Oregon governor’s speech urged legislators to support transportation package, ethics measures.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown delivered her first State of the State speech Friday in Portland.
Brown indicated she wants to fix the problems that contributed to the resignation of John Kitzhaber.
From OregonLive.com:
Brown struck a forceful tone at times, demanding that lawmakers pass her package of ethics reform bills and a statewide transportation package before adjourning the session.
“The Legislature cannot go home until we get this done,” Brown said. “And I’m not gonna let them.”
(Read the full text of Brown’s speech here.)
Republicans said in response to the speech that there is still work to be done before a transportation package will be considered.
From OregonLive.com:
House Democrats are one seat shy of a three-fifths supermajority needed to pass a new tax to fund road improvements, and Republicans are vowing to block a transportation deal unless Brown and legislative Democrats double back on the decision to extend Oregon’s clean fuels program. So far, no one has given up ground.
“An invitation from the Governor to put aside partisanship to pass a transportation package should start with opening a discussion on Low Carbon Fuel Standards, which is part of the Portland-centric partisan agenda,” Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, said in a statement Friday.
Brown indicated that the state has largely recovered from the Great Recession.
The Portland Tribune writes:
The governor talked of her travels to rural areas of the state and the issues she views as important to Oregonians outside the Interstate 5 corridor. She restated her support for the creation of a more than $50 million water development fund, which was initially proposed by Kitzhaber and could help irrigators and conservationist reach a deal in the Umatilla Basin. And Brown recounted how she signed an agreement last month for the state to conserve greater sage grouse habitat.
“As of today, I have visited eight communities in eastern, central and southern Oregon and the mid-Willamette Valley,” Brown said.
