SALEM — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown hit on many familiar themes Monday during her second inaugural address, touching on the state’s robust economy and the need to shore up schools.

She noted that her swearing in marked “my final four years as governor,” since she cannot run again in 2022. Brown was first elected to lead the state in 2016 to serve the remaining two years of former Gov. John Kitzhaber’s term.

Citing an unemployment rate that “is the lowest on record” and “one of the fastest job growth rates in the country,” Brown said lawmakers must act now to prepare for Oregon’s future.

As Brown outlined in her budget proposal and agenda soon after the November election, she wants them to do that by raising at least $2 billion in business taxes to pour more money into the education system.

“Now is the time to put our state on a better path forward,” Brown said. “We have not significantly increased per pupil spending since the early 1990s. While other states were able to invest in schools and take advantage of economic recoveries, Oregon has had to rely on state funds to backfill local property taxes.”

Brown said Oregon’s public schools need unspecified reforms in addition to more money, and she wants to audit how schools spend any new money “to ensure that new dollars are used to improve graduation rates, reduce class sizes, and provide a full school year.”

The governor raised the topic of government spending repeatedly during Monday’s speech at the Capitol, saying for example that her mother raised her to squeeze every bit of toothpaste from the tube and that she takes the same approach as Oregon’s top elected official.

“During my entire time as governor, I have focused on spending every taxpayer dollar wisely,” Brown said. “We worked together on this last session. We’re not going to get credit for that work, but that’s not the point. We still have to do it.”

She highlighted the following priorities in her agenda:

Pass a cap-and-spend plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Pass legislation to provide prepaid postage on election ballots

Expand Oregon’s automatic voter registration program beyond the Department of Motor Vehicles

Pass a $700 million tax package to fund Oregon’s expanded Medicaid program early in the legislative session, since the governor’s office already negotiated a plan with input from the health care industry

Spend $400 million on housing, including to help veterans and people who are homeless

Pass a mandate for employers to provide paid family leave

Hire more internal auditors, after a state audit found Oregon government agencies had been leaving many of the positions unfilled, thereby missing chances to improve services and save money

Give schools more money to offset their increasingly painful mandatory contributions to the public pension system. Brown proposed giving schools $100 million for that purpose in her budget plan, although schools need much more to fend off rate increases.

Brown also said she’ll push for lawmakers to pass some type of campaign finance reform in the session that begins Jan. 22. She has previously committed to push lawmakers to refer a measure to voters that would amend the state Constitution to allow contribution limits. A group of activists already has an effort underway to get a similar initiative on the ballot in 2020.

“No one should be able to buy a megaphone so loud that it drowns out all the other voices,” Brown said.

A trio of audience members briefly interrupted Brown near the end of her speech, shouting “stop the pipeline.” The protesters were from the group Southern Oregon Rising Tide, which opposes the proposed liquified natural gas pipeline and Jordan Cove export terminal in Southern Oregon. Brown has declined to take a position on the proposal, but accepted $150,000 from a group that supports the project. “Climate leadership is about more than big words, it’s about action,” the group wrote in a tweet.

The Portland Democrat decisively beat Rep. Knute Buehler, a Bend Republican, in the November election. It was the most expensive gubernatorial race in state history, with the two sides spending a collective $37 million.

— Hillary Borrud | hborrud@oregonian.com | 503-294-4034 | @hborrud

Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox.