Dear Friends and Neighbors,
The 2015 session wrapped up
on July 6 with huge wins for working families in every part of our state.
We made education a top
priority because every Oregonian – from Pendleton to Portland, from Bandon to
Bend – will benefit when everyone has a better chance to succeed.
We made a $7.4 billion
investment in our K-12 public schools, which will provide a stable school year
and fund full-day kindergarten for kids throughout Oregon for the first time in
history.
A $35 million investment in
Career and Technical Education and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
education (CTE/STEM) will help increase high school graduation rates and better
prepare Oregon students for high-wage jobs.
Making higher education more
affordable for Oregon students was a primary focus this session, and we passed
the largest investment in Oregon’s public colleges and universities in at least
twenty years – about a 22% increase.
We also passed an innovative tuition
waiver program for qualified community college students. Today, Governor Brown signed the bill, known as the “Oregon
Promise,” into law, attracting some exciting attention
from President Obama:
We targeted support toward our agriculture and
natural resource sectors and made sure our spending decisions benefited all
communities. Some of the highlights include:
- $50
million in grants and loans to meet water storage and conservation needs around
the state to support our agriculture industry and plan for tomorrow’s needs.
- Expansion
of Oregon’s Farm to School program, which supports local farmers by helping
schools offset the costs of purchasing locally grown or processed food.
- Investments
to position Oregon on the cutting edge of the forestry and wood products
industries and create rural jobs, including a state-of-the-art forest science
facility at Oregon State University, an innovative manufacturing program
focused on advanced engineering of wood products, and support for forest
collaboratives that employ loggers in unhealthy and fire-prone forests.
We took bold steps to break down barriers that
stand in the way of success for too many women and working families across the
state, including a historic set of “Fair Shot” bills signed into
law earlier this week:
- The
Sick Leave for All Oregonians Act will make sure most working Oregonians can
accrue a reasonable number of paid sick days each year – a basic workplace
protection that will make a major difference for families across the state.
- Oregon
Retirement Savings Accounts will give more families the opportunity to save for
retirement via an easy, effective, and portable savings account.
- Establishing
long-needed rules to define and prohibit racial profiling will help rebuild
public trust in local law enforcement and make communities stronger and safer.
- Removing
questions about criminal history from job applications, commonly known as “ban
the box,” will help Oregonians get back on their feet once they have served
their time.
You can read more highlights
from the session here. Even
with such a long list of accomplishments, there’s always more left to do (like
raising Oregon’s minimum wage so that people working full time are not living
in poverty).
Still, this session will be remembered as the year we put opportunity for
working families first.
Thank you to everyone who
worked so hard to make this a successful session – including those of you who
took the time to send me your ideas, questions, or concerns over the past few
months.
As always, it is a pleasure to represent you.
Best,
Tina Kotek
State Representative House District 44 Speaker of the House
email: Rep. Rep.TinaKotek@state.or.us I phone: 503-986-1200 address: 900 Court St NE, H-269, Salem, OR 97301 website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/kotek
|