Come and participate in the Homeless Youth Rally on Monday, from 11:30 to 1:00 on the Capitol steps. You can also join the group before the rally in Room 50 from 9:00 to 11:00 for speakers, networking, and to receive information. Refreshments will be provided. We hope you can attend! Link here for more information about the day's activities.

Funding for helping this population has been proposed in the Oregon Commission on Children and Families Budget, SB 5504.

Public testimony on SB 5504 at the Human Services Subcommittee of Ways and Means will be taken on Tuesday, May 15 at 1:00 p.m. in Hearing Room F.

To learn more about homeless youth, see the League's excellent report, Oregon's Homeless Youth.

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.

Head Start Cuts Crime in Oregon

On May 1, the Public Safety Subcommittee heard about Head Start from an organization called Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Oregon. Police, sheriffs, prosecutors, and crime victims support this organization. Walt Beglau, Marion County District Attorney, and Gary Will, Chief of Police in Turner, testified for the 137 Oregon members. Two reports were quoted crediting Head Start for preventing as many as 500 kids from becoming criminals, and saving $500 million per year, of which $300 million is in reduced government expenses and increased tax revenue.

The reports are Head Start Cuts Crime in Oregon and Investing in Oregon Pre-Kindergarten Head Start Saves Money.

Karen Nibler, Social Policy Coordinator

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LWVOR Action Committee

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
Gail Holmes
Peggy Lynch
Ellen Maddex
Janet Markee
Erin Miller
Margaret Noel
Barbara Ross
Nancy Stevens
Pam Vavra

Intern:
Terra Ashford

Legislative Report Editor:
Rebecca Smith

Ethics on Waiting List

We are waiting for SB 10A, which contains substantive ethics elements, to be discussed in Ways and Means. SB 5522, which addresses Legislative Branch Agencies and contains support for legislators' offices and staff, was heard in Ways and Means General Government Subcommittee May 8. We followed this bill in the Senate Legislative Operations and Reform committee, which had it referred to them for discussion, because the link between limiting the personal use of campaign funds is tied to legislators receiving adequate support for expenses.

Also on the waiting list are the several bills from the Oregon Law Commission (HB 2594, 2595, 2596, 2597, and 2598) relating to ethics practices. The House Elections, Ethics and Rules committees held information hearings in February as well as public hearings in April. No action has been taken since.

Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator

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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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.

Welcome to issue 13 of the Legislative Report.

Because of our state convention, there will be no Legislative Report next week. We will return to our regular schedule the following week.

Link here to our printer-friendly version.

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

construction worker with building How to Pay for New Schools?

As some parts of Oregon experience exploding growth, the issue of who pays for new school buildings has risen to the top of some legislators' agendas this session, including House Majority Leader Dave Hunt of Clackamas County and Rep. Chuck Burley of Bend. Previous sessions have called for Systems Development Charges (SDCs) to be assessed against new housing. Currently, such services as sewer, water, roads and parks can collect SDCs to help pay for new facilities. Local governments were, by law, stopped from collecting SDCs for school facilities.

The League has testified in support of SB 336, which would allow school capacity to be considered in land use planning decisions. We also supported HB 2525, which would remove the state preemption and allow local governments to charge SDCs for schools.

Homebuilders have long fought these solutions. On May 10, the Senate voted to move forward on a new proposal. SB 1036 allows school districts to charge a construction excise tax on ALL new construction in their district. This tax would be assessed on commercial and industrial construction as well as housing. HBA representative Jon Chandler says "After all, houses are where jobs go to sleep."

Of concern to the League is that this proposal preempts other local governments from assessing construction excise taxes. Some cities have already started to use this tool to supplement their shrinking property taxes due to prior tax initiatives. Wilsonville Mayor Charlotte Lehan pointed out that, while SB 1036 may assist schools, "it does this at the expense of local cities and counties by preempting them from ever using construction excise taxes for any other purpose."

Most would agree that more financial tools are needed to help both growing school districts and those which have huge maintenance issues and low tax bases. HJR 13 has been approved by the House to allow the state to help with school bonding. If your school district has special facilities needs, be sure to contact your legislator with your concerns and possible solutions.

Peggy Lynch, Action Committee Portfolio Member

Woman teaching child to read Child Welfare Bills Improve System

Senators Brown and Kruse along with Representatives Krieger and Schaufler met during last year's legislative interim and formulated a set of bills to address serious system failures in child welfare cases. SB 408A, 409A, 410A, 412A and 413A passed the Senate and were reviewed in the House Judiciary Committee on May 2. Four other bills, SB 411A, 414A, 415A and 282A were sent to Ways and Means from Senate Judiciary and have not yet been scheduled.

Parental Rights: SB 408A prohibits the Department of Human Services (DHS) from filing a petition to terminate parental rights until the court has determined that the permanency plan for the child should be adoption. This avoids an automatic filing requirement after a child has been in foster care for 15 of last 22 months.

SB 409A authorizes the court to direct DHS to place a child with a parent, relative, or another foster care provider if the court determines that the child's current placement is not in best interest of the child. Currently, the court orders a dependent child to be placed in DHS custody and DHS decides the placement. The placements are reviewed every 6 months by a Citizen Review Board. Any party to the case can request a court review. This bill adds the options for placement with parent, relative or another foster care home.

Required Reports: SB 410A authorizes the DHS Director to convene a sensitive review committee to review the actions of the department as in a case of death or serious abuse of a child while in care. This committee may also be convened upon request by the President of the Senate or Speaker of the House of Representatives. The DHS Director shall submit a written report of findings and conclusions of the committee to the President or Speaker who requested the review.

SB 412A requires DHS to notify the child's attorney, Court Appointed Special Advocate, parents and parents' attorney within 3 days of a child abuse report while the child is in substitute care.

SB 413A requires DHS to report data on number of children in foster care, along with the number of placements for each child and placement with siblings or relatives. This information is currently gathered but not routinely submitted to the Legislature. This bill will have no fiscal impact since the information is already collected.

Funding: The four bills in Ways and Means require additional funding for DHS Child Welfare. SB 411A appropriates money for Public Defense Services Commission (PDSC) to improve legal representation of parents and children in juvenile dependency cases. The recommendations were to increase per hour payment to defense attorneys and to increase training in juvenile dependency for those attorneys. The PDSC Budget SB 5535 was heard in Public Safety Subcommittee on May 3 and the funding allotted to the agency was insufficient to meet this recommendation.

Family Relationships: SB 414A requires DHS to make reasonable efforts to place siblings together. DHS may be required to pay relatives foster care payments. SB 415A directs DHS to appoint an ombudsperson for child welfare complaints to be housed in the Governor's Office.

SB 282A requires DHS to make diligent efforts to preserve family relationships. The bill requires DHS to record the number of placements, the schools the child attended, the face-to-face contacts by the caseworker and visits with the parents or siblings. If the child is 14 or older, DHS will record progress toward graduation or efforts made to assist child toward graduation. This bill is tied to additional caseworkers and additional requirements for permanency hearings.

The administrators for the Children, Adults and Families Division of DHS participated in the workgroup during the interim and assisted in drafting all the bills.

Karen Nibler, Social Policy Coordinator

Calendar So, What Happens Next Year?

Who will mind the store and how it will be done was the subject of a fascinating meeting of the Senate Legislative Operations and Reform Committee on May 2. Members of the committee had a conversation with Senate Majority Leader Kate Brown and Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli about the management and goals of the Special 2008 legislative session scheduled for February. It was the committee's final meeting for 2007, and questions about how the first "annual session" would go were numerous. The decision has already been made to refer a constitutional amendment to voters in 2008 if the pilot project proves successful.

Some objectives: Senate President Peter Courtney, a member of the committee, referenced Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 1, which created the deadlines of the current session that will end June 29. He emphasized three elements which he considers the core for the one month 2008 Assembly to do its work: (1) all bills must be pre-session filed; (2) budget issues must be addressed; and (3) current committees must be retained through the interim and into the Special session.

Managing the work: Committee administrator Marjorie Taylor distributed a packet of historical background information about numbers of bills introduced in sessions since 1977, number heard, and number actually passed. The average number of bills requested by a Senate member is 30 and the average number by a Representative is 29. Some setting of priorities in bill drafting by Legislative Counsel was suggested, and Senator Metzger recommended that interim committees should have substance in the bills they proposed, that all bills go through the committees with critical issues identified by the Speaker and President of the Assembly.

Senator Brown addressed the problem of trying to limit bill introduction for a short session as well as considering only the introduction of emergency processed bills. Senator Ferrioli agreed that pre-session filing would be helpful and perhaps managed through the caucuses. There is the issue of confidentiality in caucuses, but perhaps the leaders could share the legislative ideas with each other for caucus consideration.

Some attention was paid to the management of regular legislative sessions with the idea that if more of the large ticket items are ready at the session's beginning, less time would be spent on managing budgets and more time could be spent on the people's bills. This led to comments about the time taken by state agency budgets, with the suggestion that any agency with housekeeping legislation, should have it readied during the interim, with access to research and legal advice during the interim. The problems of Legislative Counsel during this session - lateness in drafting bills, incorrect drafting, length of time for amendments to come back - were considered as well as what steps should be taken to remedy the problems.

It was obvious that not much attention has yet been paid to the goals and management of the 2008 session, but the discussion has begun, and from the interest expressed by members of the committee as well as by Brown and Ferrioli, we can make an assumption that more serious plans will be generated between now and when the interim begins in July. There seemed to be agreement on keeping current committees in place and having significant bills ready by October/November.

Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator

Election Law Reforms Require Patience

Oops!: A funny thing (not laughable) has happened to SB 74. On May 2, the House Elections, Ethics and Rules committee held a work session on SB 74 and adopted two amendments, not seen until the meeting. These amendments would do harm to the elections process: One removes the ability of election office personnel to leave the office on Election Day to help a disabled person outside with a ballot. The original bill removes all polling places EXCEPT the county election offices, which remain as the only polling place in each of the 36 Oregon counties. The amendments apparently remove these offices, as well as prohibiting any person from taking a ballot to another person, thus disenfranchising a disabled person in a car outside. It appears that, in writing the amendments, the protective statutes were eliminated.

The Elections Division and the Secretary of State are checking to see what can be done about a bill that has passed out of a committee to the House floor with a "do pass" recommendation with unacceptable amendments. Stay tuned.

Double majority: HJR 14, the double majority revision requiring a constitutional amendment, is on hold to see when the measure 37 bills will be on the ballot. It appears it won't be until one of the 2008 elections.

Patience, patience (hmm)..

Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator

Also Waiting on Initiative Reform

We are still waiting for HB 2082A to be scheduled for hearing in Senate Rules. It passed the House April 18. This is the bill which tightens up regulations for paid petition passers, requires registration with the Secretary of State (SOS), picture ID and training, provides for payroll oversight by the Bureau of Labor and Industry, the Attorney General and Secretary of State, allows electronic single signature petitions, and requires 1000 signatures on the prescriptive petition in order to receive a ballot title, among other provisions.

After the flurry of pent-up governance issues put into bill form, many held in abeyance for almost 14 years, the current snail's pace to get some of the bills moved is frustrating. Patience is not a virtue in some of our vocabularies!

Kappy Eaton, Governance Coordinator

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