SALEM — Evoking crises that have confronted Oregon lawmakers — including two world wars and the Great Depression — Gov. Ted Kulongoski on Monday urged legislators not to “surrender to fear” but to act boldly to help Oregon families in a worsening national recession.

“Oregonians have faced difficult times before. Some much worse than what we’re going through now, but we always treat these difficult times not as the hand of fate at work — but as a call to get to work with our hands, minds and spirits,” Kulongoski said in his state-of-the-state address.

As the 2009 Legislature opened Monday, Kulongoski and the 90 members of the House and Senate were faced with declining state revenue and a rising unemployment rate stemming from one of the worst recessions to hit the state in years.

Still, Kulongoski said, the struggling economy is no excuse to shrink from the responsibility to provide health coverage to thousands of uninsured children, promote Oregon’s “green” economy and provide adequate funding to schools.

“If we’re going to turn unemployment checks into paychecks, the state must invest in our human infrastructure,” he said.

In response, Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli of John Day offered a sharply different prescription for curing Oregon’s ailing economy.

“The most important thing we will do is to foster and create jobs by reducing the cost of government and giving working families relief from taxes and fees,” Ferrioli said. “The Democrats want to tax, borrow and spend until every credit card is maxed out.”

Kulongoski is in the final two years of his second term. He used Monday’s address to make a pitch for many of the key priorities in the 2009-2011 budget plan he issued last month.

In particular, he urged quick action on his $1 billion transportation plan that calls for a 2-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase and sharp increases in vehicle fees to pay for road and bridge improvements that also would provide thousands of construction-related jobs.

“Our roads, bridges, public transit, rail lines and seaports are the circulatory system of Oregon’s economy,” he said. “If our transportation arteries are blocked by congestion, inefficiency, decay and neglect, our economy is going to end up on life support.”

Democratic gains in the November election will mean that Democrats have solid control of both the House and Senate. Kulongoski said the election is over, and it’s time for Democrats and Republicans to put partisan politics aside and get to work on boosting the economy.

“The public has had enough of division, stalemate and partisan warfare,” he said. “They want something different; they voted for something different — and it is our solemn responsibility to give them something better.”

House GOP leader Bruce Hanna of Roseburg said, however, that Republicans would continue to oppose what they consider the Democrats’ unsustainable levels of state spending.

“Republicans will fight for taxpayers and promote solutions that build a better Oregon,” Hanna said.