Kate Brown

Economy & Jobs
Kate is fighting to make Oregon a place where everyone can lead a good life and raise a family. During her time as governor, the Oregon economy has become one of the fastest growing in the country and unemployment levels hit an all-time low.

TRANSPORTATION THAT MOVES OREGON FORWARD Kate is proud to have passed a monumental $5.3 billion transportation package to create thousands of jobs, fix up Oregon’s aging transportation infrastructure, connect people to school and jobs through public transit improvements, and address the statewide issue of traffic congestion.

Expected to create 16,000 jobs, Kate worked with businesses, community leaders, and legislators from across the aisle to invest in Oregon’s transportation future and make essential seismic upgrades to our roads and bridges. This package also includes the first-ever dedicated funding source for public transit and bicycle infrastructure, and invests in safe routes to school for Oregon’s students and teachers.

EMPOWERING SMALL BUSINESSES Small businesses are the backbone of Oregon’s economy, creating 70 percent of new jobs in the state. We can encourage job growth by giving small business owners and emerging entrepreneurs the tools they need to expand. Kate dedicated almost $5 million dollars in 2017 to give Oregon’s innovators and small business owners the running start they deserve. These projects are expected to create or retain nearly 1,800 jobs.

Going forward, Kate will continue helping small businesses across Oregon thrive by cutting red tape. With the input of her Small Business Advisory Cabinet of business leaders from across the state, Kate is advancing policies that offer small businesses important tools such as mentorship programs, access to capital, and support for entrepreneurs in rural and underserved communities. Following the devastating wildfire season of 2017, our Governor formed a Economic Recovery Council to give resources and tools to small businesses that will help them get back on their feet after a difficult summer season.

BUILDING INNOVATIVE AND SAFE NEW INDUSTRIES IN OREGON Kate became governor just after the voters passed marijuana legalization. Since then, the Oregon cannabis industry has grown to make up around 12,500 jobs that bring in $315 million in wages. This industry has careful regulatory requirements that ensures clean and safe distribution of the product. Kate recently signed a bill that requires the comprehensive tracking of all marijuana grown for sale from seed to store.

Kate reached out to federal partners in her work to protect Oregon's legal marijuana system. She knows that all levels of government must continue to work together to ensure a safe and successful marijuana market for Oregon communities.

Additionally, Oregon forests grow the most desirable species for use in Cross Laminated Timber wood products. As the market for this building material grows, it creates a great opportunity for both rural and urban Oregon. Our state is at the forefront of a supply chain for an emerging technology, and we can leverage this opportunity to grow our a robust and globally connected, statewide economy.

PROTECTING OREGON WORKERS As governor, Kate passed a first-in-the-nation worker’s protection bill to ensure fair scheduling practice in the workplace of key industries. This law allows working Oregonians to have a predictable schedule that allows them to plan for medical appointments and childcare.

Kate also shepherded in a historic raise in the state’s minimum wage, because no one working full time should have to live in poverty. She championed paid sick leave so workers can stay home when they are sick, or their child is sick, without losing their paycheck.

Kate will continue to stand with working families by supporting policies that help give opportunities to all Oregonians.

Government Efficiency
Kate became governor at a time when Oregonians’ faith in their state government was badly shaken by the scandal and resignation of her predecessor. But upon taking office, she brought a steady hand to guide state government through a difficult time. Kate has already done more to improve transparency in state government than any other governor in Oregon’s history.

Just as families have to keep to a budget to make ends meet, so does state government. That’s why Kate has taken bold actions to tighten belts and trim costs during her administration.

"Let’s be clear: the state needs to deliver quality public services efficiently and affordably. Oregonians deserve to know that every cent of their money is being spent wisely and that state government is accountable to them. " - Governor Kate Brown

EFFICIENT USE OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS Kate grew up in a middle class family, and knows what it’s like to live on a budget. Under her leadership, Oregon implemented measures to slim down government spending through increasing efficiency practices -- like not filling jobs that aren’t needed and renegotiating the rents that state agencies pay -- to save over $200 million dollars of taxpayer dollars. Kate even tightened the belt in her own shop, returning hundreds of thousands of dollars that the Governor’s Office didn’t need.

As of June 30, 2016, there was $3.3 billion in uncollected state debt. Kate signed a bill that streamlines returns some of these funds and makes our debt collection process more accountable.

The Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) is a complex area that Kate has worked on. She convened a Task Force to review and propose options for making up to $5 billion in payments toward PERS costs. Made up of a diverse group of stakeholders, this group is considering the most cost-effective methods to save money while still remaining committed to our Oregon values.

IMPROVING TRANSPARENCY Since taking office in 2015, Kate has transformed the way government works by passing the most significant transparency reforms in Oregon in 40 years. For the first time in decades, the culture across state government is changing to let employees know they are being held accountable to the public in everything they do.

Since taking office, Kate has taken these actions to make government more transparent:

• Shared hundreds of thousands pages of documents with the public, accessible online.

• Established an online public records system so that all Oregonians can see how their government works.

• Created the Public Records Advocate to settle public records disputes between the public and the government, as well as ordered agencies to standardize practices for releasing information.

• For the first time in Oregon’s history, Kate hired a full time attorney to process public records requests.

MAKING VOTING EASIER AND MORE ACCESSIBLE THAN EVER Kate believes your voice is your vote, and every voice matters. She is working to break down barriers so every eligible Oregonian can register to vote and cast their ballot. As Secretary of State, she developed groundbreaking legislation to create the nation’s first automatic voter registration system - also known as the Motor Voter program - which she proudly signed into law as governor. This system has since automatically added over 200,000 eligible voters to the rolls.

Kate will continue working to ensure voting in Oregon is simple, secure, and accessible for all eligible voters.

Healthcare
Every Oregonian deserves to have a doctor they can count on and healthcare they can afford. For too long too many Oregonians have gone without the medical coverage they need. Under Kate’s leadership, access to coverage has been expanded to 94% of adults and 100% of children in Oregon.

But there’s still more work to do. For as long as Kate is Oregon’s governor, she will fight to protect this progress and help keep Oregonians healthy.

“It is our duty to ensure that Oregon children have the tools to grow into healthy adults. It’s our duty to ensure they have access to education, health care, and a bright future.” - Governor Kate Brown

KEEPING KIDS AND SENIORS HEALTHY Medicare and Medicaid programs provide care for more than one million Oregonians, and Kate championed legislation to protect funding for the people who receive health care, mental health assistance, or other critical services thanks to this program. Our governor has stood strong in the face of federal attacks on healthcare, and directed her agencies to fund the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) when Congressional inaction threatened to leave over 80,000 Oregon kids and families without access to healthcare.

Kate has long been an advocate for children and families, and believes no family should ever have to choose between buying groceries and a doctor’s appointment for their child. That’s why she took action to pass “Cover All Kids” in 2017, ensuring that every child in Oregon has access to the healthcare they need to stay healthy, learn, and play.

TAKING ON A PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS Oregon has one of the highest rates of prescription opioid misuse in the nation, and this health crisis can have dangerous effects on Oregon families and communities. Kate believes that Oregon needs to act quickly and effectively to address this issue.

She has brought together an Opioid Task Force that is responsible for identifying and implementing efforts to address the growing opioid misuse and abuse across the state. For those that already experience addiction, Kate has made the life-saving antidote Naloxone more easily available to the public through 2017 legislation.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH Oregon became the first state in the nation to guarantee reproductive health care services for Oregonians without any out of pocket costs. From cancer screenings to postpartum care, Kate believes that Oregon’s women deserve full access and choice of services without restrictive policy contracts or co-pays. While Washington DC politicians threaten healthcare options for women, Kate will continue to protect the progress that we have made to make reproductive healthcare accessible in Oregon.

Education
As a family law attorney advocating for children and their parents, Kate has been fighting for Oregon’s kids from cradle to career. As governor, Kate is investing in our schools to keep students on track to graduate from high school with a plan for their future – and ready for college, job training, or the world of work. That's why she announced her plan to create a seamless system of education, from cradle to career.

INVESTING IN OREGON’S FUTURE Oregon’s economy needs a strong and skilled workforce to grow and Kate knows that isn’t possible without a strong education system. That’s why Kate has made education one of her top priorities as governor, passing the largest education budget in Oregon’s history to help reduce class sizes and put more tools in the classroom. This included funding all-day kindergarten statewide for the first time ever, making sure every child has a strong foundation to learn and grow. Kate understands that great teachers change lives, and that’s why she created the Council on Educator Advancement to make sure our educators have the tools and training they need to support student success.

Kate will continue to fight for the resources necessary to make sure every student enters school ready to learn, and stays engaged and on track throughout their education.

MORE GRADUATES, MORE CAREER OPTIONS Kate is passionate about improving high school graduation rates and finding ways to awaken students to the power of their own potential. She appointed an Education Innovation Officer that is building strategies to keep students engaged and on track to earn their high school diplomas. Kate dedicated $170 million to career technical education programs across the state, offering students hands-on learning opportunities that prepare them for jobs, expose them to new technologies, and keep kids excited to come to school each day.

Oregon is seeing results from Kate's commitment to students. During her time as governor, four-year high school graduation rates have increased by 4.7% overall. For students of color, special education and migrant students, the rate has increased by more than 7%.

But she's not done yet. In 2017 Kate announced Future Ready Oregon, a skill and job training initiative for students and adults that will support students on their path towards graduation and beyond. Future Ready Oregon is designed to close the skills gap between the skills Oregon’s workers have and the skills that the state's growing businesses need.

MAKING COLLEGE AFFORDABLE A college degree or job training can be essential to landing a good-paying job - but for many Oregonians, the cost of school has pushed those opportunities out of reach. In 2015, Kate expanded Oregon Opportunity Grants to an additional 16,000 students attending Oregon colleges and universities. Under her leadership, she clarified eligibility standards and added $28 million more in funding for the Oregon Promise program, which allows low-income students to attend community college for as little as $50 per semester.

Environment
Kate is committed to conserving the beauty and bounty of Oregon for generations to come. Oregon is a special place, and as governor, Kate is fighting to protect our land, water, and air. She is standing up to Washington politicians who have walked away from America’s commitment to combat climate change and is working to make Oregon a national leader in clean energy, reducing emissions, and conservation.

“Our generation will be judged not on the fact of climate change, but how we responded to it. We must fight to protect what makes Oregon special.” – Governor Kate Brown CLEAN AIR & WATER FOR EVERY OREGONIAN Clean air and water are fundamental to the Oregon way of life. Kate signed bills requiring engine upgrades for school buses, instituting mining protections for river habitats statewide, and established the Cleaner Air Oregon program. She also implemented new regulations to protect educators, staff, and students from environmental hazards in school facilities, holding every Oregon school district accountable to test for toxins and share test results with the public.

LEADING THE FIGHT ON CLIMATE CHANGE When politicians in Washington D.C. turned its back on the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, Kate stepped up in their place. Under her leadership, Kate will continue the fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support innovation that reduces Oregon’s reliance on fossil fuels. Oregon may be a small part of the global problem of climate change, but by working together, we can be a large part of the national solution.

Oregon became the first state to envision a future without coal-powered electricity when Kate signed the nation’s first “coal-to-clean” law, which will completely phase out dirty coal power by 2030 and double Oregon’s reliance on renewable energy by 2040. Since taking office in 2015, she has defended and implemented the clean fuels program which gives consumers more fuel options and reduces pollution from cars and trucks stood up to Big Oil and signed a law that bolsters the use of cleaner-burning vehicle fuels in Oregon.

Climate change threatens Oregon’s economy, contributes to raging wildfires, and threatens our Oregon way of life. Kate continues to lead on climate: Oregon can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and grow the economy by shifting to clean energy technologies.

PROTECTING PUBLIC LANDS Oregon boasts some of the most beautiful landscapes and natural wonders in the world - and we must be careful to protect it. When some of the worst wildfires in state history struck Oregon, Kate met with firefighters, activated National Guard members, and implemented every tool possible to address the fires.

Kate is passionate about protecting public lands, and put herself on the line to keep the Elliott State Forest in public ownership. She also is working to defend the biodiverse Cascade-Siskiyou’s status as a National Monument, working directly with the Secretary of the Interior to protect this priceless region.

There’s no better way to develop a strong connection to nature and a passion for its conservation than spending time outdoors. That’s why following a ballot measure passed by the voters, Kate approved full funding of Outdoor School for every Oregon sixth-grader. This connection is an important part of growing up in Oregon, and Kate will continue to find ways for more young people to develop that kinship with the natural world.

Public Safety
In the time since Kate was sworn in as governor, more than 600 Oregonians have died from violence inflicted with a gun - more than 100 of those due to homicidal violence. After meeting with families of victims in the Umpqua Community College shooting, she vowed to do whatever she could to prevent a such an event from happening again.

Kate is proactively working to make Oregon a safer place to live by introducing new common sense gun safety legislation, increasing access to affordable housing, and diversifying leadership to ensure Oregonians are treated fairly and have equal access to justice.

“Violence answers nothing, offers nothing, solves nothing. If we want to end violence, we must instill hope and create opportunity. I call on each of us, as Oregonians and as Americans, to join this call to end gun violence now." – Governor Kate Brown COMMON SENSE GUN SAFETY While Congress has continually failed to take action on common sense gun safety, Oregon is moving forward. Following the 2018 shooting in Parkland, Florida, Kate's leadership made Oregon the first state to take action to prevent senseless gun violence since the tragedy. She continued her previous work to close loopholes in Oregon law by preventing all convicted stalkers and domestic violence offenders from buying and keeping guns.

Under Kate’s leadership, Oregon became one of only eight states and D.C. to require background checks on private gun sales. Kate refuses to sit idly by while innocent Americans lose their lives to senseless acts of violence. In 2017, she signed into law the Extreme Risk Protection Order. Too often families and friends see certain warning signs in their loved ones before they commit an act of gun violence. This bill gives Oregonians a tool to keep our communities safer, by keeping guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.

In the future, Kate will continue to make progress on common sense gun safety by supporting legislation that will ensure dangerous people cannot obtain a gun simply because authorities were unable to complete the background check within the current timelines, as happened in the tragic case of the mass shooting in a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

SMART ON CRIME AND JUSTICE REINVESTMENT As governor, Kate enacted legislation that created a task force to assess racial profiling in Oregon’s justice system and then implement reforms and data tracking to improve practices that unfairly target communities of color. She also has worked with public safety officials to provide justice reinvestment programs for Oregonians with non-violent crimes. These programs will keep Oregon from needing to open a new women’s prison, save thousands of taxpayer dollars, offer drug treatment, and keep more families together.

Kate will continue to fight for more diversity in Oregon’s government and justice system, as well as stand up for equal treatment of all Oregonians.

Equality & Social Justice
Kate has dedicated her career to being a voice for the voiceless, so that every Oregonian is supported by their community and has an equal opportunity to lead a good life.

Kate has a proven record of championing policies for equality and social justice throughout her career, and will continue being a leading advocate as Governor.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR EVERY WOMAN “I know what it feels like to be paid less — substantially less — than the male lawyer in the office next to me. This is not just about power. This is about making sure women are not discriminated against because of their gender, because of their race or because of their sexual orientation." – Governor Kate Brown

Every morning across Oregon, women open the doors at businesses they own, carpool the neighborhood kids to school, report for duty in the military, and do their part to make Oregon the place that we all love. Women are making strides like never before, but we still have a lot of work to do.

Kate started her career as a legal advocate for women and children and she has worked on policies to improve the health and wellness of Oregon women, including strengthening domestic violence laws and passing the Family and Medical Leave Act so that parents can take time off to care for their children without losing their job.

Equal pay deserves equal work, and yet women and minority communities are consistently paid less than their male counterparts. In 2017 Kate signed the nation’s most comprehensive Pay Equity bill into law, giving working Oregonians powerful protections against discrimination.

LIVING OPENLY AND WITH DIGNITY As the first openly bisexual governor in our nation's history, Kate has been a longtime outspoken advocate for LGBTQ equality. She has been open about times in her life where she had to hide this aspect of her identity to avoid discrimination, and has drawn on those experiences to inform her work on behalf of Oregonians.

As an elected official, Kate has passed bills to improve the privacy and process of changing the legal documents for transgender Oregonians, ban harmful conversion therapy, help LGBTQ veterans upgrade their unfair discharges from the military and fully recognize domestic partnerships in Oregon.

RACIAL EQUITY AND JUSTICE As governor, Kate’s first priority is the public safety of all Oregonians. She has worked to keep immigrant families safe and with their loved ones, as well as address issues of racial profiling.

Oregon’s diverse communities have long been an essential part of our state’s community, culture, and economy. Minori Yasui, an Oregonian born to a Japanese immigrant family in Hood River, was forced into incarceration with his family due to Presidential Executive Order 9066, which required Japanese Internment. Yasui, a young lawyer, challenged this order because he believed it was unconstitutional. He was posthumously awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, the only Oregonian to ever receive so high an honor.

As Mr. Yasui said, “If we believe in law and justice, then each of us, when we see or believe errors are being made, has an obligation to make every effort to correct them.” Kate has worked throughout her years of public service to follow this advice, as well as to engage, listen, and empower communities of color.

A SAFE PLACE TO SLEEP FOR EVERY OREGON FAMILY Governor Kate Brown's vision is that every Oregonian, in communities large and small, will have access to housing choices that allows them and their family to thrive. That's why as governor she's worked to build or preserve over 11,000 affordable homes across the state. Tens of thousands of Oregonians have a roof over their head because of this work.

Moving forward, she has proposed $370 million of state investments, focusing on housing stability for families with children, veterans, the chronically homeless, and rural communities. Read her full Housing Policy Plan here.^[15]