(soft music) (upbeat music) - Welcome to "The Newsfeed."

I'm Paris Jackson.

I had the chance to speak with the new governor of Washington, Bob Ferguson, days before taking office.

We discussed his plans for leading the state.

Here is that conversation.

First and foremost, governor, thank you so much for joining us today on the "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, multi-billion 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.

So that's our focus.

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.

So that's been our focus, and that's what we'll be working with with the state legislature.

- And one thing that you mentioned is the budget.

- Yeah.

- And as we know, 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, and in fact, I released today 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%, because we've got a big shortfall.

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 through 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 gets right size as our government, we get more streamlined, but also prioritize the most important things we do as a state.

- And can we dig into that, - Yeah.

- because you mentioned public safety that was top of mind as you were campaigning.

- Yeah.

- Any more specifics?

You just talked - Sure - about investment.

- Anything else that people can just be mindful of that you are looking into - Yeah.

- in that regard?

- Yeah, so I'm excited that Senator Jeff Holy, Republican from Spokane, is working with me and my team on this proposal to invest 100 million dollars.

That's a grant program that local jurisdictions, you know, the cities, the counties who hire the bulk of our law enforcement officers, that they can turn to that grant program for additional resources for greater salaries or hiring bonuses.

So we're working in a bipartisan manner to get those resources.

Now, we have to get that bill through the state legislature, get them the budget, but I really appreciate Senator Holy working with us in a bipartisan proposal, and I think that'll have a lot of support.

- You spoke with another publication and one thing that you were mentioning with regards to back, we're still focused on this budget, is maybe cutting an agency or two, - Yeah.

- and any specifics, is that something that you're still cutting 'cause you are gonna make this massive reduction?

Any additional details?

- Yeah, so as we're having this conversation, I haven't yet taken office yet, but in the budget priorities I put out there that expectation is each agency needs to propose these cuts across the board.

Now, hey, it won't be 6% for each agency, some might be more, some might be a little bit less.

We need to make sure we're preserving core services for the people of state of Washington.

But from a budget standpoint, there's no sacred cows from my standpoint, okay?

One thing I proposed doing in this, in our budget priorities, was taking some dollars from the Office of the Attorney General, right, an office I care a great deal about, having spent 12 years there, but hey, they have some dollars there in a fund that we can utilize for other core services and it will not adversely impact the work of the AGs office.

That's my approach for my own agency.

That's what I'll be communicating to other agency heads across state government.

We've gotta get leaner, we've gotta get more efficient and prioritize.

- And you alluded to, as we all know, your work as Attorney General.

One component of that was filing lawsuits against the Trump administration.

- Yeah.

- We know the incoming administration has laid out their policies.

- Yeah.

- What do you think Washington's role is in keeping that administration in check?

- Yeah, it's a great question.

And so a relatively short answer to a complex question is, you know, I was attorney general for those four years of his last administration, and during those years when we felt that the President violated the law, when he overstepped his authority and we felt those actions harmed Washingtonians, then we brought litigation, and we won all but two cases that we brought against him, and we won over and over and over again.

Those are cases to preserve clean air and clean water in Washington state.

Those were cases make to sure that dreamers, right, where this is the only country they know could stay in Washington State.

These are really important cases for the people of the state of Washington.

So my approach as governor is the following, hey, we'll work with the Trump administration when we can and we will stand up to the Trump administration when they're harming Washingtonians and exceeding their lawful authority.

So I'm looking forward to working with Nick Brown, the incoming Attorney General.

You know, obviously I've got a close relationship with the AGs office and with Nick, so I think it'll be a great partnership.

But the key for us is to be focused and disciplined.

Elections have consequences.

President Trump won.

He was not my candidate.

But presidents can do things and have a lot of legal authority, and when he is not exceeding that authority, you know, folks have to understand that election had a consequence.

But when he exceeds that authority, that's where the state needs to step in, when Washingtonians are being harmed.

- Washington, our state is known for the laws and the initiatives that we propose to fight climate change.

Governor Inslee has had a slew of successes in terms of getting laws into place that protect our state.

Is there anything that you are interested in tackling as you now are the chief executive with regards to climate change?

- Yeah, first I'll say that I'm convinced that future generations of Washingtonians will only appreciate his service in this particular area even more as time goes on.

That he really tackled what's a huge threat, right, to our whole way of life here in Washington State.

That clean air, that clean water, the beautiful outdoors, the beautiful environment we have.

And so I think he deserves our thanks for his leadership, not just here in Washington, but nationally, and really even internationally.

Things like the Climate Commitment Act, which voters overwhelmingly approved, and red jurisdictions and blue jurisdictions, they preserve that because they know it's important, right, to address these issues.

So my goal will be, as an incoming governor, is to make sure that we're continuing that leadership.

I think folks look to Washington State for that leadership.

Governor Inslee set with the state legislature, some really important policies.

So implementing, for example, the Climate Commitment Act, making sure we make that transition to a clean energy economy.

That's not just good for our environment, that's not just good for climate, that's good for jobs, you know?

I was at training facilities in Eastern Washington and Wenatchee and it was training for workers, hundreds of them, and what they're being trained for is the clean energy economy, that's jobs for those people all across our state.

So I'm excited about that and looking forward to making that happen as governor.

- Cascade PBS and the Elway, Stuart Elway conducted a poll recently and some 50% of Washingtonians essentially said that they are, they have feelings that things are gonna get worse in terms of leadership here in the state.

And so the premise of what I'm trying to say is we're known as a blue state, but there is still some division here within our state in different pockets of our counties.

What is your message to those that may have not been considering you as - Yeah.

- their candidate?

- Yeah.

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

- Sure, so I'm mindful that, well, 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?

They voted for my opponent.

So yes, we won a fairly decisive victory, but still a lot of folks supported somebody else, so I'm mindful of that, and I think it's important to keep that perspective in mind when one takes an office like governor.

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, right?

I'll be going to communicate to folks all across the state, 'cause I think the most important thing for any elected official is showing up.