Kitzhaber's State of State Speech Pushes Jobs, Big Savings

Gov. John Kitzhaber

Gov. John Kitzhaber delivered his state-of-the-state speech in the Capitol this morning. Kitzhaber told lawamkers, who are in organizational meetings prior to convening the regular session in February, that he needs their help in cutting public employee pension benefits and prison spending.

Kitahaber also included a high level of specificity on a couple of the biggest challenges facing Oregon: job creation and health care costs.

Kitzhaber reiterated some numbers he's touched on before in terms of job growth:



That middle number is really important: Oregon lags behind the national average for per capita income by nearly 10 percentage points and lags Washington by 15 percentage points. If we were merely average, many of the state's fiscal problems would disappear.

The governor's bigger push is to dial back healthcare cost inflation. He's got more ambitious goals there:


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