Last week we called for an ‘all hands on deck’ approach to addressing our state’s budget crisis to stop teacher layoffs and cuts to classrooms. Much has happened in Salem on budget negotiations since we wrote last week. Governor Kitzhaber made a call for action to legislators on both sides of the aisle: compromise. He [...]
It’s no secret that Oregon’s schools are in desperate need of increased funding. Reinvesting and stabilizing schools and reducing class sizes are our top priorities this session in Salem. We have a historic opportunity to reinvest in education, and we believe it’s time to embrace the proposals to make that happen. Today, Oregon has the [...]
One of our top priorities this session is getting people back to work and helping small businesses grow in our area. So we were glad to read new data from the US Department of Labor last week that showed Oregon is making strides towards a strong economy and getting Oregonians back to work. The report [...]
We’re finishing up two weeks of public hearings around the state on the proposed budget for 2013-15. As has been my experience over the past four years, the “road show” for the budget committee leaves me inspired by what is being done in communities all over the state, but also deeply concerned on how deep [...]
Last year, local farmers and supporters of organic food raised alarms about the effects of genetically modified organism (GMO) crops and collected thousands of signatures to refer a local ban on GMO crops to voters. Their ballot measure would protect Southern Oregon from GMO crops that threaten a growing organic farming industry and our way [...]
One of my legislative colleagues has a saying he is fond of: “Everybody wants to get to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” That’s a pretty good description of our state in some ways. Everybody in Oregon talks about having a world-class public education system, but there are always hundreds of reasons why we can’t [...]
There is a good deal of tension in Salem at present. We’re fast approaching the deadline for decisions on policy bills in the House and the Senate. Bills must pass out of committee over the next two weeks in order to be sent to the floor for a vote, and then sent on to the [...]
Most of the main budget pieces are now on the table. My budget co-chair and I have put the basic totals for each area of the budget out, including the path to get K-12 to an equivalent of $6.75 billion, an increase in resources of $1 billion over the current budget. We’re now putting our [...]
At present, the main hurdle to balancing the state budget is ideology, showing up as an insistence that retirees, who worked as teachers, health care workers and in other areas of public service for decades, must be the only ones to bear the brunt of bridging the funding gap we have to be able to [...]
If you pay attention to the debate on the budget in this year’s session, you will hear a lot about funding for our schools, and a lot about the ongoing liabilities in the Public Employee Retirement System, or PERS. The two have become entwined due to the ongoing devastation caused by Wall Street and the [...]
