John Kitzhaber in 2013 Governor's State of the State speeches
On Corporations:
Oregon Business Plan: create jobs & income; reduce poverty
This is the legislative session to ask and answer the tough questions about what it will take to deliver:- How do we ensure more of the jobs created in Oregon are living wage jobs?
- And how do we get more of those jobs in rural communities?
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What will it take to put people in poverty on a path to living wage jobs?
- How can the state help to eliminate barriers to growth and success for our homegrown small businesses?
- How do we better align our fragmented workforce training programs to
deliver better results for more Oregonians and better meet the needs of expanding businesses?
The Oregon Business Plan, which has guided our work over the past two years, is built on three pillars: creating 25,000 jobs per year through 2020; raising
Oregon's personal income levels above the national average by 2020; and reducing Oregon's poverty rate to 10% by 2020. These 3 pillars recognize that private sector job creation is the foundation of an enduring prosperity in every corner of our state.
Source: 2013 State of the State Address to Ore. Legislature
Jan 14, 2013
On Crime:
Spend $600M on education now instead of on prisons later
In corrections, cost reduction is both needed and possible. The relentless growth in the Department of Corrections is one of the major reasons we cannot adequately invest in education; or in community corrections & other proven crime prevention measures
at the local level. It cost $10,000 a year to keep a child in school but $30,000 a year to keep someone in prison. Our prison forecast predicts the need to build 2,300 new beds over the next decade at a cost of $600 million--and that most of those
beds will be occupied by non-violent offenders. And the fact is that this $600 million--if spent on public education--would keep hundreds of people out of the criminal justice system in the first place.
The politics around public safety reform are
often difficult--the fear of being labeled "soft on crime." But if we are unwilling act on this issue we will, by default, be choosing prisons over schools and condemning untold numbers of today's students to a future in our system of corrections.
Source: 2013 State of the State Address to Ore. Legislature
Jan 14, 2013
On Jobs:
Focus budget on investing in jobs and innovation
Far too many Oregonians continue to struggle with unemployment, debt and the rising cost of health care.That sense of urgency is at the core of the budget I sent you last month--a budget that reflects the priorities that have guided us over the past two
years: putting children, families and education first; investing in jobs and innovation; and reducing the cost of government. It is also a budget built on the assumption that even with constrained resources, we cannot wait to begin reinvesting in
children, in families and in education. More than 60% of the jobs in the next decade will require at least a technical certificate or associates degree--yet only 67% of our students are graduating from high school, taking them off the path to economic
security. If, as I believe, it is the promise of equal opportunity that lies at the heart of the American Dream--the promise of upward mobility--then public education is the vehicle through which the American Dream is most directly fulfilled today.
Source: 2013 State of the State Address to Ore. Legislature
Jan 14, 2013
On Tax Reform:
Opportunity for revenue: capping total deductions & credits
With regard to tax expenditures, I am prepared to work with you to pursue opportunities to boost revenue. It is easy to aggregate the billions of tax dollars now going out in credits, incentives and deductions.
It is more difficult to find opportunities for significant revenue.
However, I think a compelling case can be made to reconsider and reassess the policies of the past in light of current fiscal realities and the need to make a significant reinvestment in public education and in other crucial public services.
I would include the Senior Medical Deduction; the level of state deductibility of federal Schedule A income; and the possibility of capping total deductions and credits as areas worth further discussion.
Source: 2013 State of the State Address to Ore. Legislature
Jan 14, 2013
On Welfare & Poverty:
Beware uneven, unequal "recovery" without rural & minorities
Our great challenge is to ensure that the next phase of Oregon's economic "recovery" reaches all Oregonians and ends the income stagnation that continues to erode the middle class, exacerbates inequality, and for the first time threatens a generation of
Oregonians with the prospect of a declining standard of living. We cannot settle for an uneven, unequal & hesitant "recovery." The word "recovery" loses any useful meaning if it describes a state where the Portland metro area returns to pre-recession
employment levels, while much of rural Oregon continues to suffer the economic and social consequences of double-digit unemployment, outdated infrastructure and an aging workforce. The word "recovery" is warped if it is used at a time when the
unemployment rate for white Oregonians is falling, but for African Americans & Latino Oregonians it continues to rise. We still have much work to do. Oregon will not be a great place for any of us to live until it is a great place for all of us to live.
Source: 2013 State of the State Address to Ore. Legislature
Jan 14, 2013
Page last updated: Dec 05, 2018