Governor Christine Gregoire of Washington delivered her State of the State address at the Capitol in Olympia today. (Text) She did not mention specifically manufacturing and her sole reference to “industry” was to the construction industry. The Democratic governor, re-elected in 2008, did of course talk about business and the business climate.

We must do everything we can to stimulate the economy and put Washington State back to work.

I propose cutting the unemployment insurance and workers compensation rates by more than $1 billion to help businesses and our unemployed get back to work.

We need to provide retraining to unemployed workers whose jobs no longer exist. And we need to get injured workers healthy and back to work as soon as possible.

I’m asking you to get a bill to my desk by February 8 so more than 65,000 small businesses can receive a 48 percent reduction in their unemployment insurance rates. The savings can help small businesses invest, expand and stimulate economic growth in every community across our state.

Jobs are the way out of the recession, especially in one of the hardest hit areas — the construction sector. Through the capital and transportation budgets and the Public Works Trust Fund, we can start shovel-ready projects, modernize our infrastructure and put almost 40,000 people to work. As the construction industry goes, so goes our state budget.

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Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington gave her State of the State address on Tuesday in Olympia, a speech heavy in state budget proposals, including cuts in government and unspecified tax increases.

Gregoire, a Democrat first elected in 2004, did not use the word “manufacturing” or its variant in her prepared text. As for the word “industry”:

[Here], ladies and gentlemen, is what I hear people say.

They tell me they are scared but they know things will get better. That we are on the cusp of a new economy. And that jobs will come from the growth industries of tomorrow in fields like clean energy, health care and technology.

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Washington has always been a state that attracts capital — both financial and intellectual. We need to keep that tradition going, and one way to do that is to stimulate capital investment in biotechnology, software development, health care, clean technology, renewable energy, aerospace and other industries that will drive our future.

The goal is to attract $2 billion in capital investments to fuel job growth.

And finally…
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