OREGON HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATION BOARD RETREAT
JULY 16, 2015
• Good afternoon, and thank you for inviting me to join you today.
• Today is my 149th day serving as your Governor. On my first trip as Governor, I traveled to Medford where my first stop was at The Orchards Assisted Living Facility. I had breakfast with two wonderful residents, staff, and the facility owner Todd Wollard (note: Todd is OHCA member). It was a great experience for me to get a better understanding of the important services your members provide daily for seniors.
• Since Feb. 18, I jumped into legislative session, and have been quite busy focusing on three overarching principals:
o Enhancing the well-being of working families, expanding opportunities for all Oregonians to thrive.
o Fostering sustained economic growth statewide
o Restoring public trust.
• While improved economic conditions may have Oregonians breathing a sigh of relief, many working families still struggle to make ends meet, to access opportunities that engender upward mobility – for themselves or their children.
• This session we took important steps to change that, starting with education.
• I’m proud to say that more Oregon families will have access to affordable, high-quality child care and pre-school options. We are fully funding full-day kindergarten statewide for the first time in Oregon history.
• We have funds to support the academic success of students from communities of color and in families where languages other than English are spoken at home.
• We’ve invested a record-setting $7.3 billion for K-12 education for reasonable class sizes and numbers of school days, plus $300 million to address seismic issues in school buildings.
• We’re also focusing on the well-being of working families with paid sick leave, increasing affordable housing options, and expanding a number of tax credits so families can save.
• In your health care world, SB 886 will be an important step to creating a streamlined and effective regulatory and oversight framework between the state and the health care industry. I look forward to the progress made by the work group that my office is leading.
• I want to thank you for your commitment to serving the people of our state. I hope that as you move forward, we can work together on improving the lives of Oregonians.
• Though the 2015 legislative session has just wrapped, I’m already looking forward to next year.
• What issues should I be aware of leading into the 2016 session?