Gov. Kotek re-emphasizes priorities in budget process

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek admits she may not get everything she wants in her proposed budget, but she re-emphasized her priorities — housing, behavioral health, education — in a press conference Monday.

Last week’s state revenue forecast indicated lawmakers will have $755 million less than projected to work with in this session. But Kotek is not inclined to scale back on her budget priorities, especially regarding commitments already made to cities and counties to deal with unsheltered homelessness.

“My message to lawmakers is, let’s work on this together. I know you can’t do everything in my budget. But the priorities have not changed, and I would argue, they are going to make hard choices to find other resources to get to funding those priorities at the highest level they possibly can,” Kotek said.

The governor also said uncertainty from the federal government will also influence what the legislature can and can’t do.

There are hundreds of bill the legislature is still considering and many of them have to go through the Ways and Means Committee for funding. At this point, legislators have about $37.5 billion in general fund revenue to work with.

This legislative session, which began in January, is slated to end in mid-June with a hard end date on June 29.

KOIN 6 News will continue to follow this story.