3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2017
Governor tours state to tout Task force looks at pension deficit
new transportation package Brainstorming
options to
Brown stops
in five cities
close gap
Associated Press
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
PORTLAND — Gov. Kate
Brown’s tour of the state Mon-
day and Tuesday to celebrate
signing into law a $5.3 billion
transportation funding pack-
age possessed the energy of a
campaign blitz.
The governor stopped in
Ontario, Bend and Medford
Monday and Eugene and Port-
land Tuesday to re-enact sign-
ing the bill and to highlight
projects that will benefit those
areas.
Her last stop was at Port-
land Community College’s
Southeast campus at 82nd
Avenue and Division Street
Tuesday.
“The transportation pack-
age is truly a roadmap to Ore-
gon’s future,” Brown told a
crowd of about 200 at the cam-
pus. “Not only will it improve
the safety and condition of our
roads and bridges, it will sup-
port thousands of family-wage
jobs and help local businesses
get their goods to market more
efficiently.”
Brown actually signed
the legislation into law Aug.
18, the deadline to enact bills
from the Legislature, which
adjourned early last month.
The transportation package
was a chief victory for both
Democratic and Republican
lawmakers during the legisla-
tive session.
As the bill appeared ready
to combust over discontent
among interest groups, Brown
intervened to help negotiate a
deal that would save the pack-
age she’d been promising to
constituents for the past two
years.
“Passing the transportation
package was no easy feat,”
Brown said Tuesday. “We
faced some significant chal-
lenges this last legislative ses-
sion but we worked across
the aisle and toward a shared
vision for a better Oregon.”
Brown, just two years into
her position, faces a challenge
in 2018. Moderate Repub-
lican state Rep. Knute Bue-
hler, a surgeon from Bend,
announced his candidacy ear-
lier this month and is expected
hit $1 million in campaign
funds by the week’s end.
Brown has about $1.5 million
cash on hand for her campaign.
Political insiders say the
transportation package gives
the governor a bipartisan tri-
umph to tout in her presumed
reelection bid.
Needle
exchange
program
delayed
Jaime Valdez/Pamplin Media Group
Gov. Kate Brown holds up copies of the signed transpor-
tation funding bill during a signing ceremony at Portland
Community College Southeast Tuesday.
Her tour of the state shows
she can turn political rhetoric
into results, said one statewide
political operative unassoci-
ated with Brown’s campaign.
“I was very committed to
delivering on a transportation
package because I saw the
critical importance for keep-
ing Oregon moving and keep-
ing our economy humming,”
Brown said. “I was pleased
we were able to get bipartisan
support: Republicans, Dem-
ocrats, urban and rural work-
ing together to deliver on this
package to make Oregon a bet-
ter place for all of us.”
Jim Moore, director of the
Tom McCall Center for Pol-
icy Innovation at Pacific Uni-
versity, said transportation is
unlikely to be a top 10 issue
in the gubernatorial campaign.
That’s because most voters
aren’t in tune with legislative
developments or even whether
the state or local government
fixes the roads they traverse,
he said.
“Transportation is kind of
a political nerd sport,” Moore
said. “Because of that it may or
may not make a good issue at
the center of that campaign.”
However, the statewide
tour still gives some momen-
tum to her campaign.
“Her face is being seen out
there; she is talking to people,”
Moore said. “It gives you a rea-
son … to go around the state.
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ment’s two big reserve funds
— the Rainy Day and Edu-
cation Stability funds —
that currently contain more
than a combined $1 billion.
Between $100 million and
$500 million of that could
be used for a pension down
payment.
Traditionally, however,
those funds have been left
untouched in good times,
so the state can tap them to
temper budget cuts during
downturns.
“None of our choices are
free from downsides,” task
force member and former
state agency director Cory
Streisinger said.
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By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
LEO FINZI
The launch of a pilot nee-
dle exchange program in Clat-
sop County has been delayed.
Originally scheduled to
offer exchanges for drug users
in Astoria and Knappa loca-
tions last Friday, the program
will likely begin in late Sep-
tember or early October. When
the six-month program —
funded by a $50,000 donation
— does start, nurses will be on
hand to collect used syringes
and pass out clean ones in a
one-for-one trade.
The launch was delayed to
give nurses more time to study
how other counties, mainly
Multnomah, conduct exchange
programs, Public Health
Director Michael McNickle
said.
When dates, times and
exact locations are finalized,
they will be shared through
social media and word of
mouth among those known to
use syringes.
The Public Health Depart-
ment will consider the viability
of a permanent program based
on how many needles are col-
lected. Clatsop County would
become the ninth in the state to
implement such a program.
Transportation is good because
it is not a natural disaster. It is:
‘Hi, here I am, your emissary
from Salem. I have brought
you something. It is classic
incumbent behavior.’”
Brown’s campaign funds
were not used to pay for the
statewide tour, said Bryan
Hockaday, a press secretary
in Brown’s office. He said last
week he did not yet know the
cost of the tour to taxpayers
and was not immediately avail-
able for comment Tuesday.
The eight-year transporta-
tion plan includes staggered
hikes in the gas tax, increases
to registration and title fees,
and new taxes on payroll, new
vehicle purchases and bicycles
priced more than $200. The
package also calls for conges-
tion-priced tolling at some of
Portland’s bottlenecks, which
could include certain lanes on
Interstate 5 and Interstate 205,
to pay for congestion-busting
projects.
Among major projects
specified in the plan are con-
gestion relief on Highway 217,
widening northbound I-205
from Powell Boulevard to
Interstate 84 and initial invest-
ment in adding new lanes to
I-5 through Portland’s Rose
Quarter.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
EUGENE — Gov. Kate
Brown’s special task force
is looking at ways to ensure
the state has enough money
to pay pensions for eligible
state employees amid a mul-
tibillion-dollar pension fund
deficit.
The state is considering
commercializing its state-
run liquor system, pulling
money from public reserves
or imposing new surcharges
of up to 10 percent on all
state-issued permits, licenses
and registrations.
The advisory task force,
made up of seven private-
and public-sector executives,
is charged with drafting a
plan to take $5 billion off the
Oregon Public Employees
Retirement System’s $24.5
billion unfunded liability
without touching government
workers’ retirement benefits.
The task force stressed
that school districts, local
governments and universities
should take a greater stake in
paying down individual pen-
sion unfunded liability.
“I know some of these
things are very sensitive,”
said Don Blair, a former Nike
chief financial officer. “I
think that’s unavoidable.”
The task force, accord-
ing to The Register-Guard,
is floating a new state tax of
between 1 percent and 10
percent on liquor sales with
the proceeds — between $10
million and $50 million —
being dedicated to the pen-
sion fund.
The task force also is
looking at state govern-
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