booth gardner - Washington Secretary of State

Chapter 15: Tough choices
On January 11, 1989, Booth delivered his second inaugural address, “The Centennial
Challenge.” It was capitalism with a conscience. “We stand on the threshold of a new century
of statehood,” he said, and “we have
the opportunity to do something
extraordinary.” The choices were
clear: “Either we respond to
international competition or we
doom ourselves and our children
to a dramatic slide to second-rate
status in the world.” Microsoft was
demonstrating that “the computer
has become the pencil of the 21 st
Century – the basic tool that must
be mastered by all who expect a
good job. …How we respond to that
competition is perhaps the greatest
challenge this state, and this country,
has ever faced.” For the first time since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, Gardner said,
“a good business climate is also a good living climate. … The things we have always wanted
for people in our society are now the very things business needs from the workforce.” So
in addition to the moral commitment to create a fair and just society, “we now have an
economic imperative to help our people become well-educated, productive citizens.”
He spoke with unusual passion. “I implore you to understand it is not just some
abstract ‘they’ I am speaking of. It’s our children – yours and mine – who are not being
educated for the 21 st century. … And it will be our children who will be the first generation
in America’s 200-year history that will not achieve, much less exceed, our standard of living
if we aren’t willing to commit to a public agenda of excellence for the common good.”
A huge stumbling block to business investment was the state’s tax structure.
Basically unchanged since the Depression, it was “unbalanced and unfair,” the governor
said. “To the members of the Legislature, I say this: Now is the time to hear the people’s
voice on tax reform. Do not stonewall it. Let the people decide.”
Loggers and other blue-collar workers seeing their jobs chopped by environmental
restrictions and new technology must be retrained, the governor said. Further, “the health
of our citizens, particularly our children, is an issue that goes right to the heart of our quality
of life.” He called for the creation of a new Department of Health. Crucially, the governor
said, “we must start thinking of ourselves as world citizens, competing internationally, with
Denny Heck, Booth’s second-term chief of staff, and Ecology Director
Chris Gregoire visit Booth at the mansion. Photo courtesy Denny Heck.
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