8
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Education •Dialogue • Independence
So much
money
BY SPIVEY JINGLES
U N E M P L O Y E D W R IT E R
A ngry legislative aides lashed out at reporters
Z A Friday for asking questions about the economy
X Aduring a roundtable on the stimulus package.
The roundtable, focused on how stimulus dollars will
be used to help Oregon’s lagging economy, included
representatives from the state of Oregon, Multnomah
County and the city of Portland.
After a heated discussion turned into a free-for-
all, reporters asked civic leaders when exactly
communities would see the millions of dollars
promised to the region from the federal
government. .
“We don’t know,” said a staffer at the
governor’s office. “It’s not clear that we have
figured out how to figure out how to allocate the
money being allocated to us. It’s complicated.”
Asked by Street Roots if affordable housing*
money promised to local communities would be
seen in the next six months, the aide said,
“Look, even if we get the money, there are a lot
of things we need to discuss before we just hand
over millions of dollars to the dying private
sector and drowning nonprofits working on these
issues. We have a process in Salem.”
Asked what that process was, the aide
re s p o n d e d , “I ’ve a lre a d y to ld you. W e d o n ’t know
hh’iy.
Street Roots has been told by insiders that the
governor’s office wants the money allocated one way
and the state Legislature another. The aide later
denied these reports, saying, “Look, if we had it my way,
we would completely do away with people living with
mental illness and substance abusers, but we don’t live in
a perfect world, now do we?”
One state representative from Southern Oregon told
the roomful of reporters that they wanted control of
slashing the state budget for Oregon’s most vulnerable
citizens, and that the governor’s office was taking too
much of the credit for the system being completely
broken.
“Before any money is allocated, state legislators are
going to require that every interest group working with
affordable housing tell us just how miserable things are,”
said the representative. “We just can’t allow for all that ’
See MONEY, page 9
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