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Gov. Tina Kotek this week put a price tag (but not a timetable) on her top priority for the 2023 session and it tips the scales at a cool $130 million. As Peter Wong reports, Kotek announced her budget details this week and, as expected, funneled some serious cash to help those Oregonians who are currently unhoused in Oregon as well as those in peril of joining their ranks. Her budget message also put a spotlight on mental health, drug treatment and public schools. You know what's not in the guv's budget? Bonds. School bonds. Specifically those for Oregon's public college and universities, which is bad news for OSU, which had asked for $45 million in state bonds to pay for its Cascades campus health and rec center in Central Oregon. OSU officials told Gary Warner they aren't giving up and will chat up lawmakers, who have plenty of time to change Kotek's spending proposal. And, of course, there's plenty more chatter under the Golden Pioneer these days and Dick Hughes, as usual, sorts through the noise so that you don't have to. John Schrag is executive editor of the Pamplin Media Group.
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