News Release

Contact:    Robin Maxey                                                                  June 26, 2009

                   (503) 986-1605   

                   robin.maxey@state.or.us                                                             

$1.3 Billion Capital Construction Budget

Caps Jobs Creating Measures for 2009

(SALEM) – The creation of thousands of jobs through targeted investments in healthcare, transportation and capital construction is one of the crowning achievements of the 2009 session and the biggest jobs package in Oregon history, Senate President Peter Courtney said Friday.

Combined with the “Go Oregon” bond plan approved in January, a $1 billion transportation plan and the expansion of access to health care under the Oregon Health Plan, the $1.3 billion capital construction budget passed by the Senate Friday will complete what legislative leaders have dubbed the “jobs session.”

“I said in October this should be a jobs session. We have done that. Oregonians love hard work. We will work our way out of this,” Courtney said.

In addition to the jobs directly created by the legislation, the Senate President said the investments will prepare the state to thrive when the economy rebounds from the current recession.

The transportation package is projected to create 4,600 jobs every year for a decade.

Expanding the Oregon Health Plan to cover an additional 80,000 children and 35,000 adults will create 3,600 jobs.

The second phase of increased staffing levels at nursing homes will add another 3,000 certified nursing assistants in private facilities across the state.

The latest Go Oregon report released Monday shows that the 477 infrastructure improvement projects now underway have directly put 3,236 people to work in Oregon. 

Go Oregon II, the $1.3 billion capital construction budget passed by the Senate Friday, is expected to create or sustain more than 12,000 direct jobs.

The capital construction budget includes funding for three major priorities to which the Legislature had previously committed: $316.6 million to complete the new Oregon State Hospital in Salem; $191.7 million to complete the Oregon Wireless Information Network; and $45.8 million for the construction of a new prison in Junction City.

Other highlights of the package include:

• $100 million for Connect Oregon multi-modal transportation infrastructure projects;
• $30 million for grants to local school districts for seismic upgrading to make schools safer in the event of an earthquake.
• More than $600 million in various bonds to modernize community college and university campuses;
• $22 million for infrastructure improvements in Newport should the community be successful in luring the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific fleet to Yaquina Bay:
• And a $20 million bond bank for use by the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department.