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Wednesday, June 24, 2015 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
$13 minimum wage proposal unveiled Health insurance rates
will go up in 2016
By Jonathan J. cooper
Associated Press
SALEM (AP) — House
Speaker Tina Kotek unveiled
a proposal Monday to gradu-
ally raise Oregon’s statewide
minimum wage to $13 an
hour by 2018 and give local
governments the right to go
higher if they choose.
The change would give
Oregon the nation’s highest
minimum wage Jan. 1, when
all workers would have to be
paid at least $11 an hour, up
from the current $9.25. The
wage floor would go up $1 a
year until it hits $13 an hour
in 2018.
It’s hard when people
are really scraping to get
by and we’re not taking
up important issues.
— tina Kotek
Coming less than a month
before lawmakers must wrap
up the legislative session,
Kotek’s proposal is a long-
shot. She said she hopes to
at least start a debate that
can continue after lawmak-
ers leave Salem. Kotek also
acknowledged that raising
the minimum wage is viewed
skeptically by some of her
fellow Democrats in the
Senate.
“It’s hard when people
are really scraping to get
by and we’re not taking
up important issues,” said
Kotek, a Portland Democrat.
“So I’m just trying to make
sure this important issue
is still there by the end of
session.”
Kotek said raising the
minimum wage statewide
would get low-income work-
ers across the state closer
to a sustainable wage while
allowing jurisdictions with
higher costs, like Portland, to
go further.
Business interests and
Republicans object to raising
the minimum wage or lift-
ing the pre-emption, which
prohibits local governments
from setting their own pay
requirements.
“They do not have a
bookkeeper full time,” said
Jan Meekcoms, Oregon state
director for the National
Federation of Independent
Businesses, a small-business
committee ends stalemate,
approves ore. marijuana bill
SALEM (AP) — After
weeks of stalemate, a state
legislative committee has
advanced a bill setting up Ore-
gon’s legal marijuana system.
The approval of the joint
House-Senate committee on
Monday sends the bill to the
full House, which can take it
up as soon as this week.
The measure includes a
compromise on local con-
trol, an issue that has stymied
previous attempts to pass
marijuana bills. The compro-
mise would allow local gov-
ernments to ban recreational
and medical marijuana busi-
nesses in counties that voted
overwhelmingly against Mea-
sure 91 in last year’s election.
Elsewhere, voters would have
to approve a ban on marijuana
sales.
Lawmakers didn’t take up a
separate bill that would create
a sales tax on pot in place of
the harvest tax in Measure 91.
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lobby group. “They do not
have an HR department. The
administrative nightmare of
keeping track of all this, in
different jurisdictions with
different wages, would be
horrific.”
the administrative
nightmare of keeping
track of all this,
in different jurisdictions
with different wages,
would be horrific.
— Jan Meekcoms
Advocates of raising the
minimum wage have pro-
posed a ballot measure set-
ting it at $15 statewide.
Justin Norton-Kertson of the
group 15 Now PDX, which
proposed the ballot measure,
said he welcomed Kotek’s
proposal. If her bill were
to pass, the group of labor
and liberal groups push-
ing for the increase would
decide whether to continue
pushing a ballot measure to
reach $15.
PORTLAND (AP) —
Health insurance premi-
ums are poised to go up for
220,000 Oregonians who buy
their own coverage, accord-
ing to the state’s proposed
rates unveiled Thursday.
In some cases, insurance
companies proposed rates
that were similar to or bet-
ter than the current rates, but
they were told by the state
that they must be raised. The
state says the cost of medical
care has far outstripped rev-
enue, forcing insurers to dip
into reserve funds.
The proposed premi-
ums are still subject to pub-
lic comment and formal
approval.
Under the state’s proposal,
the cost for the lowest priced
silver plan for a 40-year-old
will be $271 per month next
year, up nearly $50 from this
year, the Oregonian reported.
Most insured Oregonians
g et co v erag e fro m an
employer or the government,
so they’re unaffected by the
proposed rate hikes. About
75 percent of people in the
individual market, who are
affected, qualify for federal
tax credits averaging almost
$200 per month.
Moda Health, which
covers more than 100,000
Oregonians in the individual
market, would raise premi-
ums an average of 25.6 per-
cent under the state’s rates.
Last year, Oregon avoided
some of the big premium
hikes seen elsewhere follow-
ing the implementation of
President Barack Obama’s
healthcare law. State offi-
cials have often boasted that
Oregonians enjoyed some
the lowest premiums in the
nation. But now the state
says those rates were too low.
According to the state, in
2014, insurers spent $830
million on medical care for
people with individual plans
and collected $703 million in
premiums.
“We need to ensure a mar-
ket that long term is stable,
competitive and ensures
pricing that is much closer to
the cost of delivering health-
care,” said Pat Allen, direc-
tor of the state Department
of Consumer and Business
Services, which oversees the
Insurance Division.