Secretary visits
Oregon’s Kate Brown speaks at Holy Rosary Medical Center
By LARRY MEYER
ARGUS OBSERVER
LarryM@argusobserver.com
Friday, October 16, 2009 11:42 AM PDT
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| Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown visits with Malheur County Judge Dan Joyce prior to a meeting at Holy Rosary Medical Center. |
ONTARIO —
Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown visited Malheur County Thursday to talk about key issues connected to her office, and she defended her vote as a member of the State Land Board to boost grazing fees on state lands.
For 2009, the fees are $4.90 per animal unit month, and it will be $5.30 per AUM in 2010, $5.96 in 2011 and $6.63 in 2012.
The increases were the result of a vote Tuesday by the land board, which also includes the governor and the state treasurer. Gov. Ted Kulongoski joined Brown in voting for the increases and Treasurer Ben Westlund voted no. All three are Democrats.
The increases were recommended by an advisory group, Brown said.
“Half of the group is made up of leasees,” she said.
There was a recommendation to impose the full increase, she said.
“We elected that it was better to raise it gradually,” she said.
As a member of the state land board, Brown said she has a duty to try and get the best return from state land as possible in order to benefit the state Common School Fund and Oregon schools.
Brown met with the Argus Observer editorial board and, later, a group of educational, business, community and local government leaders at Holy Rosary Medical Center. She talked about similar issues at both meetings.
Brown said her visit was part of her campaign pledge to visit every county in the state, and she is now traveled to 28. Her goal is to make sure her office is serving all of Oregon and “to find out what is happening around the state.”
One of her plans is to do performance audits of state departments and agencies.
“We’ve got to do more with less,” she said.
However, because those audits are expensive, Brown said she plans to be prudent regarding what analysis will be completed.
“We’re picking audits that will make a difference,” she said. In the realm of elections, Brown said she is focusing on increasing voter registration and bringing more integrity to the initiative process. Voter participation was about 85.7 percent in the last general election, Brown said, which was one of the highest turnouts in the nation. The need is to get more people registered to vote, and she is in the process to set up online voter registration.
“Oregon is the fourth state to pet passed and will be the sixth to get it up and running,” Brown said. In the initiative process, her office will have a closer watch and tighter controls over people who are being paid to gather signatures on initiative petitions. There is also a panel, which includes State Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, searching for a method to rein in spending on state political races. Oregon is one of a few state that has no restraints on what people can contribute to a campaign.
“We have to have a diversity of people to serve in our citizen Legislature,” Brown said. In the corporations division, Brown said her office is streamlining the permit and license process. Brown is urging the adoption of a “one-stop shopping,” site as envisioned by former Gov. Victor Atiyeh. However, Brown heard from Andrea Testi, director of the Small Business Development Center, and others in the audience at HRMC, that the region is at a disadvantage when it competes with Idaho because of higher corporation fees.
some of which could go higher if not overturned in the January election. Brown said she planned to look into that issue.
