Rep. Dennis Richardson: 2013 Legislative Session a failure

by Rep. Dennis Richardson (R-Central Point)

The 2013 Legislative Session has adjourned and I regret to report it was a failure.  Oregon’s elected leaders failed to pass legislation to provide economic opportunity and create an environment that would bring about good jobs for Oregon’s unemployed and underemployed citizens. They failed to fix the PERS Crisis. They failed to provide a forest management plan that will save insolvent counties and lessen the destruction of our forests by catastrophic fires. My blood boils when I think of how we just wasted six months of precious time and millions of taxpayers’ dollars on the 2013 Session.

In addition, Governor Kitzhaber’s Do-Nothing Educational Czar, Rudy Crew, will now collect his $284,000 paycheck and wave good-bye to Oregon after a year of nonsense. He leaves after failing to fix Oregon’s shameful drop-out rate where 1/3 of Oregon’s high school students fail to graduate with their classmates and many that do graduate are ill-prepared to compete in a global marketplace.

I’m done with sitting idly by, watching our elected officials serve as managers of burgeoning bureaucracies, instead of leading our state.

If you agree that it is time for “we the people” to get involved and reestablish a government “of the people, by the people and for the people,” watch my video and join me in creating a plan for Oregon’s future that cannot, that will not be ignored by our elected officials.

A Plan For Oregon’s Future

Let’s begin by contributing our ideas on what Oregon’s “Plan for the Future” should look like. Pick a topic of special interest to you. Click on it and share your ideas of what should be done to address it.

Let’s begin with the premise that virtually every ill, every economic, educational or natural resource problem confronting Oregon is being successfully solved somewhere.

Let’s research solutions, share them with each other and adapt the best ones for Oregon’s self-reliant, pioneering philosophy, personality and people. We can learn. We can be taught. We can change the course of Oregon’s future. Let’s begin today and let’s not stop until we have restored our state, corrected its course and renewed its reputation as a land of pioneers who love liberty, opportunity and prosperity.

Job & Economy. How can we reform  Oregon’s laws and restructure its agencies to be more inviting to job-creating inventors, innovators, entrepreneurs, investors and business owners? Like our own Phil Knight and Gert Boyle, we believe the next generation of great innovators already lives and works in Oregon. They just need the opportunity to succeed.

Education. How can we reform Oregon’s educational system and provide world-class academic opportunities for all Oregon students, regardless of where in our state they live, and how can we remove barriers that have hamstrung our teachers and prevented maximum student achievement in our schools?

Natural Resources. How can we reform Oregon’s natural resource policies to provide healthier forests, promote economic benefit for our workers and small business owners, while protecting our quality of life and the environment?

Other Issues. How can we address other Oregon issues that are impeding Oregon’s liberty, opportunity or prosperity?

We are “the people.” This is our state and its future is our responsibility. We cannot wait any longer for someone else to step up and develop a Plan for Oregon’s Future.

If not us, then who?  If not now, then when? Together we will make Oregon a better place to live, to work and to raise our families. Together we can create a brighter future for the state we love.  Together “we the people” will ensure that Oregon’s future is bright and Oregon’s best days are yet to come.

Let’s DO IT.