Kulongoski comes to SOU behind M30

S.D.Ryan, 28.01.2004 21:35

Gov. Ted Kulongoski made an appearance at SOU this afternoon to stump for M30 and to outline his vision of Oregon's economy.

“This election next Tuesday is the beginning of our investment in intellectual capital.”

Governor Ted Kulongoski met with some 45 students and staff at Southern Oregon University to raise support for Measure 30 and to challenge them to get involved in the political process. Asked what message students should send to legislators, the Governor observed that the message politicians understand best is “I’m not gonna vote for you” should they fail to deliver.
“And you have to back it up,” Kulongoski continued. The Governor’s remarks naturally focused on Measure 30 and higher ed.

“Oregon has a schizophrenic view of education,” stated Kulongoski, pointing out that legislators don’t see the system “holistically.” Higher ed, said the Governor, always loses when it goes head to head with K-12 for State funding, and has consistently been passed last, as the leftovers from previous legislation. Kulongoski recently appointed former Governor Neil Goldschmidt to the State Board of Higher Ed, along with six other new seats, including for the first time a representative from the 17-school Community College system, Chemeketa Community College president Gretchen Schuette.

Kulongoski argued that legislators must focus on Oregon’s relation to the national economy vis-a-vis the rest of the world, instead of taking the traditional 2- to 4-year view of what will get them reelected. The key to Oregon’s future in the long term, the Governor told the room of administrators and students from Southern and Rogue Community College, was investment in intellectual capital.

The only way to bring “living wage jobs” and long term stability to Oregon’s economy, said the Governor, is to invest in education, focusing on individual issues as part of the entire system. Kulongoski represented this holistic vision with the equation O=C+E^2, with Oregon as the sum of its Children, Economy, and Environment.
“I can’t build the economy I described to you without investing in education,” said Kulongoski.

The Governor outlined his plan to ensure that every qualified Oregon high school senior had the opportunity to graduate to an Oregon University with tuition paid in full, and without leaving forty or fifty thousand dollars in debt. Kulongoski would raise the $2-3 billion capital needed to generate the $250 million or so every year by lowering capital gains taxes to 6% and dedicating the proceeds to the ASET tuition program. He would also consider expanding the funding from state forest revenues from K-12 to the four-year system.

According to Kulongoski, 55% of the state discretionary budget is spent on education, 45% of which goes to K-12. 24% is spent on Health & Human Services, and the remaining 14% on Public Safety. These three programs make up 93% of all state discretionary spending. The Governor advised the audience to “follow the money” in the event of the failure of Measure 30. Oregon Universities would largely have to rely on tuition.

Health care costs, which are more expensive under current emergency service delivery instead of administered as preventive maintenance, would be borne primarily by taxpayers and by employers, creating a disincentive to the growth so necessary for all the systems to operate as mandated.

Kulongoski likened Public Safety, the “practical,” as opposed to “compassionate” side of the budget, to an hourglass, with police at the top and the judicial system at the bottom. The only way caseloads can move from the police to the courts is through forensics, which Kulongoski likened to the bottleneck of the hourglass. If evidence cannot move through the State Police forensic process, law enforcement will be forced to ignore petty crime in order to prosecute the most significant cases. Failure of M30 would eliminate 60 of the 107 State Police forensic scientist positions.

One of the most dramatic effects of Measure 5, said the Governor, was the shift of the tax burden from commercial property tax to personal property and income tax. After 1990, shares of the state tax burden shifted from 60% business/ 40% personal to 39% business and 61% personal. This shift in equity is aggravated when revenue is sent to Salem and reallocated by the Legislature instead of staying in the local municipalities, especially in the primary school system, he argued.
“The closer government is to the people, the better it works,” said Kulongoski.

Measure 5 “breaks the connection of local accountability,” especially in the case of primary education. He said that the impacts of M5 were initially offset by growth in the ‘90’s and the introduction of gambling revenues, but that “we have used up all the one-time funding.” Kulongoski said he will not call a special session if M30 falls, and refuses to issue bonds to underwrite short-term operating expenses as Governors in some other states have recently proposed.

Kulongoski warned 18-35 year-old voters against the “tidal wave” of 78 million retiring baby boomers for whom they will be paying Social Security, and who will drive the cost of health care up to 25-30% of GDP over the next ten years from its current level of 14%. The Governor explained that the reason health care is so slanted toward seniors instead of children, mothers, and preventive maintenance is because only 6% of 18-35 year-olds register and vote, whereas seniors are the largest proportion.
“Young people need to drive the Social Security debate” because they’re the ones who will be paying for it, warned Kulongoski.

In response to the majority of university-aged voters who say to themselves “why bother,” Kulongoski replied that “you’re guaranteed not to have any impact if you don’t participate.”

e-mail:: swesternews@hotmail.com

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by the way... 28.01.2004 - 21:41 So whaddya think-is this bullshit? I didn't vote for the guy. Notice the logging expansion, etal. Who is this guy? Scoopin' the Tidings, as usual --author> z 16.12.2004 - 10:13 c x>