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Follow
Key Bills
The
League's bill matrix,
which lists key bills that we are following this session, is updated
weekly. The matrix includes legislative action taken, League action
taken, and links to our testimony.
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Volunteer
Help
is needed to monitor legislative committees and report back to the Action
Committee. If you live close to Salem or have an Internet
connection, you can learn to track
bills and listen to hearings. Help is needed to monitor legislative
committees and report back to the Action Committee. It is a
fascinating experience if you have time to dedicate to the legislative
process. Contact LWVOR
to volunteer.
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Double
Majority
The
double majority appears to be on the way to Oregon citizens for a
decision. The House has passed HJR 14 and the Senate has a similar measure. It would
invalidate the 50/50 requirement for any elections held in May or
November in any year. The vote on the constitutional amendment referral
will probably be in November 2008, although that hasn't been finally
decided.
Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator
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LWVOR Action Committee
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Chair:
Norman Turrill
Vice Chair:
Marge Easley
Citizen Access Coordinator:
Paula Krane
Governance Coordinator: Kappy Eaton
Natural Resources Coordinator:
Liz Frenkel
Social Policy Coordinator:
Karen Nibler
Legislative Coordinator:
Brena Lopez
Portfolio members and committee representatives:
Bob Adams
Debbie Aiona
Jane Baumgarten
Diana Bodtker
Anna Braun
Barbara Browning
Sarah Chaplen
Anita Francis
Barbara Fredericks
Norma Jean Germond
Fran Greenlee
Gail Holmes
Peggy Lynch
Ellen Maddex
Janet Markee
Erin Miller
Margaret Noel
Barbara Ross
Penny Spaccarotelli
Nancy Stevens
Pam Vavra
Intern:
Terra Ashford
Legislative Report Editor:
Rebecca Smith
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Fiscal
Policy
Tax
credits continue on the agenda of both House and Senate Revenue
committees, each calling for increases or expansions in current
credits. Hearings have been held on measures which would reduce or
repeal these costly tax expenditures, but there is no apparent movement
to deal with them. We will be meeting with Senator Deckert next
week to discuss his proposal to hear a number of tax credit bills and review
them as to their purpose and value. This could be a
beginning. Stay tuned.
The
Co-chairs' proposed 2007-09 budget is getting both applause and
rejection. Still up in the air are the issues of Healthy Kids
(tobacco tax increase), stable revenue for State Police, shoring up
community colleges, and the ending balance. The Senate Operations
and Legislative Reform committee held another hearing on SB 474 April 11. This is
the broad proposal by Senators Morse (R), Westlund and Schrader (Ds), to
both budget differently and to operate differently in the
Legislature. There will be more analysis in Legislative Report #11.
Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator
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Major Progress from the Legislature this Session
What do domestic partnerships, double majority requirement, more stable
funding for the Government Standards and Practices Commission (GSPC),
initiative reform, election law improvements and tax credits all have in
common? They are getting hearings and action in this session of the
Oregon Legislature!!! After several legislative sessions of
advocacy in opposition to proposed measures and only courtesy or no
hearings on issues of importance to the League and many other
organizations, we have the opportunity to see major progress coming from
the actions of the 74th Oregon Assembly. This Legislative
Report has a sampling, with more to come in report #11 (in two weeks).
Kappy
Eaton, Governance Coordinator
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Parks
Budget Going Forward
On April 5th, the State Parks budget passed the
Natural Resources Subcommittee with a "do pass" recommendation
to the Full Ways and Means Committee. The subcommittee and
Co-Chairs heard our plea to use Measure 66 lottery dollars to acquire
more park land for future generations. More than $23 million was
recommended to be targeted to land purchase and Parks was directed to
work harder to meet the goal of 35 park acres per 1,000 Oregonians.
The lesson here is to look at the Key Performance Measures the
Legislature sets for department budgets and target testimony to address
how the money you want spent will help meet those measurements.
Some special programs were not funded because of the concern
that new programs might not be able to be sustained long term. And
the Governor's recommended facilities maintenance budget was cut, but money
for local grants was increased.
The Full Ways and Means must still approve this budget and
there is always some adjustment of some budgets after the May forecast
and before end of session, but it looks like, for 2007-09, we will see
more land for state parks.
Peggy Lynch, Action Committee Member
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Election Laws Change
Finally,
after three sessions, the bill to remove polling places from Oregon
election laws and recognize vote by mail officially - SB 74 - was moved to the Senate floor by
the Senate Rules committee April 6. Also going to the Senate with a
"do pass" recommendation is SB 124 which allows the Attorney
General to correct clerical errors in draft or certified ballot
titles. A favorable hearing was given to SB 951 which directs community
colleges and state higher education institutions to adopt plans to
encourage students to register and vote in elections. This bill is
being promoted by the Oregon Students Association which works very hard
prior to the General Elections to register students and also to get them
to participate by voting. Many leagues in college communities
assist with these activities. It also appears that the Oregon
Presidential Primary might move to February 5, along with many other
states including New York and California. HB 2084 is in Ways and Means
with a price-tag of more than $2 million for this special election.
Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator
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Donate to the Legislative Report
Thank you to those of you who have generously contributed funds for the Legislative
Report. The Legislative Report costs money to produce,
yet we don't want to limit who can receive it by charging a subscription
fee. Please support the volunteer Action Team's efforts to share
the happenings at the Capitol with you and others. You can send a
donation, marked "Legislative Report" to the LWV address
below.
Thank you.
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You are
receiving this email from League of Women Voters of Oregon because you
have subscribed or you are a League member. To ensure that you continue
to receive emails from us, add lwvor@lwvor.org
to your address book today. If you haven't done so already, click to confirm
your interest in receiving the Legislative Report from us.
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Welcome to issue 10 of the Legislative Report. This
report will highlight issues around budgets, ethics, the criminal
justice system, and tax expenditures.
Link
here to our printer-friendly version.
We will not
publish the Legislative Report next week, due to our busy schedule at the
Day at the Legislature (see article below). The report will
resume its regular schedule the following week.
If you have not yet subscribed, just click on the "Subscribe"
button at left. You can unsubscribe at any time. The email
version of the Legislative Report is free.
Sincerely,
Norman Turrill, Action Chair
Marge Easley, Action Vice Chair
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 Day at the Legislature
April 19, 2007
Oregon State Library Room #102
9:00 am to 3:30 pm
Sponsored by
League of Women Voters
of Oregon
Registration deadline: It's not too late! Email lwvor@lwvor.org or
call 503-581-5722 (leave a message) to let us know you're coming and
mail your check by Saturday, April 14, and we'll fit you in.
Registration Form
Agenda
9:00 AM
Registration and Coffee
9:20 AM
Welcome
9:30 AM
Program
Invited Speakers:
Rep. Berger -
Modernizing Oregon's Bottle Bill
Rep. Buckley - Promoting Good Governance and Ethics
Rep. Macpherson - Dealing with
M37 Land Use Issues
Legislative Analysis and Updates
from the League's State Action Committee
12:00 PM Lunch
Invited Speakers:
Sen. Schrader, Sen. Morse, Sen.
Westlund - A New Vision for Oregon's Budget Process
1:00
PM Preparation
for meetings with Legislators
1:15
PM Visit
Legislators and Attend Committee
Hearings (We will attend legislative appointments in groups and will
make every attempt to schedule you with your own Senator or
Representative.)
3:00 -3:30 PM Return evaluation forms and legislative
visit reports
We look forward to seeing you there!
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5 MINUTE
ACTIVIST
Should the buyers and
users of tobacco and alcohol pay for health care and substance abuse
treatment? Do you approve of a higher tax on tobacco, beer, wine,
and distilled spirits? If you do, contact
your legislators and let them know that health care
for children and substance abuse treatment are important. Ask
them to support a revenue increase from tobacco, beer, wine and liquor
to fund these programs.
You can help:
Contact your senators and representatives.
To find more
information on this issue, read the article below.
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Taxing Users for Treatment, Funding Healthy Kids
Since
alcohol and drug treatment were not funded in the proposed budget,
several bills have been introduced for this purpose. SB 181 eliminates the sunset on cigarette and
tobacco tax revenues to pay for tobacco enforcement. SB 184 gets revenue from the sales of distilled
liquors. Senate Judiciary sent the bills to Ways and Means. HB 2201A proposes a tobacco tax to fund Healthy
Kids insurance coverage. It was also sent to Ways and Means. SB 844 fines meth users and uses funds for
treatment. SB 1008 from Oregon Criminal Lawyers Association
creates a Substance Abuse Treatment Fund, Oregon Liquor Control
Commission (OLCC) funds, to pay for diversion treatment programs.
Several House bills were assigned to the Revenue
Committee. HB 2347 increases the tax on wine, beer and cider
to pay for alcohol and drug prevention and treatment and mental health
treatment. HB 2535 imposes a malt beverage fee to fund local
alcohol and drug and mental health services. HB 2731 increases the tax on malt beverages, wine
and cider and uses funds for alcohol and drug prevention and treatment
and for the Oregon State Police. HB 3255 imposes additional taxes on malt beverages
to pay costs of debt for new state mental hospital facilities. HB 3421 increases the tax on malt beverages over 5
years with revenue dedicated to Oregon State Police and county alcohol
rehabilitation and detoxification programs. HB 3370 directs the OLCC to transfer 5% of revenue
to the Criminal Justice Commission for drug court treatment.
Clearly legislators are making the connection between
users and payment for substance abuse treatment, but will the bills get
passed? Lobbyists for the beer and wine industry have held off these
tax increases in previous sessions. For the above bills to stay alive,
they must be passed out of one chamber by the end of April. Time is
critical - call or e-mail your legislators and support a revenue
increase from tobacco, beer, wine and liquor. See the action
alert above for contact information.
Karen Nibler, Social Policy Coordinator
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 A Better Measure 37?
On April 12th, the Jt. Special Committee on Land Use
Fairness met to hear details of a "Framework for a Better Measure
37", a compromise that a Work Group from the Fairness Committee
had worked on during 14 meetings held since February 23rd. The
Work Group, consisting of the Co-Chairs Sen. Prozanski and Rep. Macpherson, and Sen. Schrader, Rep. Garrard and Rep. P. Smith, met with Tim Nesbitt of the Governor's Office and used as technical staff DLCD Director Lane Shetterly and DOJ Attorney Richard Whitman.
The framework was released last week, with the caveat that no agreement
had been reached by the Work Group. The Co-Chairs then took the
framework and asked technical staff to fill in the details and present
the compromise proposal for public comment/hearings. It was
acknowledged that some details had been modified. Below are my
notes from the April 12th meeting.
On claims that are pending, there would be two paths to settlement in
rural (outside UGBs) areas: an express lane where the claimant is
the owner and had a right to build when they acquired the property (and
before March 1, 1994 when the $80,000 income rule was adopted and the
Legislature adopted acreage limits). The claimant can get
1-3 homes (only what they originally asked for in the pending
claim). After the Dec. 4, 2006, deadline, they must apply under a
land use action and be denied as per M37 today.
The conditional path would have the same criteria as the express lane
BUT could ask for up to 10 homesites. These claims 1) cannot be
for high value farmland (in ORS 215) nor the Harbor Bench land (on the
extreme south Oregon coast where lilies grow) nor for groundwater
critical or restricted areas nor in viticulture areas determined by the
USDA. The conditional path also has the burden to prove that they
lost value beyond the 1-3 houses in the express lane.
Claims which have already been approved and for which the owners feel
they are "vested" (probably by having received a building
permit) may choose to continue their current path.
The process would be for ALL claimants to receive a notice from DLCD
explaining their choices. They would have 90 days to consider
their choices. (In both the express and successful conditional
paths, transferability would be granted after processing.) DLCD
would process the claims (local governments would NOT be burdened
additionally) and would "authorize" the specific number of
homesites for which claimants would qualify.
After receiving authorization, the claimants would still need to go
through a local process to develop their property. Current
development standards would apply UNLESS they would prohibit the
authorized number of homesites. There may be acreage and
clustering requirements; for instance, a maximum of 2 acres per site in
high value farmland, with maximum of 5 acres sites elsewhere.
Dwellings would need to try to avoid high value farmland. If
there were several claims, the claimant could cluster the housing on the
least valuable farmland (or on one parcel of many).
Because this process might take some time, the measure would allow
heirs to step into the shoes of a claimant if the claimant dies before
exercising the approved claim. Rights would be fully transferable
under the "new" Measure 37. There would be no time
limit for development so long as the claimant has the property; if the
claimant sells, then a maximum of 10 years is allowed for the Measure
37 authorization to be used.
There would be only ONE filing; counties and claimants would be
relieved from processing these currently duplicate claims. The
MAXIMUM homesites under this process would be 20 under any one name.
Inside UGBs, claimants could get 1 or more homesites if zoned for
residential use; would have to be the owner and have had the right to
develop when they acquired the property. Processing of these
claims would be at the local level (city or county).
All claims would be for residential requests ONLY. Measure 37
would continue forward for residential use (so new claimants would have
to be denied a land use application at the local level and apply for
relief). However, they must show at least a 20% reduction in
value. (This % comes from TX, MS and LA who have a similar
requirement of % loss of value...some more, some less.) For the
future, VALUATION IS CENTRAL. The claimants must show REAL loss.
There are also details related to cleaning up the process between state
and local jurisdictions, judicial review, and a new Office of Ombudsman
would be created to help claimants and mediate claims.
An Emergency Clause would be added so that this proposal (or multiple
bills to implement) would go into effect immediately on passage and
signing by the Governor.
LLCs (Limited Liability Corporations) would NOT be considered continual
ownership, but a spouse who married but was not added to the property
title WOULD be a continual ownership as of marriage date.
On Tuesday, April 17, the Fairness Committee will begin to accept
testimony on the above proposal. The current posted agenda
has a number of bills listed, but the text of those bills may NOT
include the elements listed above. If you choose to testify,
focus your points on the elements listed above (or listen to the
hearing over the web at the legislative website: www.leg.state.or.us/listn/listenset.htm
The League has taken no position on this proposal. We have
concerns related to the number of homes which may be allowed. We
believe the proposal is complicated and would not like to see
additional lawsuits (there are more than 160 in which the state is
involved and more at the local level). We have yet to see the
actual language of the compromise. But there are elements which
deserve consideration. Stay tuned.
Peggy Lynch, Action Committee Member
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Discrimination Issues Bring Passionate Testimony
The
House Committee on Elections, Ethics, and Rules held marathon sessions
on SB 2 and HB 2007 on April 9 - two hours
in the morning and four hours in the evening. There were five overflow
rooms and a full hallway of supporters and opponents for the evening
session. Invited, legislative and citizen testimony was
presented, in panels of three or four, alternating between proponents
and opponents. The arguments were often passionate on both
sides. The League's principles that all citizens must have equal
opportunities, and no person or group should suffer legal, economic or
administrative discrimination provided the basis for our support of
both measures.
SB 2 bans discrimination on the basis of sexual preference
(includes heterosexual as well as homosexual, bi and transgender) in
housing, public accommodation and employment. The bill is very
comprehensive, opening all of the statutes which prohibit discrimination
and making them all inclusive. The major disagreement about this
bill from the religious community stems from the religious exemption
which allows non-compliance of the proposed statute for activities
which are connected with the primary purpose of the religious
organization. It excludes nonprofit businesses owned by the
organization or other activities now directly connected with the core
operation. The federal protection, with attending case law, and
SB 2 are deemed adequate by the supporting attorneys, but questioned by
church opponents.
HB 2007 gives a right to a Declaration of Domestic
Partnership and a Certificate of Registered Domestic Partnership to
couples of the same sex in a committed relationship. Many of the
legal rights, but not all, afforded to married couples would be granted
those with the Civil Union status. Of particular concern are
rights to health care decisions, property transfer, parental and
financial decisions. The bill distinguishes between marriage, as
defined by Oregon law, and the Domestic Partnership. During the
discussion, the committee was reminded that the first attempt to allow
domestic partnerships was made during the 1973 session at which time
the House passed it. Three other attempts, in 1987, 1997 and
2005, also died after passage in only one chamber.
SB 2 passed the Senate 21 - 7. Both bills have now
been moved to the House floor by the committee.
Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator
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Legislature
in Action Near You!
This
week there are still two Joint Ways and Means Committee hearings away
from the Capitol. If you are near one of these areas, take the
time to go and observe our Legislature in action. Or even testify
if you feel strongly about an area of the budget, although sign up
early if you want a chance to be heard. To make sure the
schedule hasn't changed, check out the legislative agendas online.
The following is the current schedule as of this report:
Friday, April 13 6:30 PM
Joint Ways and Means
South Medford High School Auditorium
815 South Oakdale Ave.
Medford
Saturday, April 14 1:00 PM
Joint Ways and Means
North Bend High School
Multi-Purpose Room
2323 Pacific St.
North Bend
Town Hall Meetings on Loss of Timber Money
A group of legislative leaders from both houses and
parties will be touring some of the hardest hit counties affected by
the potential loss of federal dollars from the Secure Rural Schools and
Community Self Determination Act. Each of the meetings will be
public, but it is up to the county commissioners in each county as to
whether there will be public testimony and the format of the meetings.
If you are interested in talking to the Legislature about this issue,
contact your local commissioners and make arrangements through them.
The legislators are there to listen. Let them know what you think about
the impact of this loss of funds to your county and what you think some
of the solutions might be.
The schedule as of now is below. However, contact your
County Commissioners or check your local paper for details and last
minute changes.
Thursday, April 19 6:30 PM
Grants Pass (Josephine County)
Anne Basker Auditorium
Friday, April 20 10 or 11 AM
Gold Beach (Curry County)
Curry County Annex
3 PM Coquille (Coos County)
Coos County Annex - N. 3rd and N. Central
Saturday, April 21 8:30 AM
Roseburg (Douglas County) Holiday Inn Express Conference Room -
375 W. Harvard Blvd.
1:30 PM Eugene (Lane County)
Serbu Youth Center - 2727 Martin Luther King Blvd.
Paula Krane, Citizen Access Coordinator
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Initiative
Process Could See Major Changes
The
omnibus bill, HB 2082A, with 5 sets of amendments, has been moved
by the House Elections, Ethics and Rules committee to the House floor
via Ways and Means. Among the major revisions to the Oregon
initiative system are the following:
- all
paid-signature gatherers must register with the Secretary of State
(SOS) and carry a registration card with an id number and
photograph given by the SOS
- increases
from 25 to 1000 the number of signatures required on the initial
filing of an initiative in order to obtain a ballot title, but
allows these signatures to be included in qualifying the petition
for the ballot
- the
SOS will create a single-signature petition, exempt from witness
requirements, which can be downloaded and printed from the
Internet
- Bureau
of Labor and Industry (BOLI), SOS and Attorney General (AG) will
share information during investigations of signature gathering
- chief
petitioners must report contributions and expenditures
electronically and regularly
- chief
petitioners with paid signature gatherers must maintain payroll
records for SOS, AG and BOLI review
The League supports all of these revisions which should
improve the process. In addition, the Senate Rules committee has
heard SB 575 which would require
that all chief petitioners be Oregon citizens, and SB 73 which would prohibit
signature-gatherers on nominating petitions or voter registration cards
from being paid by the signature.
Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator
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Ethics
The
Senate Rules committee has sent | | |
