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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 25, 2017)
A8 News wallowa.com January 25, 2017 Wallowa County Chieftain Legislation would fi ll gaps left by Obamacare repeal EO Media Group The Oregon Transportation Commission Thursday postponed the release of a draft of a management audit of the Oregon Department of Transportation. The 60-page report contains trade secrets of the firm that conducted the review that must be redacted before its release . Commission nixes expected release of ODOT review By Paris Achen Capital Bureau SALEM — The Oregon Transportation Commission on Thursday nixed a sched- uled briefi ng on draft fi nd- ings of a management audit of the Oregon Department of Transportation. The audit is intended to ensure ODOT is prepared to effectively manage a poten- tial transportation package that legislators could ap- prove later this year. That legislation — one of Gov. Kate Brown’s pri- orities as governor — could hike gas taxes and fees on drivers and funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in ad- ditional funding to ODOT. The state in September awarded a nearly $1 million contract to New York-based McKinsey & Company to conduct the long-awaited review. The briefi ng on draft fi ndings had been added to the commission’s Jan. 19 meeting agenda after the EO Media Group/Pamplin Me- dia Group Capital Bureau earlier this month requested a copy of the 60-page doc- ument. Bret West, an adminis- trator with the Department of Administrative Services who oversees the McK- insey’s contract, received the draft fi ndings Dec. 23, said Matt Shelby, a DAS spokesman. However, the document contained McK- insey’s trade secrets, includ- ing strategies the fi rm uses to conduct management reviews. Trade secrets are exempt from disclosure un- der Oregon public records law and had to be redacted, Shelby said. West said after receiving the draft fi ndings he asked McKinsey to expand on two areas in the review related to confl icts of interest and the agency’s decision-making authority. See AUDIT, Page A9 Bill expands insurance mandate to cover abortions, other services By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau Oregon is joining several other states that are seeking to protect no-cost birth control in case the federal mandate is rolled back as part of a poten- tial repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Most legislation in other states has focused on pre- serving mandatory insurance coverage of hormonal contra- ceptives without a patient co- pay, with some other moderate expansions on the federal act. Oregon’s legislation, however, reaches far beyond the federal law, to include abortions, va- sectomies and other services. Oregon’s legislation — the Reproductive Health Equity Act — was in the works well before New York billionaire Donald Trump won the No- vember presidential election. However, Trump’s vow to repeal and replace President Obama’s landmark health care law, popularly dubbed Obamacare, could intensify pressure to pass the bill. Repub- licans have made the repeal a fi rst order of business this year. The bill is intended to re- inforce and fi ll in gaps in re- productive health care cover- age under Obamacare and to expand those who are eligible for the benefi ts, said Laurel Swerdlow, advocacy director of Planned Parenthood Advo- cates of Oregon. “We remain deeply con- cerned with what is happening on the national level,” Swerd- low said in a phone interview Wednesday. “This legislation is on no way to be a remedy for political attacks on the Afford- able Care Act. This is legisla- tion to establish coverage for reproductive health care for all Oregonians.” For instance, abortion and vasectomies, services ex- cluded from the Affordable Care Act mandate, would be covered under Oregon’s leg- islation. Men, transgender in- dividuals and undocumented immigrants would be eligible for the coverage. “All Oregonians need ac- cess to full reproductive health coverage for families to thrive, for a healthier state and for a stronger economy,” Swerdlow said. “Working families are under so much strain today, and oftentimes, they have a hard time making ends meet. “What this legislation does is it recognizes that a right without access is not a right at all,” she add, referring to the right to terminate pregnancies. “What we really want is to make sure that all persons have access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care that they need. We don’t always know a person’s circumstanc- es. We aren’t in their shoes.” Planned Parenthood Ad- vocates of Oregon was one of several advocacy groups that worked on the legisla- tion, sponsored by Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresh- am, and Rep. Phil Barker, D-Aloha. See BILL, Page A9 Lawmakers’ spending framework includes budger cuts, no new taxes By Claire Withycombe Capital Bureau SALEM — The co-chairs of the Legislature’s joint bud- get-writing committee Thurs- day presented a spending plan that included cuts in services to refl ect the state’s expected $1.8 billion shortfall for the next two-year budget cycle. The $20.265 billion bud- get outline presented by Sen. Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin, and Rep. Nancy Nathanson, D-Eugene, refl ects that short- fall and describes potential cuts to general program areas such as health care, education and public safety. Devlin and Nathanson said the framework makes large cuts to key state services. “To be clear, to be clear, we do not believe the resourc- es as allocated in this docu- ment are suffi cient,” Devlin said in remarks during a press conference at the Oregon State Capitol. Senate Majority Lead- er Ginny Burdick said in a statement that the framework demonstrated a need for reve- nue reform. The state’s Republicans, meanwhile, presented the framework as an opportunity to cut state spending. Both parties stressed maintaining “critical” services; the frame- work, if implemented, could mean changes ranging from higher college tuition costs to cuts in dental care for low-in- come people. Gov. Kate Brown’s $20.8 billion recommended bud- get released Dec. 1, was put together assuming $897 mil- lion in new revenue gathered through new taxes and the closing two tax loopholes. By contrast, under the framework presented by Devlin and Nathanson does not assume the new revenue Brown proposed. Under the plan, the Oregon Health Authority spending would be 27.5 percent less than needed to maintain cur- rent service levels, while the Department of Human Ser- vices would receive 8.7 per- cent less. Proposed cuts vary in size between K-12, higher educa- tion and other state education programs that don’t fall into those two categories, such as career technical education. The co-chairs were also quick to note that cuts to some state services mean cuts to matching funds from the fed- eral government. It’s also unclear wheth- er any direct cuts to federal funding may be coming down the pike under the new admin- istration. Much of the $1.8 billion shortfall comes from the loss of federal subsidies for health care costs for low-income Or- egonians, and the mounting costs of the state’s public pen- sion system, which faces $22 billion in unfunded liability. See BUDGET, Page A9