Our state continues to face significant economic pressures, and even as the recession recedes, Washington’s employers and families still must confront increasingly intense global competition.
Microsoft has grown up here – Washington state is our home, and we want to see the state continue to be successful. It’s clear that Washington needs a balanced strategy, with measurable goals, to ensure citizens benefit from both solid economic opportunities and a great quality of life.
To that end, I’ve worked with other members of the Washington Roundtable to develop the Benchmarks for a Better Washington campaign. These benchmarks track the state’s economic and community vitality annually across 12 key categories, providing clear, independent, state-by-state measurements of where we are and where we need to go.
The idea behind Benchmarks for a Better Washington is ensuring the state competes on both value and cost. We want to provide a quality education for all of our young people; an infrastructure that is safe, reliable and efficient; and a climate of innovation that attracts investment and encourages job creation.
Read more about the campaign goals and priorities here and here: www.waroundtable.com/benchmarks.