Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - March 13, 2003
Contact:  Kirsten Kendrick, Governor’s Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Gov. Gary Locke Promotes ‘Jobs Now’ Plan during Visit to Vancouver

Gov. Gary Locke today visited Vancouver as part of a statewide “Jobs Now” tour, promoting his economic recovery plan to create jobs now, spur the state’s economy and build for the future.

Locke toured the Port of Vancouver, the third largest port in Washington state. The port’s tenants include United Grain Corporation/United Harvest, the largest exporter of wheat on the West Coast, and Great Western Malting, a major employer at the port. Locke learned about expansion plans of other port tenants, including Tri-Star, ST Services and Plastics Northwest.

The governor also met with city, county and port officials to discuss transportation, economic development and environmental issues, including efforts to deepen the Columbia River channel and improve freight mobility on Interstate 5.

Locke has helped secure nearly $28 million in state funding to help deepen the navigation channel of the Columbia River to accommodate larger, fuel-efficient vessels and save millions in transportation costs.

Locke said his seven-point economic recovery plan would help Vancouver, Clark County and the port. His plan focuses on:
· Creating thousands of new construction jobs through building new schools, higher education facilities and public works projects;
· Capitalizing on Washington’s competitive advantage in international trade;
· Promoting state businesses and improving the climate for new business;
· Giving communities more effective tools to build Washington businesses;
· Promoting Washington’s emerging technology strengths;
· Improving education to create and fill skilled jobs for today’s competitive marketplace;
· Pushing Congress and the President for an economic stimulus package that helps our state’s workforce.

Locke is calling on the Legislature to quickly pass his capital budget. “It is critical that we start creating new jobs now,” he said. “A number of the projects highlighted in the capital budget focus on new and existing construction that would put people to work right away.”

The governor’s capital budget supports new private-sector jobs at an annual average of 13,400 construction and related jobs during the next two fiscal years, and 11,000 jobs in the following two fiscal years.

These jobs would come from the $2.5 billion in spending for new public-works funding, including $223 million in new construction at universities and $312 million at community and technical colleges through bonding against lottery revenue and general obligation bonds.

Locke’s capital budget calls for $35.7 million for improvements at Clark College, including $18 million to construct a classroom building at Clark Center on the Washington State University-Vancouver campus. His budget also calls for $19.8 million to rebuild the campus of the Washington State School for the Deaf and $4.1 million for the Washington State School for the Blind.

The governor began his “Jobs Now” tour last month. He has made stops in Seattle, Bremerton, Wenatchee and Bellingham. He plans to visit Federal Way, Yakima, Spokane, Tri-Cities, Aberdeen and other cities in the coming weeks.

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