Oregon House votes to pass state stimulus package
Carla Axtman
The Oregon House Majority Office just released a statement declaring that the House has passed the state stimulus bill. (Update: The Governor has now signed it.)
The House voted today to pass a $174 million job stimulus and investment package. The package, now ready for the Governor’s signature, will immediately stimulate the economy by creating up to 3,000 jobs, and contains long term investments in Oregon’s future by supplying funds for much needed upgrades at the state’s centers of higher learning.The plan, designed by Democratic leaders of the Senate and House, targets the workers who have been hardest hit by the recent job numbers, and will spread the benefits to every corner of the state. The projects are located in all thirty-six counties, at all seven state universities and all seventeen community colleges.
I wrote about this package when it passed the Senate. So look there for more specifics.
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connect with blueoregon
1:12 p.m.
Feb 5, '09
Dare I ask: How much goes to the State's hospitals?
1:19 p.m.
Feb 5, '09
Kudos to the legislature for getting this done. From what I hear this was not a party line vote. Looks like some Rs are stepping up to help this state get out of this economic crisis.
1:50 p.m.
Feb 5, '09
Can you provide a link to how the vote went ?
Feb 5, '09
This will not stimulate the economy. Providing jobs for people for a few weeks only prolongs the inevitable - more job losses, and higher unemployment.
I like how Peter Courtney didn't even consult the Governor on this package (and I got this from a very reliable source at the Capitol).
Feb 5, '09
All money for university projects, deferred maintenance that was already in earlier budgets, and other govt agencies. When these projects are done, all the jobs disappear. Utter crap. Dont you think low interest loans to private businesses that would allow expansion and jobs that would actually stick around?? no. Maybe we could have done something to keep Freightliner in Portland? no. Maybe we could have let a few folks build a few houses on the Measure 37 claims, actually honoring private property rights? no. Entirely a waste of my DAMN hard earned money, and Oregon dems slapping themselves on their backs. Maybe you call all get together and party with Sam Adams, as you seem to have the same disdain for truth.
Feb 5, '09
All money for university projects, deferred maintenance that was already in earlier budgets, and other govt agencies. When these projects are done, all the jobs disappear. Utter crap. Dont you think low interest loans to private businesses that would allow expansion and jobs that would actually stick around?? no. Maybe we could have done something to keep Freightliner in Portland? no. Maybe we could have let a few folks build a few houses on the Measure 37 claims, actually honoring private property rights? no. Entirely a waste of my DAMN hard earned money, and Oregon dems slapping themselves on their backs. Maybe you call all get together and party with Sam Adams, as you seem to have the same disdain for truth.
2:49 p.m.
Feb 5, '09
More mindless rhetoric from dddave.
<blocklquote>When these projects are done, all the jobs disappear.
They are long enough jobs that the benefits of the jobs will put idled workers to work and their paychecks will be spent into the local economy and by the time they are completed the economy should be headed back and into recovery and said stimulus spending will end (as it should).
Or are you suggesting that government stimulus should be permeant spending programs?
I agree the answer is no. As it should be. Of course you meant that sarcastic, and thus wrong on the issue you try to mock because the problem is not that businesses can't get new loans to create jobs. They are slashing jobs because customer spending is in a death spiral because people are losing jobs and/or worried about job loss so they are not spending. Counter-cyclical spending is how to address that, which is what this type of short to mid-term spending on projects that put people to work on things that there is an already identified need to be done (i.e. the deferred maintenance, etc.).
Sorry but we do not have an inventory shortage of housing, and your M37 blather is just that, blather.
3:13 p.m.
Feb 5, '09
Dont you think low interest loans to private businesses that would allow expansion and jobs that would actually stick around??
Actually, no. Whatever problems we have today, high interest rates isn't one of them. Businesses aren't laying people off because they don't have the financing to expand. They are laying people off because they don't have enough customers to keep people working.
You can pay businesses to take out loans and they still won't expand if there is no market for what they sell.
A state stimulus package is tricker than a federal stimulus package because the state still has to balance its budget each year and can't print money. That's why this package has to concentrate on projects you can bond or use borrowed funds to pay for.
A short-term stimulus is exactly what the economy needs now, not an unworkable strategy to create new permanent jobs that won't actually be created until the economy turns around. Helping it turn around sooner rather than later is what the stimulus is all about.
3:20 p.m.
Feb 5, '09
Kudos to the thee Republicans, but 39-21 isn't exactly "bipartisan.".
Ddave, folks like you had your chance with tax cuts and breaks for business. They don't work. Government investment does. Suck it up.
Feb 5, '09
Packin' my bags! Gonna go paint a wall in Salem!
3:27 p.m.
Feb 5, '09
You more fully capture what I was talking about, and explain it better in that post. Well said.
3:29 p.m.
Feb 5, '09
A short-term stimulus is exactly what the economy needs now, not an unworkable strategy to create new permanent jobs that won't actually be created until the economy turns around. Helping it turn around sooner rather than later is what the stimulus is all about.
What Jack said.
(Look kids! Bipartisanship!)
3:32 p.m.
Feb 5, '09
Well in the 109th Congress the GOP were found of trotting out the singular traitor Joe to laud bipartisan support for the most aggressions foreign policy twaddle the then GOP majority would vomit up on cue form the Bush mis-administration.
So by comparison (and even more locally compared to the Minnis crew back in the day) this is massively bipartisan. (wry grin)
3:35 p.m.
Feb 5, '09
ugh:
should be:
Feb 6, '09
The votes for the measures can be found here: http://www.leg.state.or.us/searchmeas.html
<h2>The bills were SB 338 and SB 5562</h2>