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Oregon House Narrowly Approves K-12 Spending Plan

A view of the west side of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem.
OregonDOT
/
Flickr
A view of the west side of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem.

Oregon lawmakers narrowly approved an $8.2 billion spending plan Tuesday for K-12 schools. It’s an 11 percent increase over the previous budget cycle.

But many lawmakers said it still wasn't enough.

Republicans accused Democrats of failing to act on cost-containment measures for state government that the GOP said would have freed up more money for schools. Democrats accused Republicans of stonewalling efforts to raise more revenue by overhauling the way the state taxes businesses.

Rep. Diego Hernandezwas one of four freshman Democrats to cross the aisle and vote with Republicans against the measure.

"We need our schools to be the schools our students deserve,” Hernandez said. “For that reason I'm voting no today, but I will make it my mission to work as hard as I can to make sure we strengthen funding for our schools."

The final budget passed with a narrow, three-vote margin. It now heads to the governor.

Copyright 2017 Northwest News Network

Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.