The Newberg Graphic
| Senate passes state’s largest jobs package |
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| State economy -- ‘Go Oregon II’ will create 4,600 jobs a year, legislators say |
| By Amanda Newman The Oregon Senate passed a $1.3 billion capital construction budget Friday, completing what Oregon legislators say is the biggest jobs package in state history. "I said in October this should be a jobs session," Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem) wrote in a press release. "We have done that. Oregonians love hard work. We will work our way out of this." The transportation package is projected to create 4,600 jobs every year for a decade, the release said. The 2009 legislative session has also seen approval of the "Go Oregon" bond plan, which included a $1 billion transportation plan and expansion of Oregon Health Plan access. Expansion of the Oregon Health Plan is expected to cover an additional 80,000 children and 35,000 adults and create 3,600 jobs. A Go Oregon report released last week showed 477 infrastructure improvement plans underway, employing 3,236 people in Oregon. The capital construction budget, dubbed "Go Oregon II," includes funding for three major priorities the Legislature had previously committed to: $316.6 million to complete the new Oregon State Hospital in Salem, $191.7 million to complete the Oregon Wireless Information Network and $45.8 million for construction of a new prison in Junction City. The package also includes: $100 million for Connect Oregon multi-modal transportation infrastructure projects; $30 million for grants to local school districts for seismic upgrading to make schools safer in the event of an earthquake; more than $600 million in various bonds to modernize community college and university campuses; $22 million for infrastructure improvements in Newport, should the town be successful in its attempts to draw the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific fleet to Yaquina Bay; and a $20 million bond bank for the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department. |
