Medford, Ore — State Senator Alan DeBoer hosted a town hall at Rogue Community College Tuesday night to get feedback from the public.
His focus – how the latest legislative session went and any bills people would like to see in the next one.
The room at RCC was filled with people from the community wanting answers to the problems in our area.
“How will you personally contribute to passing legislation that reduces climate pollution and helps Oregon transition to clean energy next session to protect our future?” a woman attending the town hall said.
From climate change to affordable housing, State Senator Alan DeBoer received nonstop questions from the public at his Medford town hall Tuesday night.
Perhaps the most controversial topic discussed was healthcare.
One La Clinica worker shared how a patient of hers is unable to receive care.
“When someone is sick, it doesn’t matter whether they’re a Democrat, or a Republican. What matters… is that we have equal access to health care,” a woman at the meeting said.
Senator DeBoer admitted he doesn’t know the answers to everything.
But he did have proposed solutions for problems like teachers leaving the education system.
Senator DeBoer says he’d like to set up a 10-year funding plan for schools.
“If we could lower the class size, it helps the students, it helps the teachers, and we all remember that teacher that made a difference in our life, right?” Senator DeBoer said.
Another topic that struck a cord with some people was PERS.
“You guys working on it? What’s on the table? And what’s up with the PERS contributions and funding?” a man at the town hall said.
In an interview with NBC5 last week, Senator DeBoer said PERS is one of the biggest issues in Oregon that continues to be set aside year after year.
“We’re gonna need to find some revenue. Can we do that through cost savings? Yes. We can easily find a billion dollars in cost savings within the twenty billion dollar budget,” Senator DeBoer said.
While discussions covered a wide range of subjects, ultimately, Senator DeBoer says he has one overarching goal – help bring the nation back together.
“We don’t want to divide people. We want to bring people together,” DeBoer said.
Senator DeBoer has another town hall in Talent tomorrow.
He plans to hold more town halls in Phoenix, Jacksonville and Ashland in the coming weeks.
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