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LWVOR President:
Marge Easley
LWVOR Action Committee
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Chair:
Norman Turrill
Citizen Access Coordinator:
Paula Krane
Governance Coordinator:
Kappy Eaton
Natural Resources Coordinator:
Peggy Lynch
Social Policy Coordinator:
Karen Nibler
Portfolio members and committee representatives:
Bob Adams
Debbie Aiona
Jane Baumgarten
Diana Bodtker
Anna Braun
Barbara Browning
Sarah Chaplen
Anita Francis
Barbara Fredericks
Liz Frenkel
Norma Jean Germond
Gail Holmes
Ellen Maddex
Janet Markee
Erin Miller
Margaret Noel
Barbara Ross
Nancy Stevens
Pam Vavra
Legislative Report Editor:
Rebecca Smith
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LWVOR Legislative Report, (c) 2008. Information
contained in this report may be reprinted with attribution to the League
of Women Voters of Oregon.
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Volume
18, Issue 2
February 8, 2008
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The race is on! There are only twenty days to
consider, discuss, and enact legislation during this special session,
so legislators, as well as those of us following this session, must
act quickly.
After Senator Larry George challenged the session's emergency status,
on February 1 the Oregon Supreme Court upheld the 2007 legislative
decision to try an "annual" session, indicating that budgetary
and social issues need attention before 2009.
Despite construction in the Capitol that bars legislators from their
regular offices and limits hearing space, the session convened February
4 with a number of hearings scheduled after the 8:30 a.m. gavel.
The watch is on for today's revenue forecast, which will have a
big impact on which bills move forward. See Economic Forecast...
below for more information on the forecast.
Kappy Eaton
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 How Full Is Our Piggy Bank?
All budgets wait for today's
economic forecast. In preparation for the all-important news,
the Ways and Means Committee was briefed on Feb. 4 on two possible
scenarios for dealing with changes in the budget figures as adopted
in June, 2007:
- If there is a revenue shortfall of between $25
million and $125 million, certain priorities would occur: Rainy
Day would receive $139.5 million (1 % of the GF expenditures); 39
more state police by June, 2009; reinvested DHS case load savings
of $9.5 million ($14.6 million); $350,000 for Big Look; $4.4
million for Measure 49.
- If there is a revenue status-quo, there would be the
same amount to Rainy Day Fund; add-backs to DHS $14.6 million;
Child Welfare issues (staff), OHP Health Services, 39 state police
by 1/09; preserve affordable housing $2 million; water storage,
quality, conservation $3 million; small business loans to veterans
$250,000; Big Look $75,000 more; one-time disaster relief
supplement $500,000; Kids Wrap-around Services start $275,000; and
Oregon 150, $500,000 with match.
Today will tell us which plan, if either,
legislators will have to follow in planning for the fiscal year.
Other
revenue bills of note: SB 1081 would re-connect with
the federal tax code and other tax provisions. SB 1082 would direct the
Department of Revenue to report on the level of individual taxpayer
compliance to the Legislature and make recommendations on improving
compliance.
Kappy Eaton
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 Is Affordable Housing a House of Cards?
Contracts on more than 7,000 rent-subsidized apartments receiving
federal support through the Housing and Urban Development
Section 8 and the Department of Agriculture Rural
Development programs are due to expire over the next seven years.
To preserve existing rent-subsidized affordable housing and
support development and implementation of local strategies to end
homelessness, Senator Betsy Johnson, Chair of
the Transportation and Economic Development Subcommittee of Ways and
Means, has introduced SB 1073 on behalf of The Housing Alliance, a
statewide group of over 60 organizations (including LWVOR). The total package
is $2.75 million in the 2008 supplemental legislative session and
includes a General Fund expenditure of $2 million to seed the Housing Acquisition Fund.
The remaining $750,000 would address local solutions to homelessness.
HOUSING
ACQUISITION FUND: Many of the private owners of Section 8
and rural development properties are interested in selling and would
prefer to see the housing remain affordable beyond the federal support
expiration date. The $2 million would seed a revolving loan fund
that is projected to leverage an additional $26 to $46 million in
private, philanthropic, and local public funds. The resources
would be used to provide interim financing for buyers willing to
maintain current rent levels. This would prevent displacement
of very-low-income seniors, people with disabilities, and families from
their homes. It also would maintain the flow of federal rent
subsidies for these properties, amounting to millions of dollars in
federal support for Oregon.
 LOCAL
SOLUTIONS TO HOMELESSNESS: In 2006, Oregon
formed the interagency Ending Homelessness Advisory Council.
The council will announce in 2008 the first steps in a plan to end
homelessness. The $750,000 included in SB 1073 would provide resources
to counties to assess local conditions and realign their local
systems.
Debbie Aiona
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 Approved on November 6, 2007, Measure 49 now
requires additional funding for the Department of Land Conservation and
Development (DLCD) in order to be fully implemented. It is
critical that the $8.2 million requested by DLCD (and the Department of
Justice) be funded so that the 6,843 Measure 37 claimants can receive
information about their options under Measure 49, and so that neighbors
and other Oregonians can have these options clarified. It is
important that these claims be addressed quickly. The Joint
Ways and Means Co-chairs have recommended $6.7 million IF the revenue
forecast is stable and $4.4 million should the forecast be in
decline.
Peggy Lynch
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 Session Rules Create Contention
Many of the early meetings on day 1 of the session had to be cancelled
because the House was in session for three hours arguing over its
rules for the supplemental session. Members of the minority
bitterly complained about the new rule to require 31 signatures on any
petition for a Minority Report, claiming it stifled the ability to
provide new ideas and limited minority rights.
Agreement was reached in the following areas: the committees will be
starting at 8:00 a.m. and finishing about 6:30 p.m. almost every day.
Depending on how things go, there might be a weekend session or two.
Each chamber's committees must have heard and voted on bills to go
forward by February 12, and the bills must go through the second
chamber's committees by February 19. All committees must
complete their work on all measures no later than February 21,
2008.
Agenda notices for hearings will be 48 hours in the first chamber, and 24
hours in the second. Remember that a number of bills are earmarked
for discussion only as placeholders for the 2009 session.
Kappy Eaton
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 Reducing Oregon's Greenhouse
Gas Emissions
HB 3612 would require a 20%
reduction in energy usage in state buildings by 2015. This would
save $6 million, but would require funding for additional staffing to
implement. A second bill (HB 3610) would require state
agencies to evaluate policies and specify reporting requirements for major
greenhouse gas emitters such as our 1700 landfills, coal and
natural gas fired electric generating plants, and the transportation
industry (gasoline and diesel powered vehicles) and give the new Oregon
Global Warming Commission recommendations. For more
information, see the Legislative Report Background Page.
Bob Adams
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Initiative Reform Initiates Changes
As the new requirements for paid petition gatherers and their
employers went into effect January 2, grumbling from some petition
businesses has started. HB 2082 (2007) requires that
employers keep payroll records regarding the number of signatures
collected by each employee and the basis for paying them hourly,
weekly, etc. It is against the law to pay by the signature. Some
counting of petitions has been delayed because the paperwork hasn't
been turned in, and Bill Sizemore is charging that the Secretary of
State is "destroying" the initiative process and denying
citizens their rights. Chairs of the Senate and House Rules committees
have indicated they will not be discussing changes to HB 2082 during
the supplemental session.
 As
you have undoubtedly heard, an important ruling was decided this week
on the issue of whether signatures on a referendum (or initiative)
petition are equal to a vote. On February 1 the federal judge lifted
the injunction on implementing the Domestic Partnerships law (now in
effect February 4) and held that signing a petition is not
tantamount to voting. Opponents of the legislation, with funding
from the Alliance Defense Fund (religious
liberty attorneys based in Arizona), indicated they may appeal or file
an initiative to repeal the act. The League is also celebrating
this ruling as an important step toward eliminating discrimination.
For more information on this issue, see the Legislative Report Background Page.
House Elections, Ethics and Rules heard a bill (HB 3604) February 5 that would allow
a chief petitioner to withdraw an initiative that has already
qualified for the ballot.
SJR 40 is a proposed
constitutional amendment that would establish an indirect process
for all initiatives, both constitutional amendments and statutes.
It would require that all state initiative petitions be submitted to
the Legislature to refer, reject, take no action, or refer with an
alternative to voters. If it is heard in Senate Rules, the League can
support this measure if it applies optionally to statutory initiatives.
Our position favors the indirect
initiative process for constitutional amendments, which would allow
more public discussion of the issues involved and allow revisions or
alternatives.
A complicated measure heard by the Senate Rules Committee, SB 1083, has several important
components:
- the
Supreme Court must rule on a ballot title petition in 30 days
(there is no limit now);
- the
Secretary of State must verify each signature on state initiative
or referendum petitions (the current verification by formula is
eliminated);
- all
election violation complaints must be determined in 90 days; and
- no
person can be disqualified from voting simply because a political
party said that mail was returned as undeliverable.
Kappy Eaton
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 More Nonpartisan Offices?
On February 6 and 7, the Senate Rules Committee heard SB 1096 which designates the
offices of Secretary of State, State Treasurer, and Attorney General as
nonpartisan; SB 1070 which requires the
Legislature to provide funding for statutes created or amended by
initiative petition if passed by voters, but no funding if the
measure is defeated (the League is seeking clarification of the meaning
of this proposal); and SB 1102 which provides for fusion
voting. The League's Election Methods study committee
is researching fusion and other ballot alternatives. For more
information on this issue, see the Legislative Report Background Page.
Kappy Eaton
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Out-of-State
Contributions Targeted
SB 1071, which would require
that all out-of-state campaign contributions be highlighted in a
different colored font on ORESTAR, was heard in the Senate
Rules Committee February 5. ORESTAR is Oregon's online campaign finance
disclosure system.
Kappy Eaton
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 SB 1076 would create a Task
Force on Shared Responsibility Model to study the financing of Oregon
higher education.
Kappy
Eaton
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