SALEM — Oregon governor John Kitzhaber and other newly elected officials in the state’s Senate and House of Representatives convened alongside incumbents Monday morning to begin the 2011 Congressional session.
The ceremony, which included oaths of office and the governor’s inaugural address, featured several historic firsts for the governing body. For one, Kitzhaber — who served as governor from 1992 to 2000 — started in on an unprecedented third term of office.
The session also marked a number of more troubling history-making facts. The state of Oregon for the first time ever will face a deficit of more than $3 billion, and the state’s population, which is now officially more than 3 million, faces unemployment for nearly 250,000 individuals. These circumstances, which are well-known to the incoming government, meant that the bulk of the session carried a somber tone.
During his inaugural address, Kitzhaber expressed the gravity of the current situation.
“Today is a sobering and humbling moment in Oregon’s history,” he said. “It is sobering because of the magnitude of the challenges ahead of us, and humbling because Oregonians have chosen us to find a way forward.”
Kitzhaber said that the state is currently caught between two disturbing trends. The demand for state resources continues to grow due to the recession and an aging population, but the ability of the state to meet these needs has continued to decline, due in part to a decade-long drop in per capita income and state revenue. He argued that the state has been attempting to solve the effects rather than the causes of the state’s predicament.
Despite this pattern, Kitzhaber remained optimistic in his address and summarized a determined plan for the rest of the 2011 session. In addition to structural changes for education and the government itself, he cited the need for a greater emphasis on job creation, and his hope of creating 25,000 positions a year for the next 10 years.
He specified that new jobs should not be limited to urban or rural segments of the economy, but rather should occur all across the state. Kitzhaber said that he will address this issue tomorrow when he meets with business, labor and legislative leaders during the Oregon Business Plan Hearing Committee.
One of the main messages of his speech was that ideological splits should not distract Oregon legislators from addressing the state’s problems.
“The challenges we face dwarf partisan divisions,” Kitzhaber said. “The works that we must complete, and the consequences if we fail to do so, are not Democratic or Republican. They are intensely Oregonian.”
The issue of partisanship is particularly relevant, as another one of the session’s historic firsts is that the 60-person House of Representatives is split perfectly between both parties. The balance has already caused considerable debate, as representatives spent weeks attempting to agree on a house speaker. They came to a last-minute solution Sunday night when they decided to appoint two speakers, one from each party.
Both co-speakers, Reps. Arnold Roblan (D) and Bruce Hanna (R), gave speeches during the session, and each emphasized the importance of cooperation over the next two years.
“We can and must work together,” Roblan said. “We have incredibly difficult decisions to make this session. Yet in this crisis is opportunity, and we must set strong priorities in helping families through the waning days of this recession.”
Representatives by and large agree with this sentiment, but remain committed to projects they believe will help their constituents.
One author of such projects is Eugene Rep. Phil Barnhart, the co-sponsor of the bill authorizing University President Richard Lariviere’s new funding plan for the University. He hopes that progress will be made in the next two years to enact this plan into law.
“I am very pleased that we were able to reach an agreement, but whether I continue to be pleased over the rest of the session remains to be seen,” Barnhart said. “I think that given the circumstances of the state, Larivere’s plan is a good solution, and I am going to push the bill.”
Oregon’s congress will meet for the next three days while they establish committee rules and leaders; meanwhile, Kitzhaber will submit his budget proposal on Friday for the rest of the session. Although its success is far from guaranteed, the governor insists that something needs to be done.
“Somewhere in this country, a state needs to demonstrate that it can weather these kinds of problems,” Kitzhaber said. “Let’s make that state Oregon.”
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