The Oregon Democrat leadership made a last ditch effort to pass their “pet” bills on Sunday, leaving Oregonians grasping for air. With no time left for debate or public input, the House entertained 13 bills on the floor, and the Senate read 19 bills, walking bills back and forth to make sure they passed by the end of the day.

One such bill is HB 2004, putting ranked-choice voting before the voters. There is a lot of public misunderstanding about the consequences to ranked-choice voting and how it puts elections in control of big donors. Representative Boomer Wright (R-Coos Bay) stated, “I believe ranked-choice voting will lead to confusion and perplexity in our elections. If enacted, HB 2004 will lead to diminishing of trust among Oregon voters and sow further doubt about our election process.” Representative Lucetta Elmer (R-McMinnville) expressed concerns by county clerks across the state seeing the bill as unfinished work. “There is also uneasiness around a candidate not winning an election with a simple majority vote.”

HB 2757 barely passed with the needed two-thirds vote to impose a $0.40 tax to expand the 9-8-8 suicide prevention behavioral health crisis hotline. The new tax would collect $27.4 million per year, the highest in the nation. It takes only $5 million to run the program, and there is already a line-item within the agency budget to fund the 9-8-8 program. We may need to expend this program since Oregon has one of the highest suicide rates, but a bill with loose guidelines as to what it will be used for, and over taxing is not good governing. Representative Anna Scharf (R-Yamhill/Polk) also points out that “the bill as written could be brought back at any time before the sunset date and the rate raised with a simple majority vote.”

HB 3229 appeared the last week that had one public hearing, referred to Ways and Means for work session then to the House floor, and Senate floor before closing. The bill increases the pollution fees imposed by DEQ on businesses by 80%. On the surface, it may seem like a financial punishment for businesses who aren’t wanting to “go green”, but the reality is DEQ’s revenues have plummeted due to Oregon businesses’ abundant compliance with environmental initiatives, so DEQ wants to increase the fees to make up the lost revenue. This bill had only 30 votes on the floor, until a Democrat was “convinced” to change his vote to provide the needed 31 votes for passage.

The bi-partisan bill, HB 3632, passed that will increase the statute of limitations for first degree sex crimes to 20 years after commission of crime or, for minor victim, any time before victim attains 30 years of age, whichever occurs later.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

Three bills are headed to voters. Besides HB 2004 (above), two others will be on the ballot to amend the constitution. SJR 34 establishes an independent Public Service Compensation Commission to establish salaries for specified public officials. HJR 16 gives the power of impeachment of statewide elected Executive Branch officials to the House of Representatives and power to try impeachments to the Senate.

After several amendments, HB 3013 failed to pass that would have required pharmacy benefit managers to be licensed by Department of Consumer and Business Services and imposed new requirements to help mitigate rising costs of prescription drugs.

Also failing in the Senate is HB 3414, which at the request of Governor Kotek, it required local governments to approve certain adjustments to land use regulations for housing development within urban growth boundary. But for Eastern Oregon Border Economic Development Region, SB 70 passed to modify requirements for residential rezoning of lands.

Governor Kotek’s press release lays claim to a successful session working “successfully with legislature to deliver on mission-focused agenda.” Her highlight of successes has a price tag of $1,398,400,000, represented in a budget that is a 25.5% increase over current levels and an increase of 4,792 public employees. She offers no justification for her budget increases or how taxpayers will maintain this level when the forecasted recession hits. According to the latest Oregon Economic and Revenue Forecast, Oregon’s risk of recession is still high, and believes it could start as soon as 2024. The increased budget was still passed knowing the risk.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2023-06-25 21:22:06

Last Update: 2023-06-26 17:56:28