Governor Outlines Agenda in State of the State Speech

(Portland) - Governor Ted Kulongoski outlined an ambitious agenda in his fourth State of the State address in Portland Friday, noting the creation of nearly 100,000 new Oregon jobs since he took office, and calling for accelerating the development of renewable energy resources, health care for all children, and bolstering Oregon`s investment in education.

With his energy plan, the Governor seeks to invest in clean energy and create even more new jobs, noting that Oregon creates a thousand new jobs for every $100 million it invests in clean energy. To help Oregon achieve energy independence, he proposed a plan to keep energy prices competitive, reduce dependence on energy sources from overseas, and protect Oregonians from expected spikes in the prices of fossil fuels. The plan also seeks to reduce emissions that lead to global warming.

`In Oregon, we`re going to move ahead with reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, increasing energy efficiency and cutting greenhouse gasses," the Governor said.

To make Oregon a leader in using clean energy, the Governor wants to ensure that by 2025, renewable resources meet 25 percent of Oregon`s energy needs. His program to achieve this goal is already under way.

The Governor has directed the Department of Energy`s Renewable Energy Work Group to develop a `renewable portfolio standard," which he will propose to the Legislature in 2007. Enacting the standard, which contains clear goals for using renewable energy, will send a strong signal to energy developers and spur them to invest in projects that bring renewable energy to market over the next two decades. It will also stimulate addition of 1,600 average megawatts of renewable energy to the utility grid.

The Governor has begun developing legislation that will capitalize on Oregon`s emerging `bio-energy" markets, particularly in biodiesel and ethanol. The plan includes developing biomass energy projects in Oregon. The legislative package will focus on policies and incentives to create markets for agricultural production and feedstock as energy resources. It will also promote the production of biofuels in Oregon.

Governor Kulongoski`s `Healthy Kids Plan" would expand school-based health centers and access to the state`s Medicaid and health insurance programs for children. It would also broaden health coverage for kids by letting low-income parents buy affordable, state-subsidized group coverage for their children if they earn too much to qualify for federal help.

`Today, more than 117,000 children do have not have health insurance," the Governor told the City Club of Portland. `This is simply unacceptable."

The Governor has proposed paying for the Healthy Kids Plan with federal, state and other revenue sources, maximizing federal revenue available to the state. The Plan will cost up to $292 million more than what the state currently spends on kids` health coverage every biennium (approximately $110 million state dollars and $182 million federal match). The Governor will ask the next legislature to increase the cigarette tax to raise the state`s share of the projected costs.

The Governor`s plan for education, called the `Education Enterprise," would set up a new way to prioritize funding for education in Oregon, and a stability fund to protect education from future losses in tax revenue.

`If my Education Enterprise funding plan is adopted by the Legislature, we will once again be above the national average for per-student funding at the end of the 07-09 biennium," the Governor said. `We have never had a plan that looks at education funding over the long term. Now we will."

If adopted, the Plan will allocate a minimum of 61 percent of the state`s general fund to education, beginning with the next two-year budget cycle. In every following budget cycle, each sector of the public education system will receive an increase of at least 10 percent over the previous legislatively approved budget (Oregon pre-kindergarten/Head Start, K-12, Oregon Department of Education, community colleges and workforce development, universities, OHSU, and the Oregon Student Assistance Commission).

`If the Legislature adopts this plan, and stops budgeting the way we currently do by bouncing from year to year with no clear idea of what the bottom line is, the nightmare of lost school days, dropped programs, bulging classrooms, and national ridicule will be over," the Governor said.