Children First for Oregon

Legislative session: All Oregonians ask of Salem is an opportunity

By The Oregonian Editorial Board
January 30, 2010, 9:25AM
Oregon lawmakers will convene a new session Monday while enjoying a rare sensation in Salem—breathing room.

The state budget is balanced, more or less, thanks to the approval of Measures 66 and 67. There’s no crisis, no ax poised over schools or universities or public safety. Oregonians aren’t asking legislators to save the day.

They are only asking for a chance to experience, even briefly, the same respite in their lives, the same breathing room, that lawmakers will have when they report to the Capitol on Monday.

This monthlong session should be about giving Oregonians an opportunity to get out of crisis mode. Lawmakers should further extend jobless benefits to the persistently unemployed Oregonians who still cannot find work.

They should expand employment-related day care payments to workers juggling two or three jobs—often at odd hours—while trying to find safe and affordable care for their kids. They should pass legislation to help small businesses get access to the credit they need to recover and grow.

Legislators also must help the many Oregonians who are trying to go to community colleges and universities but facing ever-increasing tuition. The Oregon Student Assistance Commission has more than 30,000 pending applications. There should be no greater priority in Salem than putting more money into Opportunity Grants for these students.

Once lawmakers have done what they can for Oregon’s beleaguered families, they should turn to the larger question of how to give the state, its schools and other services more security—breathing room—during economic downturns.