Lawmaker says compromise will be critical
Thursday, December 23, 2004 11:40 AM PST
Larry Meyer Argus Observer
SALEM - Oregon State Sen. Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day conceded he is not entirely comfortable with his new title of minority leader for Oregon's upper house.
"But, there is the reality," he said.
So Ferrioli said he is ready to do battle at what he labels the "loyal opposition."
"To operate the truth squad," Ferrioli, who represents District 30 including Malheur County, said.
However, he said he has a good working relationship with Senate President Peter Courtney, a Democrat, but said he expects more of an adversarial relationship with Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown. On the other hand, Ferrioli said, "rural legislators are used to being in the minority whichever party is in power."
He generally supports the governor's budget plan which proposes to provide the same base reimbursement for adult foster care provides per resident as assisted living facilities while putting a limit on number of people in those programs.
The other alternative, he said, would be limiting services to be able to assist more people.
"We cannot have continued escalation of costs," he said. Ferrioli said there will be a similar discussion in the Legislature about the Oregon Health Plan, which was designed to help people without medical insurance. While it started out with a lot of promise, Ferrioli said, the program can no longer be sustained. It was good if the only criteria for success was universal coverage and taking some of the load off of hospitals, clinics and people with private insurance. Without the Oregon Health Plan, he said, people with no coverage just showed up at emergency rooms when conditions became serious.
"People in Oregon see it's not sustainable," Ferrioli said. "We can't sustain spiraling cost,"
The fact the reimbursements from the Health Plan are low has also made an impact, Ferrioli said.
"Some doctors are refusing to see Health Plan patients," he said.
While many concede revenue is a problem for the state, Ferrioli said voters also made it clear they do not want a tax increase.
Which, he said, leaves only one real viable alternative - the economy.
"We have to start growing the economy," he said.
The state cannot go back to what it had before, aligned with the federal Medicare/Medicaid program, which was more financially stable, but had more people without coverage, Ferrioli said.
Ferrioli suggested lawmakers would need to find a compromise. Ferrioli also said he would like to see money go toward providing commuter air service to rural communities which have airports which can handle the smaller airliners, naming Ontario, Burns and John Day as a few of those.
"That would do more to increase the economic potential (of rural communities)," he said.
No Dhimmi wrote on Aug 14, 2009 9:38 PM:
And this isn't "racist," because Islam is not a race, anymore than Communism or Nazism are races, both of which killed far fewer people than Islam.
Disgusting. "