OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee urged state lawmakers Tuesday to act on his legislative agenda in a speech to a joint session of the Legislature, calling for stricter gun laws, unprecedented spending on housing and a boost in funding for education.
The governor's State of the State address is an annual ritual in Olympia, when the governor lays out where the state stands and what he wants to see out of the 2023 session, which began Monday.
Inslee made the case in the noon-hour address for his proposed $4 billion referendum to build thousands of new housing units, including shelters, affordable housing and supportive housing. Lawmakers would need to pass that measure and then it would get referred to voters for their approval.
"This is not a one-time effort to buy a one-time fix where the money disappears," Inslee said in prepared remarks. "This money will turn into true assets that, once built, will provide a pipeline of affordable housing for tens of thousands of more people every year."
Inslee said lawmakers should pass measures to require safety training before buying a gun, ban assault weapons and create new responsibilities for gun sellers and manufacturers under state law that would allow them to face lawsuits.
"We owe our children the assurance we're doing all we can to keep them safe," Inslee said. "Let's pass all three bills and prove to them that the gun lobby doesn't make the rules in Washington state — we do."
On the state's efforts to shore up its behavioral health system with local resources, Inslee said he would "ask local leaders to join me in crafting a better plan, both for defendants' mental health and for public safety."
Inslee praised the Legislature for last year's "historic investments" in schools and said his proposed budget includes a $3 billion increase in spending for K-12 public education, including more money for special education.
Inslee also touted the state's new cap-and-invest program and Washington efforts to date to combat climate change, and said the state needed more capacity to site and permit clean energy projects and "bolster our transmission infrastructure" to deliver clean energy.
