Details, Please, Mr. McKenna

Attorney General Rob McKenna has entered the governors race with a call for a major shift in budget priorities. He wants the state to spend as much as 51 percent of its annual budget on K12 education, up from 40 percent, and as much as 16 percent of the budget on higher education, twice the current level. McKenna also wants to lower taxes for some small businesses and shrink the size of state government. If he can figure out a way to pull off that hat trick, he deserves to be governor.

McKenna says the answer is to boost economic growth (see page 32). But the state has little control over levers that can encourage economic growth, and most of them involve money. So whats he to do?

Investing in education is a no-brainer. Most of the jobs we create in this state require some higher education, yet Washington state ranks 35th in the number of bachelors degrees awarded on a per capita basis. And our K12 schools do a poor job providing the basic skills students need to move on to higher education. Governor after governor has talked of reforming the educational system, but with few results.

If we can get education right, thats huge. But there are other areas in which we have to invest if our economy is to grow. Take infrastructure. We are 39th in the country in terms of average commute time, and only eight states have bridges that are in worse condition than ours. There is a raging debate in Seattle over whether money should be spent on a tunnel or for improved public transit to replace the unstable Alaskan Way Viaduct. But we clearly need both if we are to avoid gridlock.

Environmental protection is also a high priority. Washington is able to attract top talent from around the world because people want to live here. We need to protect the states natural beauty and clean up our waterways.

One way the state can help the economy is by promoting tourism. And yet the state Legislature recently eliminated the $1.8 million spent for marketing our state. Thats silly, because encouraging tourism has a high return on investment. The industry brings $15 billion a year to Washington, supports 150,000 jobs and generates $1 billion a year in taxes. A private association has formed to take on the task of promoting tourism (see page 21), but its unlikely to have the firepower of competing efforts in places like Oregon and British Columbia.

We applaud McKennas push for better education and more efficient government. But we hope he will provide details about his plans. And we hope his Democratic challenger responds with his or her own detailed programs for reviving the states economy. Every candidate should look at options from both sides of the political spectrum, including the possibility of outsourcing some functions of government and finding ways to raise more tax revenues. With more than 300,000 people unemployed in our state, we cant afford to be distracted by the partisan bickering that now dominates all political discourse.