NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
October 19, 2018 | PAGE 7
Questions for Kate
From Page 1
top 5 in the country, but he’s op-
posed every plan that would in-
crease revenue to pay for it. He
says he would make affordable
housing a priority, but opposes
the Metro bond measure that
would build it. And he’s cam-
paigning all over the state on a
platform of slashing public em-
ployee compensation: He wants
to take the 6 percent of payroll
that most public employees now
contribute to individual retire-
ment accounts and use that to
make up for investment losses on
the employer side of the pension
ledger.
Buehler didn’t ask for any
union endorsements. And he did-
n’t get any. Brown, by contrast, is
endorsed by virtually every Ore-
gon union that makes endorse-
ments. [The one exception is the
Oregon Machinists Council,
which pulled its endorsement
during her 2016 campaign after
she spoke in favor of the
NAFTA-style Trans-Pacific Part-
nership; they might have consid-
ered backing her this year, but she
didn’t ask.]
As a candidate, Brown is low
key — not the sort to whip up au-
diences up at mass rallies. But
union officers who have worked
with her see big differences be-
tween her agenda and that of her
opponent. That’s why they’re
campaigning energetically for her
reelection.
To talk about her record and
her proposals on some of the is-
sues that matter most to working
people, I spoke with her by phone
Oct. 2. [The interview has been
condensed, with editorial com-
ments in brackets.]
You’ve been governor three and a
half years. By my count, the thing
that has most improved the lives
of working people has been the
minimum wage increase. Can you
tell the story of what you did to
shape that legislation and get it
passed?
As you might recall, our labor
friends had filed a couple of ballot
measures, and I was adamant that
we come up with a legislative solu-
tion, as opposed to going to the
ballot. So working with key staffers
like Elana Pirtle-Guiney [former
AFL-CIO political director], we put
together a couple of rooms — one
of business and one of labor — to
talk about what they wanted to
achieve. We met multiple times. We
never put the room together, but as
a result of that work, we were able
to shape a proposal to recognize
NO THANKS, KNUTE: Outside KGW-TV studios in Portland Oct. 9 — where the third and final gubernatorial debate
was about to take place — about 120 firefighters, teachers and other public employee union members gathered to
cheer on Governor Kate Brown … and denounce Republican challenger Knute Buehler for his plans to slash public
employee compensation. Buehler has proposed to scrap the state’s defined-benefit pension system going forward,
replacing it with a 401(k)-style retirement savings account.
two economic regions. The Senate
added a third economic region.
And honestly we were the first state
in the entire country to have a min-
imum wage bill reflect the different
economic regions of the state.
It’s had a huge impact by now — the
minimum wage has increased $2.75
an hour since then in Portland, and
$1.25 in the rural areas.
We were also the fifth state in the
nation, I think, to pass paid sick
leave. And then we were the first
state in the entire country to pass
the “fair scheduling” bill.
I live in Portland, and almost
everywhere you go, there are peo-
ple sleeping in the streets. Why
are so many Oregonians home-
less?
Because between 2000 and 2015
we under-built housing by 150,000
units. And for whatever reason —
and I have to tell you, I can’t find the
answer — we have been a state
that has not focused on sheltering
people. Both of those need to
change, and they are changing
quickly. In February I fought for $5
million for shelter care to get fami-
lies off the streets — distributed to
Multnomah, Lane, Deschutes and
other counties, so that they could
provide shelter care.
You have a housing plan. What are
the highlights of that?
I would say we’ve made consistent
progress, but we cannot only focus
on the metropolitan area. Just to
give you an example: We have
steadily increased the number of
affordable units that are low in-
come housing in the pipeline. 2016
was 3,500; 2017 was 4,000. This year
we have 7,800 units under develop-
ment, and they are spread out
throughout the entire state. The fo-
cus is on getting children and fam-
ilies off the street, the chronically
homeless, and our veterans. And
we have been working to provide
local jurisdictions with more tools,
speed up permitting processes,
build ADUs [accessory dwelling
units], granny flats for example,
much more quickly. But we've also
worked to move forward on inclu-
sionary zoning, which my oppo-
nent opposes. [She’s referring to
2016’s SB 1533, which slightly loos-
ened a state ban on “inclusionary
zoning” — that’s where cities man-
date that developers make a por-
tion of new units affordable as a
condition of getting building per-
mits.] We are hoping to invest sig-
nificantly more money. Because the
best thing you can do to get people
off the streets is build affordable
units. We've invested roughly $300
million in affordable housing,
homelessness prevention, and
rental assistance in the last three
years. … Moving forward, we want
to invest $370 million in the next
couple of years.
You mentioned “tools for local ju-
risdictions.” House Speaker Tina
Kotek has said that it's time to lift
the statewide ban on local juris-
dictions enacting rent stabiliza-
tion [rent control]. Would you sign
that legislation?
If it got to my desk, yes. My pre-
ferred approach is tackling prohibit-
ing people being evicted with no
cause whatsoever, making sure
that we are providing tenants with
the technical assistance they need
so they have the assistance, get
questions answered, concerns ad-
dressed. And that we would be fo-
cused on providing relocation assis-
tance for tenants who are being
dislocated.
Relocation assistance from the
state or from the landlords?
I think we’re open to what that
looks like.
Knute Buehler apparently has said
he won’t sign any spending bills
until there's a PERS [Oregon Public
Employee Retirement System] re-
form bill, and I wanted to know
your perspective. Is Oregon done
cutting public employee benefits,
or do you see more work to be
done on PERS?
Bluster and threats haven't been
very successful. [Laughs.] Bluster
and threats aren’t a successful way
to lead state government. It cer-
tainly hasn't been successful for
Donald Trump. So, do I think that
we should increase expectations
on our hard-working dedicated
public servants that give their lives
to educating our children, keeping
us safe, and fighting fires? I believe
our hard-working public servants
that dedicate their lives to serving
Oregonians deserve a safe, secure,
and affordable retirement. Is there
more work to be done on the PERS
system? Absolutely. But I think
there's some things that we can do
that don't rip out the rug from un-
derneath our hard-working public
employees. And you know, they
make a really tough choice. These
folks make a decision to go into
public service. Some of them could
be making millions more in the pri-
vate sector, getting large bonuses.
Again, they deserve a public retire-
ment system that enables them to
lead a good life after retiring, and by
that I mean not one living in
poverty. You probably know that af-
ter the result of the changes in
2003, the average public employee
retirement is now about $2,300 a
month, meaning less than $30,000
a year. So if you really want to re-
duce employer rates, we have to
pay down our unfunded actuarial
liability. That's the work I have been
doing and working with Republi-
cans and Democrats to do. Do I be-
lieve our public employees need to
have more skin in the game? Ab-
solutely. That's why I worked to
make sure that 98 percent of our
state public employees are picking
up their 6 percent [Ed. she’s refer-
ring to the 6 percent employee
contribution mandated by PERS,
which the state picked up in the
1980s instead of increasing wages.]
But we also have to take into ac-
count generational inequities, and
we have to make sure that we
aren't causing more harm to the
system and not solving the prob-
lem in the short term. So I would
just argue that my opponent’s pro-
posal may cost more in the long
term than it would solve the prob-
lem in the short term.
Why do you think Phil Knight is
giving gobs and gobs of cash to
your opponent?
Because he's a Republican and he
wants a governor he can control. I
don’t know. It is absolutely inappro-
priate that one person be able to
buy a megaphone so loud that it
drowns out all the other voices of
the system. That's why I have con-
sistently supported campaign fi-
nance reform. I continue to do so.
My opponent ran on campaign fi-
nance reform in 2012, and once he
got elected, he said, “Oh, I don't
think I want to do that anymore.” He
changed his mind.
What kind of campaign finance
reform do you think Oregon could
enact?
I think we can do a Constitutional
Amendment, amending Article 2
Section 8, the elections clause,
and allow the legislature or the
people to enact reasonable limits.
I think there's a lot of models out
there. I look forward to working
with my allies to tackle it over the
next couple of years.
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW
Climate change. State college tu-
ition. The special session she called
to pass a business tax cut. To read
the interview in its entirety, visit:
■ nwlaborpress.org/2018/
GovernorBrown