STATE GOVERNMENT Long a mainstay of the employment and economic base in Thurston County, state government and the iconic domed Capitol took a beating after the global economic slowdown landed here in 2008.
still early to gauge results. So far, Inslee’s rivals in the Republican Party haven’t been impressed and they’ve mocked his hiring of several old hands in government.
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THE RECESSION YEARS
tate government shed about 2,300 jobs in Thurston County alone over the past four years, while cutbacks in maintenance spending let mold and algae blacken the stonework on the Legislative Building. Things are looking brighter in 2013 – literally and figuratively. Just as the state-government employment base held steady at just under 21,100 jobs over the past year, the better flow of cash into the state till paid for a more-than-$1-million repair and cleaning project last year that lifted half-a-decade’s worth of grime off the Capitol’s dome. “Since the 1850s, Olympia’s cultural identity has been tied to its status as the Territorial and State Capital City. Its citizens have always included well-educated state employees, knowledgeable in government processes and issues and active in politics and debates, who make their voices heard in local deliberations,” said Shanna Stevenson, local historian and leader
of Washington’s Women’s History Consortium, writing in response to a question about the interrelationship of capital and community from The Olympian. “These state employees, who look on their jobs as public service, carry that ethic into community service and activism benefitting local charities, service groups and area causes. Throughout the years, Olympians have fought to keep their city as the capital which has made residents especially interested in providing cultural amenities and preserving the city’s historic character,” Stevenson added. A new governor, Democrat Jay Inslee, took office in January. He promised in his campaign to bring a culture change to Olympia by seeking out leaner, cheaper ways of delivering government services to the public and installing more business savvy leaders in agencies. Just a few months into his four-year term, Inslee has put new people in charge of most state agencies, but it’s
Under Inslee’s predecessor, Chris Gregoire, the South Sound community saw the downside of living in a government town between 2008 and 2012. The economic storm that blasted the rest of the country during the recession kept blowing locally well after the private sector’s manufacturing and service businesses began to recover in metropolitican areas like Seattle. So while major commercial hubs like Seattle have seen jobless rates falling under 6 percent, South Sound’s was still at 7.9 percent and above the state average in March. The budget challenges that tore into government’s social safety net and cut more than 10 percent of the government jobs base locally are not over. In May this year the Legislature – politically divided over whether to raise taxes in order to boost K-12 public school investments while minimizing cuts to the social safety net – was once again in a special session in search of a balanced budget.
14 • OLYMPIAN SOURCEBOOK • 2013-2014
THINGS LOOKING UP But some drags on the economy are letting up. The 3 percent reductions in most state workers’ pay and hours – which took effect in July 2011 – were scheduled to stop at the end of June, providing a small boost to individuals’ paychecks. As Michael Cade of the Thurston County Economic Development Council has observed, job losses in state agencies after 2008 were offset to some degree by growth in employment at the Army and Air Force’s Joint Base Lewis McChord, located just north of Lacey in Pierce County. He has described it as a shift from one kind of government jobs base to another, and he says the EDC was able to assist with $20 million contracting opportunities for businesses in Thurston County in 2012. So far in 2013, that trend has continued. Cade said there also has been improvement in manufacturing and