Kick-Off Speech
OREGON STATE CAPITOL, FEBRUARY 01, 2006
Thank you for coming today. I’d like to thank my husband, Steve, and my family for their love and support in all that I choose to do. And I’d like to especially thank my daughter, Sara, who has served as my campaign manger for the past several months; and Dana Baugher, who works as my legislative assistant serving the constituents of Senate District 7.
On Labor Day, I announced an exploratory campaign for governor because I wanted to challenge the status quo and the way we do business in our state. I want to move the ball down the field, to set up a game plan for Oregon, to provide us with a vision of hope, courage and conviction that we can get the job done.
In my travels across the state these past few months listening to Oregonians, I’ve learned that we all share similar goals: a good education for our children, a living wage job, a home to live in, affordable health care, value for our tax dollars, clean air and clean water, and a vibrant community to live in. We all have the same desires. We simply have different ways we’d like to achieve them.
The goal and the job of the leaders of our state is to bring all those good ideas together and make them work. Recently, I wrote an article in Brainstorm NW magazine that talks about building on our strengths. I don’t think we do enough of that. Oregon was at one time a trendsetter. We talk about that a lot. We reminisce about the days of Tom McCall, the bottle bill, the beach bill, land use planning and all those things. Why do we have to keep talking about what Oregon was, as opposed to what Oregon is and what Oregon can be?
In Oregon we reward hard work, taking action and standing up for our ideals when the going gets tough. Those are the values I’ve brought to the legislature over the last 7 years.
I built coalitions that helped me pass more bills last session than any other legislator…59 out of 139. I am proud to have pushed for legislation that expanded educational opportunities, protected consumers from unknowingly having their insurance canceled by email, increased support for domestic violence and abuse victims, public safety, economic development and more. But I am most proud to have worked both sides of the aisle to increase transparency and accountability in government, and putting an end to government secrets with SB 324.
Over the last several months as I have been pondering my political future, I’ve put together an agenda of what I’d like to accomplish and how I could best further these goals. I’d like to share a few of them with you today.
ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
It’s no secret that our national security has become intertwined with our insatiable need for foreign oil. And it’s no secret that oil companies like Exxon with its record $36.1 billion in profits last year are taking advantage of that situation. I believe Oregon can and should be the leader in breaking that need.
We have tremendous opportunity to develop renewal energy in our state. Central Oregon is fast-becoming a renewable energy cluster with biomass projects, wind farms and fuel-cell development. And Wallowa County, facing some of the highest unemployment in the state is the perfect location to grow canola seed for biodiesel. Washington state, is looking at the same sort of investment. Instead of going it alone, it makes sense to partner with our neighbors to the north and mutually invest in the expensive crushing equipment, creating a regional center that benefits both of our economies. Both states should require at least 2% of all diesel be generated from farm crops, that state vehicles use the greatest percentage possible, and that we make a commitment to collaborate on how best to use the chaff that is left over from processing. These things we can do working in partnership together.
As an example of such a partnership, I have been serving on the Western Governors’ Association Clean and Diversified Energy Advisory Committee for over a year now. Our final report will be presented this summer to the WGA, and will identify ways the Western States will develop 30,000 MW of clean energy by 2015 using a variety of conventional and renewable resources, achieve a 20% increase in energy efficiency by 2020, and identify ways to meet our transmission needs over the next 25 years.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Small business is the wheel of the economic engine that drives Oregon. According to 2003 data, the U.S. Small Business Administration says that Oregon has 313,000 small businesses.. These are businesses classified as having 500 or less employees. The Oregon Economic & Community Development Department has counted 98,000 small businesses of 100 employees or less. Either way you count the numbers, Oregon owes its success to the thousands of small businesses, like my own business, in every community that makes our state hum.
We must focus on helping these businesses grow, and helping them lower their costs so they can provide health insurance and other benefits to their employees. The Oregon Legislature did that last session with SB 408, a bill I sponsored that challenged the status quo and the way we do business: we stopped utilities from charging ratepayers for taxes they neither owed nor paid. This bill returns $150 million to the state’s economy every year, putting dollars back into the pockets of homeowners, businesses, and school districts for their utility costs.
We must also continue to make our workers’ compensation system fair and responsive to both employers and employees. I created a 10-point Workers’ Compensation Reform Plan in October of 2004. In 2005, we saw three of those measures pass, and significant work on some of the others. Injured workers finally saw some positive changes, such as the right to be treated the same as other patients who are in managed care organizations; reform of the independent medical exam process; and reform of the permanent and total disability statutes. We also urged the Insurance Division to be more diligent at moving businesses out of the assigned-risk pool more quickly, because the goal of our state-funded workers’ compensation system is to make the insurance affordable for business while observing sound principles of insurance. And that includes providing safety training programs, as well as access to prompt and thorough medical treatment to enable the injured worker to return to the job as quickly as possible.
HEALTH CARE
Prompt, thorough and affordable medical treatment is something that is important to all Oregonians. I agree with Gov. Kitzhaber that it is the most pressing need in our state. Health care costs account for more than 20% of state budgets all across the country, and by 2015 it is estimated one in four Americans will be without health insurance. In Oregon, we’re already at one in six. Kitzhaber called for a revolution of ideas to replace resignation with hope, and disengagement with community-based activism.
We can replace resignation with hope here in Oregon by changing the way we approach health care, beginning by focusing on a wellness-oriented system, rather than a disease-oriented one that over utilizes technology and services. The patient, rather than the disease, becomes the center of the relationship. We can borrow best practices from other states that use smart card technology to store and track individual medical information. Lane County’s 100% Access Coalition utilizes smart card technology and provides health screenings and low-cost pharmaceuticals to assist the uninsured in our community.
Employers can create incentives for their employees to exercise, eat well and avoid unhealthy behaviors to help lower insurance costs. We should continue to support the Family Health Insurance Assistance Program (FHIAP) that provides subsidies to low-income families so they can buy into their employer’s insurance plan. We can capitalize on the success of federally qualified health centers like La Clinica in Medford who provide patient-centered care, and whose patient population is 56% uninsured. We should continue to use school-based health clinics (we added five last session), community health clinics such as those that are sprouting up in Rite-Aid stores, and develop more urgent care centers to keep people out of expensive emergency rooms. Above all, we must continue to control waste and inefficiency in the health care delivery system.
SCHOOL FUNDING
The high cost of health care impacts individuals, businesses, state government, and our education system. If we’re serious about providing stability and adequacy in Oregon’s education system, we must get our fiscal house in order.
It will take a revolution all across state government to change the way we do business.
We must show fiscal responsibility, transparency in government, and strong leadership. Oregonians are tired of the status quo. They’re more than willing to pay for government provided services, but they want assurances that everyone is paying their fair share, that their rights are protected, and that waste is kept to a minimum.
Oregonians are tired of coming to Salem with their tin cups begging for money so their children can have a modern textbook, a librarian, a music teacher, or even a desk in a classroom of 30+ children. They’re tired of the school year being shortened because there isn’t enough money to keep the doors open. They’re tired of working three jobs, and still taking out loans to pay for an advanced education at one of our community colleges or universities.
As Bill Gates said to the National Conference of State Legislatures at its August meeting in Seattle, “a well-educated workforce, not tax breaks, is key to luring high tech businesses to a state.”
Educating our workforce begins with an investment in early childhood education, all day kindergarten, an emphasis on small class sizes and closing the achievement gap, good support staff and strong teacher development. We have a model to achieve that…it’s called the Quality Education Model. We just need to be bold and provocative about how we fund it. Perhaps the only way to do that is for the coalition circling the wagons on education funding to file a lawsuit challenging the Oregon State Legislature for failing to meet its duties under the constitution and Measure 1. Maybe then we will be able to discuss the reform that is so badly needed in Oregon’s tax structure.
Oregon now gives away more money in tax breaks than we collect in taxes: 58 cents of every dollar walks out the door in tax giveaways. Over 350 tax breaks exist at the state and local level with no accountable method for determining their cost-effectiveness or usefulness. According to the Oregon Center for Public Policy, 40 of the 49 tax breaks for corporations were created since 1980. Enterprise zones have been created all over the state, with only two requirements at the state level: the company must invest $50,000 in a building or additional equipment; and they must increase their workforce by 10%; in return, they get three years’ property tax abatements. That’s it! No requirement for health care, no requirement to provide living wage jobs. And if they leave at the end of the three-year period, there’s no claw-back provision! Imagine that! Trickle-down economics is alive and well in Oregon, but it sounds more like trickle-out to me.
Individuals pay a higher tax rate than corporations, and we are the only state in the nation with a kicker law. It’s essentially a bonus for somebody else’s bad guess. It’s hard to believe in 2005 we sent back $101 million in a corporate kicker, with 2/3 of it going to multinational corporations headquartered outside Oregon, and nothing was returned to individuals. In 2007, that amount is likely to be $86 million. If instead we put that money into a rainy day fund, or into the Education Stability Fund we’d go a long way towards achieving financial literacy on the state level.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
So, how are we going to accomplish all of these things? Do we start in the Oregon State Legislature, in the Governor’s office, or do we take our case to the people?
I believe under the strong guidance of Senators Peter Courtney and Kate Brown, the Oregon State Senate is prepared to move forward on these pressing issues. They are committed to taking bold action as evidenced by the strength of the interim committees and the high marks given to the work of the Public Commission on the Legislature. I do not believe it is business as usual any longer. I do believe it will take the strength and commitment of the entire Legislative Assembly to begin Gov. Kitzhaber’s “revolution of ideas to replace resignation with hope, and disengagement with community-based activism.” That is why after lengthy deliberation, and many private walks on the beach, I have decided that I cannot leave my constituents without a seat and a voice at the table in the Oregon State Senate.
Now is not the time to run for Governor.
I have made it my priority to represent all of the citizens in my district. I have taken their concerns to Salem and found answers to their problems. I’ve worked with other states to coordinate best practices. I’ve worked with my colleagues to pass laws to reflect my constituents’ concerns, taking my fight all the way to Congress when the need arose. I’ve recognized their achievements and contributions to our community, and mourned their losses.
In short, the residents of Senate District 7 have been my priority since the moment I took office in 1999. I have never been afraid to challenge the status quo on their behalf. And, like Thomas Jefferson, I believe that “all authority belongs to the people.”
It is always challenging to try and do a job better. I’m committed to doing that, as are my colleagues in the Senate. I am delighted to be rejoining my colleagues. I’m excited about the possibilities. We can do great things. We can build a better future for Oregon. There is much yet to be done.
So, fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen. Make sure your seatbacks are upright and your tray tables are locked. Oregonians are in for an inspirational and exciting ride as we embark on our journey to make Oregon a better place to live and work.
Thank you.
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