Gregoire sets stage for '08 priorities

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published December 21, 2007

• Video

Gov. Chris Gregoire complimented federal disaster officials on their response to Chehalis River basin flood damage Thursday, but she also called for greater federal participation on major highway projects and more cooperation on climate-change issues.

Gregoire, who released a $144 million supplemental budget request this week, made her comments during a discussion about the budget and other issues with The Olympian's editorial board.

The Democratic governor said the federal government recently backed down on one legal challenge that she and other governors made over children's health insurance. But more cooperation, she said, is needed on health care and in other areas.

Gregoire said Thursday that:

• The federal government needs to "let us lead and not stand in our way" on climate-change legislation such as the low-emissions law for new cars that Washington and 15 other states adopted to take effect in 2009. The Environmental Protection Agency refused to give a waiver letting the laws trump federal rules, so the states now must sue and will win in court, Gregoire said.

• The Federal Emergency Management Agency has done a good job responding to Chehalis River basin flood and wind damage. But Gregoire said she needs to hold "candid" talks with the agency over the kinds damage it wanted to see before authorizing aid to people who were affected. "So right now I give them good marks," she said.

• Her budget proposal earmarks $50 million in capital bonds for levees and water containment along the Chehalis River, but Congress now needs to provide the $74 million federal share for the Army Corps of Engineers project.

• The state has no more money available for added transportation projects — including improvements to Interstate 5 that affect Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater. Solutions include toll transponders on cars and greater funding from the federal government for projects, Gregoire said. She complained that many mega-projects, in effect, require repairs to highways in the federal system, but funding of highways has shifted from a system that carried a 90 percent share to something less.