Jobs and Economic Recovery

June 16th, 2009

Good morning and thank you for taking the time to join us!

The reason we are here today is because King County has reached a crossroads – with massive budget deficits, unsustainable spending, and cuts to vital services. We need a new fresh direction – not “business as usual politics” but a new “Open for Business” attitude that rejuvenates our region.

Just over my shoulder in Safeco Field, some one thousand people are at an employment fair. Each of them is looking for a job. Let’s make it easier for them. Let’s work together to arrive at real solutions to our county’s real problems.

Today I stand before you not only to formally kick-off my campaign for county executive, but to introduce my first in a series of policy initiatives – my plan for King County called REAL SOLUTIONS – that will help create new jobs, revitalize our economy, restore our unique quality of life, and get King County moving toward a bright future.

King County is my home. My children were born here and educated in Seattle’s public schools. My boys expect to live here as adults – work here and raise their own families. I wonder what this region will look like for my children and yours.

As a television journalist I covered this county for more than 20 years, bringing you the news and issues of the region. Stories like: Microsoft growing from a little start-up firm in the early 80’s to becoming one of the great companies of the world. But also, the unfortunate departure of our county’s proudest company, Boeing, when it moved its headquarters to Chicago.

King County was once a region that applauded the entrepreneurial spirit and welcomed businesses.

This did not go unnoticed. In 1994, a young man drove from New York because he had an idea and wanted the right place from which to launch it. In his garage, Jeff Bezos launched Amazon.com and turned it into America’s largest online retailer.

This county once enticed the ideas and intellect that launched some of the world’s greatest companies. But today, our county government just gets in the way – with burdensome taxes, regulations, and a “no-can-do” attitude.

Just Sunday, our state’s largest daily newspaper, the Seattle Times, printed the Northwest’s 87 best-performing companies. But did you notice, only 33 call King County home. We, the largest county in the Northwest, the center of industry and economy, is home to just 38 percent of the northwest’s most successful companies.

What can we do? We need to help small businesses grow because they provide the jobs that fuel our economy. Green jobs, biotech jobs, high tech jobs.

As King County Executive, one of my first initiatives will be to work with the legislature to restructure the state’s business and occupation tax.

In its current form, the B and O tax functions as a major obstacle to small business startup – a barrier to successful growth. Rather than taxing profits – the B&O tax is levied on all revenues, before expenses. New businesses, with greater expenses resulting from startup costs, have a tax that impedes their success which results in one of the highest business failure rates in the nation.

I will work with Olympia – first to provide start-up exemptions for all new businesses and second, to increase the threshold under which the B&O tax applies – the current threshold of $28,000 in gross receipts to $250,000. This simple change will benefit 50 thousand small businesses in King County alone. Huge relief for small business, but little impact to state revenues.

That means small businesses will be able to put more of their money toward creating family-wage jobs which in turn contribute to a more prosperous county economy. And, news flash to politicians…a prosperous economy results in higher revenues for government as well.

In addition to reforming the B&O taxes, we need to overhaul the way county government serves its businesses. As I’ve traveled throughout the county, business owners tell me the same story – the county is arrogant and arbitrary. This must change.

My management team will make sure every county department that interacts with businesses will be focused on customer service. We will strive to shorten the permitting process from years to months. Yes, permits in King County can take years. For businesses, time is money. Laziness or incompetence will be rooted out.

We must remember that in order for all businesses to thrive, we must improve the transportation system in our region. Our ports in King and neighbor Pierce County form the third largest shipping center on the west coast, and the rail, trucking and warehousing hub of the Kent and Auburn valley make up the third largest distribution center on the west coast.

We will work together to get goods moving and people moving faster through our region.

We will strive for responsible development and affordable housing by getting our construction companies building, by expediting the process for those who conform to our best environmental standards.

We cannot make deep cuts in the departments in the county that keep crime in check. Where gang violence, property crimes, and graffiti succeed, businesses shut down. We will not let that happen.

Our current crop of career politicians have become increasingly more concerned with what’s best for government – how to protect government employees, how to increase government revenue streams.

What they have forgotten is that government does not exist to sustain itself – it exists to provide a framework under which the citizens can live and work.

Today, it’s time they’re reminded who they work for, and what they were elected to do.

I am running for King County Executive because our current crop of career politicians has drifted from this principal. The time for change is right now. We need new leadership, new direction and a new vision.

As King County Executive that is exactly what I intend to bring, and it starts by hanging the “Open for Business” sign back on our door. Working together on REAL SOLUTIONS.