PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Gov. Ted Kulongoski says he won’t allow the closure of three Oregon prisons in a round of budget cutting.
Hours after his office released the proposals from state agencies that included closing three prisons and allowing nearly 1,000 inmates to go free, the governor’s spokeswoman says the idea is a nonstarter.
The state faces a revenue shortfall. Two weeks ago Kulongoski said he’d order $577 million in cuts. He asked agencies for recommendations. They were released Wednesday.
Kulongoski’s spokeswoman Anna Richter Taylor says the governor will ask the Legislature’s emergency board for enough money to keep the three prisons open and to forestall cuts in supervising people released from prison.
