PORTLAND— Oregon Republican gubernatorial nominee Christine Drazan on Tuesday made the case for her agenda to slash taxes, reduce regulations and make state government more accountable to taxpayers, offering some of the clearest details yet on how she plans to tackle the cost of living in the state.
The state senator from Canby made her remarks in downtown Portland, a metropolitan area where she will need to win over some moderate and liberal voters to cut into Democratic incumbent Gov. Tina Kotek’s margins. Drazan’s campaign shared a seven-page plan, containing policy proposals such as the creation of a state office to identify budgetary savings and a first-day executive order that directs state agencies to identify practices that increase the cost of living for Oregonians.
Other policy plans listed, however, are less detailed, such as a call to “reform” taxes such as the corporate activity tax and the estate tax, which state lawmakers unsuccessfully attempted to cut earlier this year.
“While Oregonians have tightened their budgets, state government has continued to grow, layering on new regulations, fees and mandates that make nearly everything more expensive,” Drazan’s plan reads. “As governor, Christine Drazan will put affordability at the center of every decision her administration makes.”
The proposals align with some of the key priorities identified by Gov. Tina Kotek’s prosperity council, which was charged last year with identifying policy recommendations for the governor to spur economic development in the state. For instance, the prosperity councilsuggestedthat Oregon work to replace and repeal Oregon’s Climate Protection Program and make cuts to the estate tax and corporate activity tax.
Drazan’s plan doesn’t say exactly how those programs should change, but it calls for repealing the Climate Protection Program and reforming the estate and corporate activity tax. She said that she views the prosperity council as a “gimmick” by Kotek but that the advisers who served on the council “didn’t look at it that way.”
“They gave it their best efforts, and they came up with concepts and ideas that are not partisan in nature. They recognize what it’s going to take to turn our economy around,” she said. “I will take good ideas from everywhere and work with anybody across the aisle and across our state that wants to contribute to our work that it is going to take to strengthen and support our economy and help get Oregon moving in the right direction.”
She is also calling for reinstated high school graduation requirements, reduced property taxes for seniors, a $200 million infrastructure fund for site readiness and a state of emergency for Oregon’s addiction and mental health challenges. She said on Tuesday that private insurance premiums have become unaffordable, but that she believes Oregon’s Medicaid program has been generous.
The Oregon Health Plan is one of the country’s most expansive Medicaid programs, covering dental and vision care, providing extra benefits including grocery assistance for some users and insuring low-income Oregonians regardless of immigration status through Healthier Oregon.
“While healthcare isn’t an issue that’s come up a ton as I talk to Oregonians in this race, I know how expensive it is. I know how important it is, and Oregonians cannot afford to go without it,” Drazan said. “But we cannot look at it like we can be all things to all people, and that’s precisely what the Oregon Health Plan has been in the state of Oregon.”
A spokesperson for the Kotek campaign on Tuesday afternoon framed the new proposal from Drazan as an effort to shift focus away from the federal administration.
“Drazan’s plan is simply her latest effort to distract Oregonians from her history of being Donald Trump’s stand-in,” Federico Araujo, the campaign’s director of communications, said in a statement. “Oregonians know that Drazan’s record of pushing to roll back abortion rights, eliminate vote by mail, and gut health care is too extreme for our state — and that’s why they will reject her once again this November.”
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