A pivotal time
In step with our dedication to transparency relating to Microsoft’s public coverage priorities, we yearly share our legislative agenda for the approaching yr. This yr, that agenda is prefaced by two main milestones.
First, this would be the final legislative session of Jay Inslee’s tenure as Governor of Washington. Microsoft thanks him, his administration, and the legislators with whom he has partnered over the previous 12 years, for his or her many contributions to the well being and well-being, vitality, and future success of our state. Throughout Gov. Inslee’s administration, Washington confronted the unprecedented problem of a world pandemic, an occasion that modified all of us. However our state additionally made main investments in housing, infrastructure, schooling, and clear power – together with passing probably the most complete local weather coverage of any state. These are investments that may profit generations to return.
We now have one other main milestone on the horizon: Microsoft’s 50th anniversary as an organization, which we’ll rejoice in April 2025. Over its historical past, our firm advanced from promoting packaged software program to offering digital providers to making a linked cloud computing atmosphere to now being a pacesetter in each the event of generative AI and in serving to to ascertain a basis for the accountable use of synthetic intelligence know-how.
Like all the things, we owe our potential to develop to the atmosphere by which we sit. For Microsoft, our house is Washington state. It’s not an exaggeration to say that our success as we’ve advanced over our historical past has trusted selections like these made by Gov. Inslee and present legislative leaders, and by those that have come earlier than them. These public leaders have labored to create an atmosphere centered on innovation, progress, and fairness. This strategy has helped place each Microsoft and the area as leaders in a spread of game-changing applied sciences like AI and cloud computing, quantum computing, and hydrogen power manufacturing and fusion. Collectively, we are actually on the forefront of the worldwide financial system.
Briefly, Microsoft has grown and thrived as a result of we’re situated in a state that has created the situations permitting our firm and plenty of others to develop and thrive.
Bedrock commitments
Given this historical past, and with each our company and a few 50,000 of our workers calling Washington residence, we stay dedicated to seeing the Pacific Northwest preserve its aggressive financial place globally, guarantee equitable financial alternatives, and supply a top quality of life for everybody dwelling right here. These are the foundational targets we remember as we proceed our long-standing coverage partnerships and investments in schooling, housing, transportation, and financial alternative.
Schooling and skilling
Each financial alternative and high quality of life start with job. Greater than ever, rewarding and satisfying job alternatives require expertise and credentials past a highschool diploma. This contains high-demand fields like computing and well being care. Actually, the latest estimates are that 72% of the roles sooner or later would require some type of post-secondary credential, however solely 40% of Washington highschool college students earn such a credential by age 26.
In response to those traits, we’ve two coverage priorities for the 2024 session: We should proceed to develop rigorous laptop science schooling in any respect ranges – Okay-12, group and technical schools, and our four-year public universities; and we should improve enrollment in all method of post-secondary schooling for Washington college students in order that Washington college students are ready for Washington jobs.
For context, legislators have made vital commitments to create pathways for all college students to pursue these credentials; we rank second within the nation in monetary help availability, with a broad vary of applications starting from the Washington School Grant to the distinctive public-private partnership that funds the Washington State Alternative Scholarship. Sadly, these assets will not be being totally utilized; we’re second-to-last within the nation for pupil completion of the FAFSA type that’s required to safe many sources of help.
Thus, we encourage legislative and schooling leaders to:
- Proceed investing funds from the lately created Workforce Schooling Funding Account in data-driven methods to extend post-high faculty credential attainment
- Establish extra methods to construct public consciousness and supply high quality counseling so college students and their households perceive the necessity for post-secondary credentials and the assorted pathways obtainable to earn them
- Present wrap-around help providers, comparable to these requested by the College of Washington of their legislative package deal, for all college students, and particularly grownup learners, to assist them full their applications of examine and attain the credentials they should pursue rewarding careers
- Develop Profession Join Washington’s work-related studying experiences, which assist open college students’ eyes to the profession alternatives that lie forward of them
Housing for all
One other key part of high quality of life is secure and secure housing that’s inexpensive and handy to jobs, providers, and group. Put merely, we’d like extra housing of every type and for all revenue ranges, throughout Washington – and particularly within the Puget Sound area.
In its 2023 session, the legislature made substantial progress in help of that purpose: A billion {dollars} in new housing investments had been made, together with the historic investments within the Housing Belief Fund and the growth of the Land Acquisition Program overseen by the Washington State Housing Finance Fee, a program that Microsoft was proud to help with three-to-one matching funds and that’s already producing outcomes. Further progress was made in eradicating zoning and different regulatory limitations to the creation of recent housing choices. However a Division of Commerce evaluation reveals that Washington nonetheless wants an extra a million housing models over the following 20 years; this isn’t an issue that appeared in a single day, and it’s not an issue that may be solved in a single yr. So, lawmakers should proceed to pursue a variety of extra housing methods to deal with the rising demand for and rising value of housing.
Along with spurring housing development and considerably growing the availability of housing, we should additionally take steps to deal with different impacts of the housing scarcity. Homelessness, coupled with the opioid disaster and different behavioral well being points, has led to unprecedented challenges for the state’s emergency rooms, that are being overrun. Problem Seattle has issued a report that features a collection of suggestions for responding to this emergency, and we’re asking the legislature to evaluation and undertake these methods.
Shifting folks and items
Transportation is essential to sustaining regional financial competitiveness, supporting sustainable progress, and preserving and enhancing our native high quality of life. The following main transportation price range shall be developed in 2025. Upfront of that, nonetheless, there are key selections to be made round present tasks, particularly guaranteeing well timed completion of the 520 bridge hall mission.
We additionally made some progress transferring high-speed rail nearer to actuality once we obtained recognition and an preliminary grant from the Federal Hall Identification Program. This places us in line for extra federal funding and it’s essential that we protect the matching state {dollars} within the present transportation price range to leverage these federal investments.
Clear power
In 2020, when Microsoft introduced its dedication to develop into carbon unfavourable by 2030, we pledged to additionally develop into lively individuals in public coverage discussions to emphasise the unbreakable hyperlink between electrical energy coverage and carbon coverage and assist advance international decarbonization efforts
We should work collectively to get as a lot agency, inexperienced energy onto the ability grid as rapidly as potential. This can require taking a tough take a look at our allowing and siting processes and figuring out methods to make them extra environment friendly, in order that inexperienced assets may be introduced on line extra rapidly. Use of digital instruments, together with synthetic intelligence, have to be thought of to additional enhance useful resource siting and allowing processes.
In the end, we can’t afford to give attention to a single answer; we’d like an “all the above” strategy to plotting our clear power future. Along with hydro, photo voltaic, wind, and different power sources historically thought of renewable, the state should now flip its consideration to persevering with to meaningfully advancing analysis and improvement of nuclear and fusion as potential sources of secure and considerable power.
AI
Microsoft is a know-how firm and right now, we’re collectively in a brand new age of purpose, powered by know-how, led by folks, and fueled by innovation. We’re additionally at an inflection level and a singular AI second. How we handle and reply to speedy advances in synthetic intelligence is essential to our collective future.
Simply as new applied sciences will redefine the transportation and power sectors, synthetic intelligence will redefine how know-how serves all of us, advancing humanity’s potential to suppose, purpose, and specific ourselves. We’re impressed by the huge potential of AI improvement to help public good; we’re equally practical in regards to the danger of the know-how being utilized in dangerous methods. As such, Microsoft has been and can stay a pacesetter in advocating for the accountable use of AI. Our perspective on this difficulty, as an organization that has been engaged on these points immediately for quite a few years, is contained in our most up-to-date Rules for Accountable AI. We are going to work with the governor, legislators, and different elected officers as they have interaction in coverage deliberations, and we’ll help accountable approaches that promote innovation and alternative for Washington state.
As we sit up for the 2024 legislative session, we’re energized by how lawmakers’ previous selections have positioned Washington state for fulfillment, and we’re much more optimistic in regards to the alternatives that lie forward.
