WE MUST ALL WORK TOGETHER

A Rural Issues Update

By Senator Joanne Verger
District 5 - Coastal, Coos Bay to Lincoln City

Oregon’s transportation system is critical to the state’s economy. It has been a privilege, as Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, to take part in a $100 million multi-modal infrastructure investment called Connect Oregon.

This bill authorizes issuance of lottery bonds to establish a fund financing loans and grants to public bodies and private entities for air, marine, public transit, and rail transportation projects. Economic development is dependent on adequate transportation services infrastructure. This investment returns value by providing jobs and creating businesses that pay income taxes to the state and property taxes to the local jurisdictions.

All four modes of transportation addressed in Connect Oregon are crucial to rural Oregon. Each is a piece of the puzzle needed to stimulate industrial and commercial investments across the state and relieve our overloaded highway system. For example, there are twenty short lines in the state of Oregon carrying nearly 180,000 carloads per year. Rail is extremely efficient; it is possible to carry a ton of freight more than 400 miles on just one gallon of fuel. Short lines represent 52 percent of rail tracks in Oregon and serve a large number of mostly rural communities. 

On a similar note, I was very pleased this week to have a bill I introduced passed unanimously out of the Senate that would bring 10 million lottery dollars to the North Bend Airport to help finance the construction of a passenger terminal. Like many rural communities that depended on the timber industry, the Coos Bay area has had a tough time in recent decades. That is why we are all so grateful for the tremendous success of the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, without any help from public dollars. It is a bright spot on the Southern Oregon Coast, offering family wage jobs. Yet, this success has overloaded the local airport. By helping the North Bend Airport handle the ever increasing demand, we help the entire Southern Oregon Coast region that has benefited from Bandon Dunes’ achievement. The hard work and dedication of many coastal residents and government officials has made the passage of this bill so successful.

Connect Oregon and the Airport Bill are great examples of using the lottery’s economic development monies in the best possible manner to benefit all of rural Oregon.

It has also been a pleasure of mine to be the Chair of the Coastal Caucus, which is made up of the eight legislators representing districts on or influenced by the coast. We have met biweekly and had spirited and informative discussions about such diverse topics as coastal poverty and the explosion of methamphetamine, South Slough and marine reserves, open ocean aquaculture and the Governor’s salmon recovery policies, wave motion energy collection, and tsunami warning systems and community preparedness. Each of these issues is important to the economy, safety, and preservation of our beautiful coastal region.

Coastal Oregon has been the main battle ground for the methamphetamine epidemic in this country. From the Governor’s Office to the Oregon State Senate, the passage of bills dealing with the growing methamphetamine problem in Oregon is a top priority of this session. We are looking at legislation that will go beyond stricter penalties and also deal with the regulation of chemicals used to make meth, the increase in domestic violence and child abuse as it directly relates to meth addiction, and the increased identity theft caused by this growing problem.

The statistics belie the depth of the problem we face. In Oregon, methamphetamine has passed marijuana to become the second primary drug of abuse for adults in treatment. In one county, 34 percent of the children who are removed from homes with meth labs have tested positive for methamphetamine. In 1993, 8 percent of the adults in drug treatment were being treated for meth addiction. In 2002, this number increased to 19 percent. In another county, over 800 or 90 percent of the children in state care are the direct result of family drug abuse, in which the primary drug of abuse is meth. Oregon is currently a source state for meth across the United States. Meth is tied to most property and identity theft crimes in Oregon. It is likely that the most significant legislation of this session will address this issue.

Oregon’s drive to economic and social prosperity must include all areas of our state including rural Oregon. I am very pleased to be a member of the Rural Policy Advisory Board. The Office of Rural Policy coordinates the formulation of rural policy for the state through research, promotion, and coordination of activities throughout Oregon. The Office fosters and represents the interests of rural Oregon. In addition, the Office assists in educating members of the Legislative Assembly about issues of special interest to rural Oregon. The Office then evaluates the effects of state policies on those areas in coordination with state departments and reports those effects to the Governor and Legislative Assembly. What is good for rural Oregon is good for all of Oregon.

Contact Info:

Senator Joanne Verger
State Senate - District 5
900 Court St. NE. S-301
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: 503-986-1705
Email: Senator Joanne Verger
Web: www.leg.state.or.us/verger/home.htm