To the citizens of King County:
My top priority as King County Executive is to do everything I can to put people back to work. Elected officials at all levels must play a more aggressive role in revitalizing our regional economy and creating family-wage jobs.
As I’ve campaigned all across King County, I’ve listened to many people who share this priority. That’s why I’m releasing “Jobs Now”, an economic action agenda to create jobs and help make King County a partner in economic revitalization.
This framework has six primary areas of focus:
- Building regional infrastructure
- Enhancing the business climate
- Improving jobs training
- Advocating for credit, lending, and access to capital for businesses
- Implementing “development-oriented transit”: D-O-T
- Creating green collar jobs
“Jobs Now” includes specific actions we will take over the next few years to create jobs in our region, but King County can’t do it alone. Pulling the region out of this recession will require cooperation and coordination with labor and business leaders, our governor, the legislature, our congressional delegation and community groups.
Creating a job-growing economy will also require maintaining our high quality of life, so King County continues attracting the world’s best workforce. There is no “profit” in putting our environment at risk; that’s why I recently released the “Greenprint” for King County, an action agenda and framework for protecting our environment and our great natural resources.
I see a bright future in King County – no matter what storm clouds we may face today. We must – and will – confront and overcome the challenges we face in our economy and environment.
Sincerely,
“JOBS NOW!”
- Phillips’ Economic Action Agenda -
Building Regional Infrastructure
As King County Executive, I will help boost our local economy by putting people back to work building our regional infrastructure with family-wage jobs. This includes both enhancing existing infrastructure and ensuring upcoming projects are completed on time and on budget. We only need to look at the viaduct or recent attempts to delay the construction of East Link light rail on I-90 to see that sustained leadership and advocacy are necessary to ensure projects adhere to construction timelines and benchmarks.
- I will work with state and community leaders to keep projects like Sound Transit 2, University Link light rail, and the Viaduct replacement project on track. The expansion of Sound Transit 2 alone is projected to bring 69,000 jobs to the region and will inject billions of federal dollars into our local economy.
- King County’s roads, bridges, and levies are aging, and I will work with all levels of government to identify opportunities and to invest in repairing and replacing critical infrastructure.
- I will ensure King County competes and leverages grants and stimulus dollars from the federal government. In total, King County has applied for more than $184 million in grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These dollars need to be invested here, in King County.
- I support using existing revenues from tourist activities to expand the Washington State Convention and Trade Center to meet market demand and avoid turning away nearly $2 billion in business activity—money that is now going to other American cities.
- I will work with the Governor and State Legislature to move forward with plans to replace SR 520 and the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which will bring thousands of jobs to our region.
Enhancing the Business Climate
Our next executive must work with community, business, and labor leaders to create a more stable job-growing economy and to pull King County out of this recession. I’m committed to making this happen by enhancing the local business climate and creating a predictable regulatory environment.
Within my first year in office, I will improve transparency, efficiency and expediency in how King County:- Issues permits at Department of Development and Environmental Services (DDES)
- Awards contracts for capital projects
- Procures goods and services
- Operates human resources
While these reforms are necessary, I will not sacrifice our commitment to the environment or put working-family jobs at risk. Maintaining a high quality of life in our communities is critical to attracting and sustaining a competitive workforce.
Improving Jobs Training
From designers, engineers, and architects to the front-line workers represented by organized labor who will literally rebuild our economy from the ground up, there is a great need for training, pre-apprenticeship, and apprenticeship programs. King County’s workforce must be ready to contribute and benefit as our county pulls out of this recession.
- I will work with local labor leaders, businesses, and educators to launch “Job Star”, a website to connect job-seekers to the current and future sectors of our local economy in need of workers, and the resources they need to get to work.
- We must leverage grant funds to expand King County’s jobs training programs, especially in programs that prepare future workers for high-demand industries like energy efficiency.
- I will convene a working group of labor, business, clean technology, social justice, education, and environmental leaders to ensure diverse participation in the emerging green collar economy, making sure people of all colors, classes and generations are included.
- Working with the state and federal government, I will advocate for increased financial investment in vocational institutes for green jobs training. I will also bring together the region’s academic institutions to foster clean-energy expertise.
Advocating for Credit, Lending, and Access to Capital for Businesses
King County businesses are suffering from a stagnant credit market despite federal relief to lenders. They are unable to get start-up funds, buy inventory, make payroll, or obtain lines of credit. More and more small businesses, which are a vital part of our economy, are closing their doors.
- As King County Executive I will advocate for local businesses to get our credit markets moving again, working with business leaders, the legislature, our congressional delegation and the Obama Administration to find effective solutions.
Implementing Development Oriented Transit: D-O-T
Transit systems must be oriented to serve people where they live, work, go to school, and play. As we design and build new transit systems, we must use them to encourage compact, mixed-use development and economic opportunity in our neighborhoods. For example, by locating the East Link light rail along the Bel-Red corridor in Bellevue, we can help stimulate private redevelopment that will bring 9,300 additional jobs and 5,000 new homes to the area.
- I will leverage the billions of dollars our region is investing in a mass transit system to stimulate private investment in communities.
- Working with community members and local jurisdictions, I will advocate for light rail alignments and transit station sites that promote redevelopment opportunities.
- We must expand on successful developments throughout the region by seeking public and private partnerships to build affordable housing on Metro Transit and Sound Transit property.
Creating Green Collar Jobs
As detailed in my Greenprint for King County, we are at the brink of a clean-energy revolution that is increasingly showing a demand for green collar jobs. According to a March 2009 report by the Seattle Jobs Initiative, Puget Sound’s clean technology is annually a $330 million industry. Projections show that as many as 25,000 regional green collar jobs will be available by 2015. As executive, I will work to bring these jobs to our county.
- I will utilize the existing King County LEED Grants Program to provide incentives for creating jobs relating to sustainable building practices and solar technologies.
- I will continue to advocate for a cap on pollution and will work to use those revenues to create green jobs in green building, renewable energy, and alternative vehicle industries.
- Investing in systems to reduce storm water runoff and to improve water quality will help Puget Sound recover and protect our network of streams, creeks, rivers, and estuaries.
- Leverage federal and state grants and matching funds to invest in storm water infrastructure to improve water quality while promoting economic growth.