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April 7, 2009
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Vol 19, Issue
12
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Legislative
Report
 League of Women Voters of Oregon
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Oregon Judicial
Department Appeals for Budget Leniency
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 The Ways and Means subcommittee on Public Safety recently
reviewed the Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) Budget for 2009-11.
Its original budget requests included:
- New judges
- Technology improvements
- E-court filings
- Additional staff for
collections
- Building maintenance.
The Chief Justice submits his budget to the Governor, and
the Governor may not make changes to the OJD Budget because it is a
separate branch of the government. However, the Governor can propose an
across the board cut to all state agencies when he submits his budget
to the state Legislature. The Legislative Fiscal Office (LFO)
analyzes the Governor's Budget and requests additional information from
the state agencies. This session the LFO has requested that state
agencies submit their funding priorities and proposed cuts from 5% to
30%. OJD staff discussed its cut list of the proposed reductions of 5,
10 and 15% in the recent hearings.
What impact will these reductions have on our courts? Click here to find out more.
Karen Nibler, Social Policy Coordinator
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Ways and Means Committee Goes on the Road
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 The Budget Balancing Process began last Friday when the
Ways and Means co-chairs released a list of potential cuts from every
state agency amounting to 30 percent. That information can be found at http://www.leg.state.or.us/budget.
The Ways and Means Committee will now embark on two weeks of public
hearings around the state:
- April
20
- Lincoln City
- April
21
- Portland
- April
23
- State Capitol, with video feeds from other cities
- The
following week's hearings include visits to Bend, Ashland and
Eugene.
These are critical hearings for everyone to attend and
participate in by letting our legislators know your feelings. It
is also important that you listen to others and help weigh in on these
important decisions of program cuts and raising revenue.
Following the public hearings in late April, Ways and Means
subcommittees will begin public hearings on various agency budgets as
they work to prioritize the cuts list. When the revenue forecast is
delivered in mid-May, legislative budget writers will issue the
"co-chairs budget," hold additional hearings and begin
sending budget bills to the floors of the House and Senate.
The Legislature is planning on making this a very transparent process
with multiple opportunities for citizens to respond to questions such
as:
- What
is the scope of the cuts?
- How
will the state reserve funds and federal stimulus dollars fill
some of the budget holes?
- Will
the gaps be filled with a balanced approach to budget
cuts and additional revenue?
The next two Legislative
Reports will have the details of these hearings and some of
the important issues you should be listening for.
Paula Krane, Public Access Coordinator
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From Aggregate to
Water
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 The League's
Natural Resource Team had a very busy week testifying on a variety of
bills:
- HB 3099: Land Use in
Exclusive Farm Use (EFU) zones - SUPPORTED not allowing aggregate
mining on Class I and II soils and protecting EFU resource lands
for agriculture uses. (Read 03-31-09 testimony.)
- HB
3060:
Product Stewardship - SUPPORTED creating a system to assure that
manufacturers are responsible for creating take-back systems for
products (allowing consumers to return products to manufacturers
for recycling). First products to be considered:
mercury lighting and rechargeable batteries. (Read 03-31-09 testimony.)
- HB
5008:
Oregon Economic and Community Development Department (OECDD)
Budget - asked that the Main Streets program be returned to OECDD
from the Governor's proposal to move it to Parks. (Read written 04-02-09 testimony.)
- SB
739:
Arsenic Testing in Wells - SUPPORTED adding arsenic to required
testing of wells at sale of property and notifying buyer of test
results. (Read 03-31-09 testimony.)
- SB
740:
Annual Fee for Water Rights Holders - SUPPORTED in order to help
pay for the cost of administration and management of these rights,
especially since the Water Resources Budget may see 46 staff
positions eliminated due to the current budget crisis. (Read 04-02-09 testimony.)
- SB
787:
Responsible Water Management - SUPPORTED assuring that
conservation measures are implemented before new storage projects
are funded. (Read 04-02-09 testimony.)
- SB
788:
Peak and Ecological Flow Requirements - SUPPORTED the need for
legislative findings to assure that stream flows are protected and
ecological stream flow data is used when permitting water storage
projects. (Read 04-02-09 testimony.)
My thanks to all the League volunteers who helped in
evaluating and writing testimony.
Peggy Lynch, Natural Resources Coordinator
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Editor's
note: In last week's Legislative Report, water bill
testimonies given by the Natural Resources Action Team were
featured. Read the Statesman-Journal April 2 article "Water-management bills debated"
for more on these bills.
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Helping People Succeed
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 The increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit had a
positive hearing, and there is still hope that it may move forward
although there is a fiscal impact.
On April 8, there will be a hearing on SB 966 which would fund the
Family Leave Act, which would enable workers to be compensated when
they need to take time away from work to care for a child or parent
with specific details as to eligibility. Funded by collecting 2
cents per hour, it would be required in workforces of over 25 people,
but small business owners could opt in. Benefits are for up to six
weeks at approximately $300 per week. The League supports this
bill.
Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator
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Health Care Reform Chugging Along on Track
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 HB 2009, the omnibus health care bill, has been amended in the
House Health Care Committee and is expected to be sent on to the full
Ways and Means Committee. The proposed plan would separate Health
Services from the Department of Human Services and set up the Oregon
Health Authority, including public health, medical services, mental
health and addictions, and subsidized coverage, and may include state
employee insurance plans. The new agency would be established
during the 2009-11 biennium, and implementation plans would be reported
to the Legislature by December of 2010. (Read League testimony.)
The Senate Health Care and Veterans' Affairs Committee will also be
hearing bills proposing individual facets of the Health Fund Board
recommendations.
Karen Nibler, Social Policy Coordinator
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Easing the Elections Process
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 The county clerks are supporting several bills which would
ease the harried time around elections. The League also supports:
- Scanning of ballot
envelopes 10 days before election day, without tallying the vote
(read HB 3451 testimony);
- Allowing
counties to pay for some of the postage when ballot envelopes go
over 1 ounce (read HB 3240 testimony); and
- Enabling
the State and other entities that have issues on the ballot to
provide some election funding. That may not be feasible at this
time, but the enabling policy could be enacted.
Electronic voter registration will be in place by
2010. Allowing alternative election methods such as instant
runoff is not getting support, although a compromise bill allowing a
candidate to have more than one party listed after his/her name on the
ballot may be passed.
Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator
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Ethics and Initiative Update
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 More ethics bills have emerged since last week, all
seeking to revise or improve on SB 10 (2007). We don't want
to return to the loose regulations on lobby expenditures and gifts;
however, we do not want to cast such a large net that the reporting
requirement includes too many individuals.
HJR 31, a new initiative
bill since last week's report, would restrict the time when a rejected
initiative could return to the ballot. We are suggesting four
years.
Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator
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Speaking the Language of the Legislature
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 Current Service Level: A budgetary
term that refers to any budget proposal which requests future funding
for service provision "at the current level." The
current service level will reflect changes due to inflation, labor
contract changes, caseload changes, and any other changes required to
continue to provide the same level of
service.
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April 8 (Tomorrow) - Health Action Day,
Oregonians for Health Security, 9:00 am at the Capitol
April 16 (Thursday) - Why Repower Oregon, Oregon
League of Conservation Voters, 6:00 p.m.
Legislature Action Dates
April 17 (Friday) Deadline to
schedule work sessions in chamber of origin*
April 28 (Tuesday) Deadline for consideration of changes in
chamber of origin*
May 20 (Wednesday) Deadline to schedule work sessions in second
chamber*
May 28 (Thursday) Committees close*
*Except Joint Ways and Means, Senate Finance and Revenue,
House Revenue, Senate and House Rules Committees
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