Principle: Oregon has a healthy balance between growth, infrastructure development and environmental protection.
Oregon’s environment and its economic health are inextricably linked. We must enhance and protect our natural resources while also contributing to Oregon’s economic growth through responsible infrastructure development.
Overview
Governor Kulongoski’s 2005-07 budget pursues the balance between growth, infrastructure development and environmental protection by redirecting General Fund expenditures and leveraging other funds so as to preserve or enhance key functions essential to the livability of our state’s environment and the growth of our economy.
This budget enables natural resource agencies to carry out key functions related to salmon recovery, watershed health, protection from wildfires, and meeting our obligations to protect and improve water quality in our streams. The budget makes a commitment to address the water rights claims in the KlamathBasin. It provides funding to begin a top to bottom review and modernization of Oregon’s land use planning system. It addresses key water quality issues of the WillametteRiver. The recommended budget also seeks to aggressively reduce the backlog of water quality permits, an issue critical to sustaining and growing Oregon’s business and industrial sector.
While leveraging other funds into essential services and programs important to Oregon’s environment, this budget restores a significant amount of lottery and federal dollars for salmon and watershed conservation to their intended purposes. In keeping with the Governor’s goal of “A New Park per Year,” this budget directs an increased amount of lottery dollars to repairing existing parks, acquiring and developing new parks and assisting local government with their park projects.
