Fresh off a dominant re-election victory, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown unveiled her priorities for the next two years in a budget proposal Wednesday, headlined by an additional $1.9 billion for education to improve, among other things, the state's poor high school graduation rate.

Brown also proposed expanding automatic voter registration, finding more and stable funding for the Oregon Health Plan, combating climate change, ending veteran's and childhood homelessness, modernizing the state's computer systems and reducing permit and inspection backlogs.

"Our current strong economy gives us the best chance in a generation to address persistent, structural challenges so we can achieve our full potential," Brown wrote in a statement accompanying the budget. "We must accept this challenge now, while the

economy is good."

While the state Legislature writes and adopts the final budget, the governor's $23.6 billion recommendation acts like a wish list and agenda for her vision of the state's future.

Brown said she has been in contact with members of the Legislature and expects her budget to be a framework for them when deliberations begin next session.

"I absolutely will be adamant about some of these investments," Brown said during a press conference announcing her budget. "It's fair to say folks are excited about this as a roadmap for Oregon's future."

Republicans criticized the governor's plan asking for more revenue, saying this inevitably means more taxes even during a strong economy.

“Despite record tax revenues to the tune of more than $1 billion over the current budget, the Governor today ‘challenged’ the Legislature to spend an additional $2 billion on top of that," House Republican Leader Carl Wilson said in a statement. "This is a call to drastically increase taxes on everyday Oregonians."

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$1.9 billion for improving education

As expected, improving education outcomes is a main focus of the governor's budget. All told, about 50 percent of the general and lottery fund budget is committed to education.

Lawmakers have also committed to raising more funds for education to achieve specific policy goals identified through committee hearings this year.

The Legislature's goals dovetail in large part with Brown's.

In her budget, Brown proposed $800 million in K-12 funding to help districts increase the school year to 180 days — about the national average. The current average school year length in Oregon is 165 instructional days.

She also proposed expanding pre-kindergarten to an additional 10,000 children and expanding 1/3 of half-day programs to full day. The budget would commit an additional $285.8 million to the cause.

Brown would also fully invest Measure 98 by adding an additional $133 million toward career technical education, put $60 million toward supporting and diversifying the educator workforce and invest $220 million in higher education support funds.

“This is a very positive first step in moving toward funding education at a level that our children deserve, and we thank the governor for that,” said Jim Green, executive director of the Oregon School Boards Association.

Those funds are all part of the investment package she is requesting from the legislature.

With existing funds, the governor did shift around education priorities in some respects.

George Naughton, the state's chief financial officer, said the budget increases K-12 funding by about $200 million over current service levels, paid for by flat-funding other programs such as higher education.

"There are absolutely some trade-offs in this budget," Naughton said. "The governor had to make some choices about how to balance the resources we had, shore up the piece of the system — K-12 education — that was really in need and deal with some other critical issues."

Campaign finance reform, voter registration

The budget summary also outlines how the governor hopes to "renew and strengthen Oregonians' faith in democracy" in a handful of ways.

Brown pledged to refer a constitutional amendment to voters on campaign finance reform. During the campaign, Independent candidate for governor Patrick Starnes dropped out of the race and endorsed Brown after she said she would take action on campaign finance reform.

Portland voters passed a measure this month that placed some limits on large campaign contributions and required some additional disclosure.

Brown also suggested using technology to allow Oregonians to follow campaign contributions and expenditures in real time and forming a task force to analyze dark money groups.

"While Oregon is at the forefront of voter access, to maintain a strong democracy, we must take further actions to reduce the flow of money into politics, increase accountability, and ensure voter accessibility," Brown wrote.

The budget also asks for adding pre-paid postage on ballots (costing about $2.7 million) and expanding automatic voter registration beyond interactions with the Oregon DMV to include any state agency.

Oregon passed the so-called motor voter law in 2015 and has seen a significant increase in registered voters.

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Health care funding

Oregon is facing a $623 million health care funding hole next biennium thanks to decreasing federal funds supporting Oregon's Medicaid expansion through the Affordable Care Act.

A group of various health care stakeholders met 10 times this year and developed a funding proposal to fill this gap, which was included in the budget.

The proposal includes maximizing a 6 percent fee on some hospitals; taxing some health insurance, stop-loss and managed care plans; subsidizing an employer fee; and increasing the state's tobacco tax.

The cigarette tax would increase by $2 per pack, while other tobacco products, e-cigarettes and vaping products would also see a tax increase. They estimate this would raise an additional $95 million this biennium and $346 million in the next.

Oregon leaders have considered tobacco tax increases several times before, to no avail.

Legal action against federal government

Brown also proposed the creation of the Oregon Defense Fund, seeded with $2 million dedicated toward legal action against the federal government.

The state has more than 15 lawsuits against the federal government, including over state and federal immigration policies. The money would help pay for more of these legal challenges.

"I cannot predict what the administration in the White House is going to do. What I know is what I will do," Brown said. "And that is I will continue to fight for and protect Oregonians and Oregon values."

Contact the reporter at cradnovich@statesmanjournal.com or 503-399-6864, or follow him on Twitter at @CDRadnovich

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