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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 3, 2005 The governor visits By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings The governor came to town today looking for something all together uncommon in recent politics: Unity. Laurie Gibbs, left, co-owner of the Winchester Inn and president of the Ashland Chamber talks to Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, right, today at the Winchester Inn. Photo by Orville Hector | Ashland Daily Tidings Gov. Theodore Kulongoski visited Ashland this morning to meet with members of the local business community and ask them to help him create a viable state budget by consolidating their needs and realizing that most of the Oregon's coffers are already allocated to core social services. "This particular area has done better than the rest of the state," Kulongoski told the assembled audience of about 60 area business leaders at the Winchester Inn this morning. "My request of you is to see if the business leaders can come together on one single issue. I have to have the business community unified in an effort about not just what is best for you but what is best for Oregon." The governor explained that while Oregon does have the most progressive tax system in the country, that system is inherently "very unstable in troubled times. "I haven't been able to convince the public to agree that they need to make a tradeoff," he said. Kulongoski had to cut his Ashland visit short because he is giving the eulogy today for the Roseburg guardsman who was recently killed in Iraq. Using the time he had, he told the group that while everyone has a specific special interest they would like him to fund, he is constricted by the fact that 95 percent of the state budget is already allocated to core services such as education, social services and public safety. "If we want more money for other programs, just tell me what programs to take the money out of," he quipped. "Forty-five cents of every dollar in the state budget goes to K-12 education. Not even higher education or community college is included in that. Twenty-three percent goes to human resources that provides the social safety net for the state. Sixteen percent goes to public safety, the largest part of which is the corrections system." State ATM Kulongoski took advantage of the public appearance to discuss key issue facing both he and the Legislature. One of the governor's primary initiatives has been to combine primary and higher education funding as a method of creating stronger collective bargaining power. Kulongoski said that over the last several years Oregon "has used higher education as an ATM for everything else in the budget while we under-funded primary education." "We need to look at it more holistically. Pre K-12 impacts universities and colleges. It's a single system but we don't manage it that way." Kulongoski made note of the cooperative relationship between Southern Oregon University and Rogue Community College and said he planned to make that relationship a model for the rest of the higher education system in the state. "I'm going to Klamath Falls today and hope to help develop a similar type of relationship there at Klamath Community College." Peter Angstadt, president of Rogue Community College, came to the breakfast to find out if the governor would reinstate the 5.5 percent budget reduction for community colleges, which amounted to over a half-million dollars for his school. "The governor has always been a strong supporter of community colleges and I hope something happens by the time the budget comes around," said Angstadt. Kulongoski said that there would indeed be an increase in the community college line item of the budget. "There was a misunderstanding in what the calculation would be (for community college funding," he said. "That money will be there in June. We just have to argue about how much of it will be there." Measure 37 Kulongoski also explained that Measure 37 will prove to be one of the largest policy decisions in this state in many years. "It's not the governor telling the state we need to do this," he said. "We as taxpayers decided to do this. We made a choice that this is a priority." Prior to his speech, he acknowledged the discrepancy between the way in which the city of Ashland and the county of Jackson would have Measure 37 claims processed, specifically whether or not a separate state-wide filing would be required. "To cover every base one should file with both the state and the local government," he said. "It's not a requirement. We will not consider making it a requirement." Kulongoski said he meets with one of his staff members on a daily basis to discuss Measure 37 and how it is beginning to affect Oregon and its residents. "We need to take a broader look at land use issues," he said. "(Measure 37) does not do what its proponents had hoped it would accomplish. Almost everyone has agreed that there needs to be a fix. We need to see how we can make land use laws better and still honor the intent of Measure 37." 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