Investing in our transportation system is the strongest stimulus tool available to us during this current economic downturn. It creates jobs, keeps products moving effectively and efficiently and helps local businesses keep their doors open.
Oregon’s multi-billion dollar transportation infrastructure hasn’t been maintained to keep up with population growth and freight traffic, hindering Oregon’s ability to move people, commerce and goods effectively throughout the state. The result is more gridlock, more time spent in the car instead of with our families, and more carbon emissions in our air.
If critical improvements are not made, we can expect that congestion on our roads will increase by 42 percent over the next fifteen years, creating gridlock for commuters and further challenging Oregon’s ability to compete in the traded sector economy. Additionally, since transportation accounts for nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, Oregon must provide transportation options that complement our carbon reduction strategy. Finally, Oregon will see a steep decline in Oregon Transportation Investment Act funding starting in 2010 if we don’t reinvest now.
Last year I asked more than fifty business leaders, legislators, local and state officials, transportation stakeholders, and sustainability and land use experts to develop recommendations for how to address the years of deferred maintenance and need to modernize our entire transportation system. I charged this group to help me develop a transportation package around five core principles: creating jobs and developing our economy, maintaining statewide distribution, incorporating sustainability, ensuring local decision making, and improving transparency and oversight.
After reviewing the committee’s recommendations, I have selected a series of initiatives to move forward to the 2009 Legislature. These initiatives will support at least 6,700 jobs per year in the first five years, move our transportation into the 21st century by investing in a multi-modal system that complements my climate change agenda, and ensure continued investment – instead of the one-time investments made in the past – so that we have the resources to address the evolving transportation needs of our businesses and communities each two-year budget cycle.
This transportation package will inject $1 billion each biennium into local economies and represents the largest, most comprehensive and greenest transportation initiative in Oregon history. It is bold, ambitious and necessary if we want to remain economically competitive as we turn our economy around, maintain our global leadership role in sustainability and green energy, and ensure long-term prosperity for Oregon families and businesses.
I look forward to a respectful and spirited conversation with the public and the legislature in the coming months. This agenda will not be without controversy and I am willing to work and listen to Oregonians as we do the right thing of putting thousands of Oregonians to work and keeping Oregon the place we are proud to call home.
Sincerely,
Theodore R. Kulongoski