This year’s theme underscores the urgency of solving Oregon’s perennial imbalance between revenues and the costs of providing public services. Over the last two Summits the Business Plan has outlined the need to rein in PERS and other burgeoning public costs and to restructure our volatile and unreliable revenue system. We need to do that so Oregon can make investments in education and other public services vital to economic prosperity.

Throughout 2018, Oregon Business Plan representatives met with industry leaders, local government officials, elected officials and candidates, editorial boards, and others, to help develop, refine, and seek support for specific policy proposals to balance costs and revenues to fund vital investments in our people. Findings and recommendations from this process will be aired at the Summit and then advocated in the 2019 Legislature. We hope this work will not only inform the 2019-21 state budget, but a longer view of public fiscal reform and investment as well.

This year’s Summit will also explore other timely issues, such as the future of Oregon’s forests, our statewide housing crisis, and growing pressure on our water resources.