State of Our State
2005 Oregon Outlook

governor
Ted Kulongoski (D)

re-election year
2006

senate
18 Democrats/ 12 Republicans

house
27 Democrats / 33 Republicans

session dates
01/10/05 – 07/22/05

population (rank)
3,421,399 (28)

average per capita income (rank)
$29,340 (29)

total state spending (rank)
$18,029,157,000 (26)

spending per capita (rank)
$5,122 (13)

Governor Kulongoski’s State of the State Address was delivered on January 10, 2005.

2005 agenda
Governor Kulongoski is proposing a two-year budget that includes: no new taxes; better schools; higher education; cuts in funding for programs for the poor, elderly, and disabled; and increasing funding for the state's prison system. However, it seems that the state budget may not be able to fund these plans due to the recent recession in Oregon. There is early opposition against cutting funding to social services and increasing the budget for public schools to $5 billion.

Anti-tobacco spending will most likely be dealt with by the Legislature this session. Once ranked fourth in the nation for tobacco-control spending, Oregon is now in 38th place after significant cuts in the past two years. The Governor has again proposed shifting $10 million designated for tobacco-use prevention to the Oregon Health Plan. Legislators used more than half of the prevention money in 2003 to fill in gaps in the health budget. This resulted in the closure of tobacco-prevention offices, and the cancellation of cessation and education programs.

This session, the Tobacco-Free Coalition will ask the Legislature to increase the prevention allotment to ten percent of tobacco-tax revenues, as mandated by voters in 1996. Legislative leaders say that it is too early to know how tobacco prevention will fare this session.

Other expected legislative proposals in 2005:

• Adding more requirements (i.e. legal presence) in order to obtain a driver's license, to comply with federal law. A bill to do so died in the Legislature's Joint Budget Committee in 2003. Only two states do not have a legal presence requirement to obtain a driver's license.
• The state's minimum wage is rising from $7.05 to $7.25 due to inflation.