Updates: January 12, 2009

In 2009 we will celebrate 150 years of statehood and today begins the 75^th session of the Oregon Legislature.  Much has changed since 1859, but the challenges in Oregon remain similar.  In a strained economy, how do we deliver the services to Oregonians so they may succeed in a state blessed with natural beauty and a pioneer spirit?

2009 is a year policy makers will look for ways to create jobs to keep food on the table for the average worker.  They will grapple with challenge of providing health care to all Oregonians.  In a society that has become dependent on fossil fuels to power everything from our automobiles to our IPods, how will legislators balance the demands of a 21^st century lifestyle with the need to keep our air clean and our streams running free of pollution?

All of these topics and more will be thrown into the mix in the 2009 Oregon Legislative session to be debated, supported, opposed, amended, passed and in many cases defeated.  More than 1000 bills will be introduced and ultimately two or three hundred will be passed.  Existing laws will be reevaluated and updated.  It is a process, as famously quoted, much like making sausage – you don’t really want to watch either being done.

As I gaze deeply into my crystal ball, I only see a haze of what this session’s outcomes may be.  Many questions hover around the perimeter.  What will the economy do?  How will Oregon be affected by a new and untested administration in Washington, D.C.?  These questions and many more will be addressed during the nearly seven months the legislators will be in session.

Please look for regular updates on this page during the session as I will try to give updates on specific issues.  As the dust settles at the conclusion of the session, we will all continue on with our lives, just like we have for the last one hundred and fifty years.  We will survive and we will prosper.  It is the Oregon way.

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