state that has been remarkably progressive in moving the ball forward with great success.

So here's what I say.

You know, from the 30000 foot level, we have been judged in the state of Washington as the best state looking at all the criteria health, education, business development, worker rights , U.S. News World Report just said we're the number one state in the United States to live and work.

Oxfam This last year, said we're the best place to work during the COVID epidemic A few years ago, CNBC said we were the number one place to do business.

The Nurses Association last week said We're the best place to be a nurse and thank goodness for all the nurses and medical people who've been working so hard in COVID.

We have made extraordinary progress in our state.

We have the best climate change laws in the United States We just implemented the best paid family medical leave that people are enjoying today to be able to experience that relationship with their young child.

We had some of the largest wage growth twice , almost twice as much as the national average the last few years.

So I guess what I'm saying is, look, there's disagreements, but our state is moving forward dramatically with tremendous improvement.

And I'm proud to be in the state that is ranked number one in so many different ways.

So I hate to to to focus on the negative and realizing how much positive that's going forward.

Our response to COVID has been one of, if not the most successful in the United States, and I want to help everybody involved in this as teachers and employers and health care people and crosscut fans.

We've been very, very successful in our state in so many different ways.

So I tend to look at the positive what you bring up the pandemic.

And you know, there's another case where as governor of everybody in Washington state, I know that , you know, you've got to be aware and sensitive to the concerns of people who who don't agree here.

And and so, for example, what is your answer to people who use the slogan My body, my choice to oppose your vaccine mandates Well, this is a deep discussion, of course.

I guess what I would say is, listen, this this has involved people of different views on the response to COVID.

But if we can just look at the facts of the matter.

If you I think it's been very successful, even with the deaths that we have experienced , we if we had the same death rate as, let's say, Mississippi, we would have had nineteen thousand more people lose their lives in the last couple of years.

That's more people that can fit into climate pledge arena.

Night thousand people are alive today.

I believe in substantial part about some of the decisions we made to do commonsense things to wear masks where appropriate.

to get vaccinations and allow vaccinations to be available because we made these decisions.

Now it's very difficult for me to think that policies that save 19 thousand Washingtonians lives somehow was an imperfect policy I just can't reach that conclusion.

And now we've made some good decisions We're back to work.

We're back to our restaurants.

We're back to school We're still doing some safe things.

By the way, before I forget I hope people will get their booster.

We do have more need for people to get the booster because if you had the original vaccination a year and a half ago, a lot of that immunity has worn off.

This is one of the things we need more work to do to get people boosted because we do have increasing numbers right now.

Now the other issue is I've heard people say that some of the things we did were unconstitutional.

Well, you know, that's just false.

And the reason I know that is we have a way of deciding what's constitutional in our country, and that is we have a very vigorous independent judicial system that makes a decision on that My decisions have been challenged forty seven times in the courts, both federal and state.

They have been judges appointed by Republicans and Democrats at the state and federal level.

And 47 times in a row, judges have confirmed the constitutionality and the legitimate authority of making these decisions.

So I believe our policies that have saved maybe nineteen thousand people that have allowed us to recover our economy was one of the most robust economies in the United States that have been confirmed to be constitutional and have not been challenged by our state legislature.

or our state government, judicial, legislative and executive branches have worked very successfully throughout this COVID pandemic.

but we're not out of the woods.

As you know, the numbers are going up There are new varieties coming on.

We have to be alert and I'm glad people are doing that.

Well, if people thought that judicial things were not politicized before this week, I think that's that opinion might be changing of the independence of our judiciary.

But I want to ask about the I totally understand the logic that more vaccination means fewer infections.

But but can the data ever really prove that Alaska and Utah reported lower death rate than Washington state and they did make government employees get vaccinated Our hospitalizations are we don't see like we have an issue with overcrowded hospitals right now.

Why not back off on the vaccine mandates?

Well, I think that the combination I would not attribute our success to any one single enterprise or activity.

We took a comprehensive approach.

We decided to make decisions based on the best available science and the science has shown, I think, quite unequivocally, there are some things that have a significant way to reduce deaths.

One is vaccination , two is the use of mass.

Three is to prevent crowding and at certain points during the height of these pandemics, we've had to interrupt our lives and our work lives and in very painfully so, our education for our children.

Those three things we know unequivocally have a role in reducing deaths in our state, and I don't think there's any way anybody can argue against those conclusions.

Now, exactly what percentage of those nineteen thousand were saved by which of those three policies?

You know, there's no way epidemiology, epidemia logically to ferret out that with precision.

But we do know that by the thousands, people are alive today and are going to enjoy Mother's Day tomorrow.

And happy Mother's Day to everyone because we've taken this suite of policies and I just I just am proud of our state that has been willing to pull together on that and people have pulled together.

You know, teachers have been innovative, nurses have been radiologists.

The whole medical community.

People have pulled together on this and I'm glad we we've done what we've done.

I would I would think that people who who are tired or maybe they opposed it from the beginning, or maybe they just think it's time to rescind vaccine mandates.

I would think they would at least what I hear you on your list of pros grapple with the kinds of thousands of people being either fired or at least saying they felt forced to quit because of of the vaccine mandate.

I mean, does it go?

And then we can get into emergency powers as well.

But when does how do you know when to ever end that mandate?

Well, listen, think about what it's done.

It's been very successful policy we have.

I think it's ninety six percent of state employees are on the job and have complied and have remain in their professional responsibility.

And when I announced this policy, people said everyone , you know, half the state workforce was going to leave.

That simply did not happen.

We had like four percent, three or four percent of people decided that they did not want to comply with this requirement.

So it's been very successful as far as it's compliance and it has saved lives.

Now, listen, this is very visceral with me, and I'll tell you why I have gone to too many funerals of people who did not get vaccinated, who were state employees before we had this mandate.

I mean, I went down to two Grays Harbor area.

We left, we lost a correctional worker who was not vaccinated and one and I remember listening.

His nine year old daughter spoke at his memorial and it just it just captured my heart and I had to think that those children are losing their their parents because of a simple failure to get vaccination.

And I think the state has an obligation both to reduce infection rates and to reduce hospitalization rates so that everybody can get into a hospital And to some degree, we have some obligation to our employees to keep them safe and on the job.

We can't lose employees because of of death, and we have lost two state troopers.

We had a state legislator who didn't get vaccinated.

We had one or two correctional employees.

This is very painful to see these deaths.

There that are frankly, totally unnecessary.

So now as far as your question as to when we when we change that , it's when it makes sense.

It's certainly not at the moment because we have increasing rates now.

They've gone up 30 or 40 percent in the last several weeks.

Unfortunately, we know that there are new variants that have come on in various places, including New York and South Africa, that appeared to be more infectious than some of the existing variants.

So it's not right now, it's when it makes sense that that we can eliminate any requirement and not experience more death So we hope that we get on top of this since we can I've got an appointment to get my young twins boosted morale.

I'm getting boosted myself My second booster are now eligible for But but let's talk about your powers as governor to require people to do things that they that they don't work and whether they want to or not.

The governor of Oregon has rescinded her COVID emergency powers declaration.

When are you going to do that when it makes sense to do that and when it's no longer necessary to protect Washingtonians , which is not at the moment.

There are 16 states that currently, because of the statutory structure that are states, have emergency orders in place And there are some things we we've eliminated around two thirds and ninety five percent of anything that people are aware of in their daily lives.

We have already removed those.

We removed our restrictions on businesses.

We removed restrictions on schools You know, we've eliminated the vast majority of these things that would affect people's lives.

There are a couple of women still need which we still need to be able to have nurses be removed some of the requirements so they can do their nursing job There's some requirements about some trucking stuff, and there's there's a couple small things that we still need to have emergency authority.

And you know, listen, there's a piece of paper that allows you those small things and they need to continue , at least at the moment.

While the the emergency powers left are their vaccine mandates.

There are some.

There are masking requirements in health care.

What are the other big ones Well, those are probably the two most significant As I indicated, there's a couple of what I would consider minor ones.

We are.

There is a requirement that nurses get a certain level of a continuing medical education that they don't have time to do right now, we waive where there's some small things about a trucking hours, how long people can drive trucks and the like.

Those are quite minor.

But I would consider the vast majority I have been removed.

But as far as the and most of those states that do still have an emergency powers declaration at least have given a date when it's going to pause or end And the governor of Oregon, this is now we're going into the principle of this governor, the Oregon Oregon governor said that these powers cannot and should not go on forever, but the powers must be used only when absolutely necessary as they temporarily alter the normal balance of power.

And you have Republican leaders and not just Republicans saying , OK, the emergency powers that that the Legislature has granted to you did not anticipate emergencies to go on for years and years.

And we're in our third year now.

So on the principle of a of a of a separation of power and giving elected legislators a chance to sign off or read authorize the emergency declaration, what about any of that?

Well, first off, I think it's a legitimate question.

You know, we should be asking questions like this about, you know, separation of powers with the reality of this is this has not been some rogue executive running rampant like an elephant through the tall grass of our civil liberties.

The Legislature now has had two or three opportunities to rescind or contravene any of the actual rules or protocols that I've announced.

And you know what?

They have confirmed them.

Not only have they not repealed them, they have actually confirmed them , including a bunch of Republican votes in twenty twenty one to actually confirm the things we have done.

So to some degree, this is an artificial debate that I don't think we have to have because the legislative branch has been in agreement with the executive branch on these decisions.

The judicial system has also been in agreement with the executive branch.

There is no separation of powers disagreement.

We're aligned at the hip on these policies.

Now maybe there's a few Republicans that are but the vast majority of Washington state legislators are.

They've now had two or three sessions to contravene the things that I proposed and they have not done.

So why Because they've recognized that they have been successful.

So I consider this a little bit of an abstract argument that we don't need to have right now need to keep going forward as a state together.

And that's what we're doing.

Well, I mean, principle is an abstract thing, but I think, you know that principle matters and let's talk about practical practicality.

You know, we won't always you're not always going to be governor and and who knows what the legislative majority is going to be.

So there's that question, too.

What about the , you know, should should any governor have this much power to keep an emergency declaration going indefinitely?

Well, I wish that no other governor will ever experience this before.

I don't know another time in the history of the state of Washington , where a governor has been called upon to make these tough calls and they are tough calls.

The things we've done have been very difficult for people.

When restaurants had to close for a certain period of time, that was difficult on them was difficult decision.

So I hope no governor is faced with this type of decision making that I've been faced with.

That has been unprecedented in our state's history.

That's the first thing I will say.

But again, what I want to reiterate is we have a system where the governors can be countermanded The Legislature at any moment could have countermanded any single one of the of the, you know, probably several dozen decisions that I've made, and they have agreed with every one of those decisions and the reason I say that is that they have not even made an attempt to at least a majority and attempt to remove our protocols So I keep coming back to my central point bill.

We have been unified on this across our branches of our democratic system, and I think it is a nerd greatly to our benefit.

So I think we're going to stick with the Constitution democracy which where everybody agrees.

The governor, the Legislature, the judicial That's not a problem.

And that's the situation.

You're listening to the governor of Washington state, Jay Inslee, and we'd like to hear from you.

I'd like to ask some of your questions.

So get your question in the chat section and we'll ask the governor if some of those soon.

Let's see if we can cover some other topics today.

Gov.

Affordability Seattle's an economic driver for the whole state of Washington.

It's also one of America's most unaffordable cities.

What are you doing at the state level?

to make homes, for example, more affordable in the Seattle area?

Well, number one, let's talk about why we have this affordability crisis.

It is the generally it's a dynamic of two things.

Number one, or the best place to live in the United States, according to all the rankings that I just read at the top of the show.

As a result, half of America wants to live in western Washington and eastern Washington.

So people are moving here by the tens of thousands because of our robust economy, because of our good schools, because of the best one of the best health care systems in the United States , because of our paid family leave, because of all the things we've done to make this such an attractive and successful place.

And we have not built in a housing to house the new people coming to Washington state.

That's just the fundamental problem.

So we're trying to approach this in two ways.

One, we're trying to build more housing directly by using our public funds.

In the State Treasury, we had an $800 million actually closer to nine hundred million dollar appropriation this year so that we can build more housing for folks that are driven out by high housing and rental prices.

That's the most sort of frontal assault on this problem.

But we do have to do other things to allow more construction of housing, including removing some of the artificial barriers to actually being able to build housing.

And one of those is our restrictive zoning ordinances , which prohibit housing from being built even when folks want to build it.

And vast swaths of some of our major cities, you can't build housing, you can't build a duplex, you can't build a four plex.

And we have to have more dense housing if we're going to have housing in the tens of thousands of people coming here.

That's a simple fact.

And I think this simple fact has been sort of buried under some of our other controversy seal issues.

This is one thing we did not have success on the Legislature this year, and we will now be initiating another discussion because we simply have to have room to build more housing and dense housing in some of our urban core So that remains to be done.

Now, the third , we need to execute rapidly on our homelessness crisis.

This is clearly a crisis, and we can't wait years to solve this problem.

That's why I insisted on and some of that $9 million more than a third of it to go to rapid housing.

We need to get people into converted motels.

We need to get them into tiny home villages We need to get them into supported housing where they have.

We need to have more shelters , space as well, and we need to do those things in weeks and months.

Not decades.

So I'm very dedicated to this.

There's going to be some tension on this with some of our cities that frankly have not cooperated well enough on this.

So right, the meeting yesterday on the subject to make sure that we get rapid response to this.

And so people have a place to go that are not in our right of ways, and I'm dedicated to that Well, you're right.

A lot of this power rests in the cities and of course, it's not just Seattle, it's many, many cities, especially in western Washington.

I don't have been in Spokane in a while, but but you mentioned zoning within cities.

What about the state growth management Act that preserves rural areas and restricts growth to to more urban areas?

Do you agree that that makes housing more expensive if you want to change that?

Well, to some degree, but we're not going to build subdivisions up to the border of Mt.

Rainier National Park and is just not in the value system of the state of Washington.

Our open space is a treasured asset.

Again, it's one of the reasons so many people move here because their quality of life is so high that we've got forests and rivers and to place direct grids, so we don't want to eliminate that.

We also can't solve this problem by just thinking we're going to have people move.

You know, another 40 miles away from the downtown core and then they have to build freeways all the way out to these places.

So that's really not a solution.

both because of the spatial situation.

The cost and the environmental degradation that happens.

We have to increase the housing closer to where people work and where they shop.

That's just a physical necessity.

And I hope that will succeed on that in the next session.

Talking about money still, is there anything you can do about inflation?

I know the Fed is raising interest rates , so people want you to lift our gas taxes, at least for a while.

Or are you doing anything about that kind of unaffordability?

Well, we're doing things for a whole host of things to help people through these difficult times.

As I've indicated, nine hundred million dollars to help people through their housing challenges with with housing costs, inflation.

We have the best financial aid package in America for our students so that they can finance their college education and resist inflation in that regard.

We just passed a law to reduce medical inflation by capping at thirty five dollars.

The cost of insulin.

We're moving.

And this is somewhat more long term to try to reduce some of the supply chain problems we've had by making sure we have good access to our ports.

We are trying to reduce this problem of people not having enough training to do these jobs , which they're hidden, creates a supply chain problem.

So we've had thirteen thousand students in our career connect learning program to learn apprenticeships So we are taking steps, but there is a reality here that we just have to face.

Look, the world has been hit by a triple whammy of COVID, which is disrupted.

The supply chain, which has created some of this inflation We now have a mad man in Russia starting and totally unnecessary ward, which is interrupted variety things and I'm concerned about food prices associated with Putin's madness.

We've had the necessity that we had to keep our economy afloat during the COVID crisis, so it didn't crater and all of these things combined that are international forces that, you know, frankly, the governor of Washington is not going to solve single handedly, but we can support our people through this.

And again, this is one of the reasons we've been ranked the best place to live in the United States is because we have done that.

We are supporting people We've created a working families tax credit that takes place to give lower income people.

We've passed a tax revision and capital gains that won't put the burden on working people, but putting it on the ultra wealthy instead , we are doing these things to support our people through these difficult times.

Can I ask you about the capital gains tax?

You were saying earlier that, look, we live in a democracy and and the judiciary has been supporting my decisions.

Well, the courts have not been supporting this capital gains tax.

It's lost in court so far.

There is an initiative campaign to repeal it even if it does win.

Voters have rejected taxes.

There's a I realize there's a fight about it is that an income tax?

Is that an excise tax?

But isn't that a case where where democracy in your constituents are speaking against this capital gains tax now?

No, that is certainly not the case bill.

First, the elected representatives passed this in the state legislature.

I'm elected three times.

I won by half a million votes.

Now, of course, the guy beat still says he won the race , even though he lost by a half million votes.

But no , our democracy has passed is.

And I'll just share some information with you.

There was a poll I saw yesterday and I will tell you the exact numbers, but I can tell you if it was if this was held today, this would go down to this effort to repeal the capital gains tax would go down to a resounding defeat.

Resounding defeat.

And the reason is is because people think that the ultra wealthy amongst us can be the folks to share a tiny , tiny little bit of burden.

This affects just a couple of thousand families of the ultra wealthy.

It's over two hundred fifty thousand doesn't apply to retirement accounts or, you know, homes or the like.

People are supportive of this because they know that they want fairness.

And right now, our system is producing incredible wealth and we don't think we should put the burden on helping people on working people.

So And you know, one judge in Douglas County made a ruling on this.

This will now go to the state Supreme Court.

And if I had a dollar to bet, I bet.

I bet a lot more on a dollar.

Actually, that they will uphold this on a constitutional basis.

So no, I think the people do think we need more fairness in our economic system, including our tax system.

And I believe that that's how the vote governor, or we're just about to take some of your listener questions here.

We haven't.

We barely talked about climate change.

And I wonder, you know, it's obviously a of great interest to you and and to the world.

And we, however, we're just one state in this globe.

And I wonder what you expect Congress to actually do about climate change that that that sticks, that's guaranteed.

Well, we would like Congress to follow the leadership of the state of Washington and the world would be a much better place if they did.

Are they going to stay tuned?

Obviously, the president is trying to ring a vote out of center from West Virginia to allow the climate change measures, or some of them that we have already passed in Washington to become national policy This is another place where the state of Washington is leading the nation We have the best zero carbon electrical grid bill in the United States.

We have the best cap and invest.

Bill has generated billions of dollars to now to put in what we now passed as the cleanest and greenest transportation bill in the history of the state of Washington.

We now have a low carbon fuel standard.

And last week, the Building Codes Council adopted a essentially a no new dirty gas provision after twenty twenty three.

So we would like all of the things we've done in Washington state to become national policy, whether we will succeed on that federally , I don't know.

But it should not dissuade us.

We should continue this incredible march to a clean energy economy.

I am so thrilled.

Bill I get to go around the state and every time I turn over a rock, there is a new clean energy company and not just in Seattle.

In Moses Lake last week, a company called Silver.

They have a silicon anode battery that can dramatically increase the capacity of batteries for cars and the like.

They just they're going to put hundreds of people to work in Moses Lake.

I was at the opening of a wind turbine farm in southeastern Washington a couple of weeks ago.

where there's enough power being generated for thirty eight thousand homes and spending money for farmers renting their fields At first mowed in Seattle and Soto, a company, is making a fuel cell powerful enough to to ultimately power a locomotive.

Now powering the largest truck in the world, which is now in South Africa.

It's so fab.

And Billy, damn, it's the largest manufacturer solar cells in the western hemisphere There's the jobs are popping out all over evasions, making the first electric commercial airplane in Arlington.

They just got seventy five orders for a nine seater.

This is a thrilling time for our state to see the birth of a whole new suite of industries.

We experienced the birth of aerospace commercially here.

We experienced the birth of software.

We are now experiencing the birth of a clean energy economy in the state of Washington, And I can tell you, the rest of the country looks to us for leadership I know this because I meet with my fellow governors on this, and I'm very proud of what we're doing.

Our policies have been helpful.

Our skilled workforce has made this the perfect place to make this new type of equipment.

And we have a great entrepreneurial culture that breeds new companies.

So this is an exciting time and and obviously we know the threats when we see the reservoir is drying up.

This morning I saw a picture of you, Lake Mead or Lake Powell and and it had all the boats that used to be on the lake or down like this mud puddle.

And I don't know, I just kind of caught me Two weeks ago, it was announced we won't have any glaciers in the Olympic National Park by 2070.

Think about that when you look to the western skyline in Seattle, you won't see glaciers anymore.

when my children are my age.

Is just heartbreaking.

So we're committed to these things.

We only have one party working on these things so far.

I think that's a crying shame.

But we are making progress We're going to keep it up.

Just about to go to work Viewer questions.

Why does our state still let people hook up natural gas for heating and cooking?

And we were talking about this before the show.

Are you going to ban gas powered leaf blowers?

Yeah, Well, it's a good question.

As I indicated, the Building Code Council just adopted a building code for commercial buildings where heating would not be hooked up after 2023.

There will be consider a consideration in the future months and residential measures in that regard.

Look, gas is a dirty fossil fuel that is both polluting the climate and putting massive amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere.

We cannot burn it in the decades to come.

It is totally inconsistent with having any chance to keep glaciers in the Olympic mountains or salmon in our rivers.

But it's also dangerous for our health.

We just had a doctor from UW the other day.

We had a forum on this subject who told us that your children , if you're in a home with a gas range, have a 25 percent increased rate of asthma.

Because you're breathing, the particulates in the nitrous oxide that's coming off that range.

It's great for cooking.

We love it, but it's it's it's injuring the health of our children in that home and the health of the planet and Microsoft just converted all of their gas ranges to induction ranges And the chefs, we're kind of going, Man, I don't know about this.

I love this range.

But now they love the induction ranges even more because they work really, really well.

So over time, you have one of those at home , I have one at home, you work it with your finger.

But if you don't have one governor next on the we just got new windows and solar panels on my roof.

We finance that.

So that's next on the list.

OK, we want to help people do that.

Look in our cap and invest bill.

We're generated billions of dollars that is going to be plowed back to incentive programs to help subsidize people to make those kind of improvements to their homes.

We did it for solar.

We did one hundred and $30 million for solar.

We've done it for electric cars Those will grow over time as the cap and invest bill generates.

We're charging polluters and using that money to give homeowners and businesses a subsidy so that they can make these transitions and we just can't do this fast enough.

Governor, I'm watching the time I want to get some viewer questions in.

Jodi wants to know quote.

I don't understand how schoolchildren can't come to school without their MMR shots, but can come to school without a COVID shot.

This is something your state health board voted voted against doing.

Is this is this your decision?

Ultimately, Explain that to Jodi interview.

Well, the Department of Health, we have the the health commission that makes these decisions about what are mandatory and or what are not mandatory They did vote unanimously not to require these at this time.

And as I understand, their rationale is that yes, the vaccine has a beneficial impact on young children It has been quite we're very, very confident of that.

But I think they had concerns about too many kids not coming to school, frankly, that it would we'd have a mini rebellion of parents taking their kids out of school And that's just a reality that they had and what homeschooling , homeschool or not school and they've experienced in some other states where there was a mandatory requirement.

Los Angeles , they abandoned that because they had so many kids, just not welcome to school because parents or have been listening to Donald Trump too much.

And and so they had to weigh the educational downfall of their kids against the increased protection.

And they made that value decision.

And these are hard decisions, you know?

You know, these don't come down on the tablet from from the profits.

These are and it's not yours to overrule.

Is that right?

Is that their decision or your decision?

Finally, it's their decision.

I probably would have the authority to make a mandate myself.

I've chosen not to do that to respect their decision.

And I do think it's a legitimate concern if you're going to have thousands of kids all of a sudden pulled out of school, that detriment , it has to be weighed in.

This particular decision OK, Jody, good question.

We talked about cities in western Washington not cooperating with the state's efforts to densify, create more housing, and a viewer wants to know name the cities which cities are not cooperating and to help create more housing and get people out of homelessness.

Well, this is this Jodi was a jodi you asked that question Jodi was asking about COVID shots.

This is a different question from a different viewer.

Oh, well, that viewers just kind of get me in trouble.

Look, I need help here.

I don't.

I mean, I don't need help getting into trouble I need help getting out of trouble.

But having said, I mean, you're not going to answer that viewer's question.

Look, Seattle needs to improve in this regard.

Just so you know, the vast majority of Seattle , you can't build multifamily housing and it's impossible , impossible to solve this homelessness crisis.

if you don't have more homes.

It's just kind of a simple fact And frankly, there's a little bit of, I hate to say, hypocrisy because I want to be judgmental about this.

But sometimes we in some of our cities bemoan the homelessness crisis and say how our hearts are rendered , that these poor people don't have housing and turn around and not let anybody build a duplex, particularly next to a light rail station.

That attitude is not going to allow us to solve this problem.

So I believe we have an obligation to our brothers and sisters on housing, and that means we're going to have to build more housing And yes, Seattle does have to make some changes.

I think we're seeing the start of that conversation.

I think Tacoma is farther along that way.

I think under the mayor's leadership there, they have taken some action increase density So there are places and that's not to diminish.

Mayor Harrell, I think he's doing a great job in very difficult circumstances right now.

I think he's helping his city move in this direction.

But the state needs to take action because that's the only way this job is going to get done.

Well, I think it's OK for you to use the word hypocrisy personal, but that's up to you.

Here's a question coming in.

I'm just seeing it in the chat, so I hope I'm getting the whole thing.

The question is how can the state help tribal nations find their missing and murdered indigenous people?

And how can they be protected from non tribal kidnappers with our current laws?

And you probiotic explain to people what's what's happening to indigenous people and why?

I realize that's a that's a lot, but that's the question.

Well, we've we've had we've had a disproportionate number of tribal women disappear in the pain and the agony of their families.

and their experience is obviously tremendous.

So even we're trying to increase our commitment of resources to investigate these, these missing cases, and we are doing that What's behind it?

In a sense, climate problem?

I don't I don't know what the problem is It's frustrating not to have an answer to that.

Why do we have so many?

Why is such a high percentage of our missing people being tribal women?

I don't know The answer to that is probably multifactor.

Like everything else, it's a problem in our society, but we have to provide the investigatory resources to provide them every protection that we can, and we are increasing that The federal government is also increasing their commitment of resources as well So I'm pleased that we're doing all we can OK?

Was there?

I want to ask.

Our producer was that one minute like, I need to wrap up right now or one more minute of questions from this.

This viewers says.

You've talked around it a bit, but could you say clearly when or if the vaccine mandate might be lifted by the state?

I think you answered that.

You said, No, you're not.

You said when it's when it's time , you don't have a time.

What I can tell you, it's not today because of the rising cases we're having, because of the new variants approving, because of the increase in hospitalizations.

And we know it's not today.

We'll make that decision when it makes sense that this is no longer useful to protect Washingtonians I hope that we.

Yeah, maybe time for one more.

Will Washington ever have an income tax and they're talking about not that capital gains, but a broad income tax Not while I'm governor, but the capital gains , I believe, is a very, very fair approach to this.

We're just a few thousand families would be able to pay a small percentage The vast majority of states have a capital gains tax.

We have a level of inequity in our state and fortunately, that defies imagination of the concentration of wealth in our state.

At the same time, we have homelessness, a lack of health care For some people, that is just inexcusable.

So this is a very small step forward to.

To some, increased fairness and fairness is a beautiful thing in Washington state.

OK, you said not while I'm governor.

That's my final question.

I think if we're going to run out of time, no.

Washington governor's ever even run for a fourth term, I don't think.

What are the pros and cons for you personally of you running for another term?

I don't know the answer that I haven't thought about.

Oh, we haven't thought about it.

No, I haven't asked.

Trudy should tell you.

Should tell you we.

We don't talk about those things.

Look, I love my job working with the most dynamic people in the country.

I mean, yesterday or two days ago, I went to rent high school and met these students who were in this part of our Career Connect program to learn and hopefully to become new teachers.

I get to go and see these people inventing new technologies.

I see the progress we're making on transportation with the greenest, cleanest in American history, probably this is a very exciting time to be governor.

It has been difficult because of COVID, and I know there's been controversy this involved in my decisions, but I think we made them in the right direction for our state.

So I love my job.

But listen, I'm too busy too to think about that.

Governor Inslee, we in our final seconds, is there something you want to tell our viewers right now that they ought to know that we haven't covered Yeah, I would like to say that we've come through one of the most difficult times in our state's long journey of progress.

We're not through those difficult times.

We have more challenges.

We know.

But I do think our state should be emboldened and strengthened by a sense of confidence in our ability to continue the upward progress of this state.

And we should not be dissuaded or discouraged a bit to continue this upward march of better health care, a cleaner environment, more clean energy , jobs, more transportation functions, the ability to take care of our families and paid family leave.

We're continuing right now to make major steps forward in all of those things, and the one thing I would share is let's just keep this ball rolling.

We're leading the country Let's keep leading it with or without him.

We'll see about the governor's future.

But for now, that is the governor of the state of Washington, Jay Inslee, Governor We're out of time and we appreciate you taking time to join us here.

at Crosscut.

Thank you.

Very, very interested in our great state.

Thanks, Bill Good day.

So that is that's a wrap on our conversation with Governor Jay Inslee, and I want to thank you for joining us today this morning if you're watching us live.

And before I sign off, I just want to let you know there are a bunch of other sessions happening at the cross-cut festival, just one that I would recommend to you if you were interested in that conversation is Seattle City Attorney Ann Davidson, a new set, fairly new city attorney talking about public safety, a big issue in Seattle public safety with host Joni Balter that's happening today at 2:30 in the afternoon And you can find all the sessions, including earlier sessions from earlier in the week at Crosscut Dot Com slash festival Have a great rest of your day.

I'm Bill Radtke from KUOW and I wish you a good weekend