Kate Brown holds first press conference, intends on sticking with current agency heads; easier voter registration law heads to Senate.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Gov. Brown pledged to support education and transportation projects.
The Portland Tribune reports on her first meeting with the media since her inauguration:
“The saying is that the governor proposes and the Legislature disposes” in regard to the two-year state budget, which Kitzhaber submitted to lawmakers back on Dec. 1. “I look forward to working with legislators on the state budget.”
The Legislature’s chief budget writers have proposed more for existing state aid to Oregon’s 197 school districts, 17 community colleges and state universities, and less for targeted education priorities sought by Kitzhaber, such as early childhood, reading skills, and high school and college completion. Education at all levels accounts for more than half of the $18.5 billion state budget from the tax-supported general fund and lottery proceeds. Some education advocates want a state school fund of $8 billion, more than the $7.2 billion proposed by the legislative budget writers.
She said she has no intentions of tabling the clean energy legislation — as Republicans have suggested while investigations against former Gov. Kitzhaber and Cylvia Hayes are still ongoing.
From the Portland Tribune:
“In terms of clean fuels, the Legislature passed the original clean fuels bill in 2009,” Brown said. “For me, clean fuels translates into cleaner air for Oregonians. I think that’s a good thing.”
She also said she will announce her successor as Secretary of State on March 6.
The Statesman Journal reports that Brown will retain agency heads throughout the state government. The paper published the following letter from Department of Administrative Services Director Michael Jordan:
Dear Agency Heads:
Yesterday I sat down with incoming Governor Brown’s Chief of Staff, Brian Shipley. Brian made clear their focus is to make this transition as stable and orderly as possible, while acknowledging there are many things consuming their attention at the moment. In the spirit of stability, the incoming Governor is not planning to make any immediate leadership changes within agencies. Under normal circumstances a gubernatorial transition is complex, and they understand the condensed time frame we are working within. Over the next several weeks, we will be looking for opportunities for you to meet with Governor Brown and Brian; and continue the important work Oregonians are counting on us to deliver.
I know this is a difficult time for many of you, and I appreciate your efforts to work through this transition as smoothly as possible.
Michael
Meanwhile, the new governor has already secured an early policy win as the Oregon House approved an automatic voter registration bill.
Under the proposal, voters will be automatically registered based on driver records.
The Portland Tribune reports:
“As secretary of state, passage of the Motor Voter bill was my top priority,” Brown says in a statement after the vote. “Now that House Bill 2177 is moving to the Senate, I hope to have the opportunity to sign this bill into law.”
It was one of the few specific stances Brown offered at a news conference that took place a couple of hours before the House vote. It’s known as the new motor-voter bill, a follow-up to the 1993 National Voter Registration Act that requires states to ask people whether they want to register to vote — or change their information — when they obtain or renew driver’s licenses. But under current practice, paper records are sent to officials in Oregon’s 36 counties. The secretary of state’s office estimates that 300,000 to 400,000 new voters — out of 800,000 eligible — could be added to Oregon’s 2.2 million already registered voters.
