Washington governor's debate: Ferguson, Reichert on public transportation, roads

Published: Sep 10, 2024 Duration: 00:04:06 Category: News & Politics

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Yes, thank you. This question initially goes to Mr Ferguson, providing efficient transportation is an important role of state government. But people in eastern Washington often feel left out the North Spokane Corridor which has been in the works for more than 20 years is one such example, Governor Insley recently tried to cut funding for it. How would you work to make sure both sides of the state have top notch roads and transportation routes? Thanks for that question. And in fact, I think I mentioned earlier, I've actually been to all 39 counties and when you get to all 39 counties, you're gonna have conversations with folks about their roads. For example, I met with the Kalispell tribe, northeastern part of the state. There's a bridge near their reservation in that more isolated part of our state. They took me to that bridge to show to me it's failing, it needs to be replaced. I've had exactly those kinds of conversations all across the state. We need to continue investing in our transportation and our infrastructure. How do we do it to your question and the way I talked about before, I believe in bipartisan solutions especially when an issue like this across the state are suffering from a lack of resources for exactly this purpose. So look, we have to have a governor who's got a track record of balancing budgets that are bipartisan as opposed an individual who drives up deficits when he's back in Congress and overspends his sheriff's budget. So that would be a focus of mine. This is important for our economy. This is important for jobs. And as governor, we're gonna make that happen, Mr Reiger. Well, uh Mr Ferguson should have an opportunity to visit all 39 counties. He's been the attorney general for 12 years. I've been campaigning for about 12 months or more. Um, uh, the problem is that we have totally ignored our road systems here in Washington State. We're just now getting around to repairing some of the bridges and roadways here in Washington. Um, when you ignore systems like the ferry system, when you ignore systems like, uh our freeways, highways and, and bridges, they, they become deteriorated. And I think what's happened is there's not been an effort to prioritize um, the major projects that we need to accomplish here in Washington State. So, one of the first things we need to do is to look at the systems across the state. What are our priorities? What do we need to fix first? We have the money to do this. We just need to repre Reprioritize and reshift our resources. Um All Right. Thank you. And a quick follow up if elected Governor Mr Ferguson, what would you prioritize and please use specifics if you can in terms of transportation projects in Washington. Well, we're gonna make sure we have a balanced approach across the state, eastern restaurant, eastern Washington and western Washington. And so for me, it's prioritizing, getting out listening to people talking to both Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature to make sure we're putting together a package that meets the needs of all Washingtonians that dave, it's not getting to all 39 counties in my time as attorney general, been to all 39 counties in my campaign for this office. Specifically, I'm back going around a second time to all 39 counties. Why I launched my campaign in Spokane, then we went to Central Washington only then did I come to Western Washington? So this campaign came out hearing directly from Washingtonians on exactly these kind of issues. That's what I've been doing. Mr Re, the question was, what projects would you prioritize in terms of transportation projects in the state? Yeah, I think one of the first things that I would do is prioritize the ferry system. Uh It's, it's totally uh inoperable. Um Again, it's an, it's another part of our transportation system that's been totally ignored. And what we should do is is look at a hybrid ferry system, uh diesel uh that can be trans uh transferred to electric. Uh at a later date. If we so choose to do that, we've got to get passenger only ferries on, on board and operating as quickly as possible. Uh We have private boat operators that are transporting people in between the islands. That's not a safe situation. People, that's a lifeline for the people who live in the island. So the ferry system I think should be one of the major priorities. Thank you.

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