Opinion
A4
Thursday, March 24, 2022
OUR VIEW
Should Oregon
have campaign
fi nance limits?
regon is one of only a handful of states
that does not have contribution limits
for political campaigns. And because of
O
an Oregon Supreme Court decision last week, it’s
pretty clear Oregon voters will not get a chance to
vote this year on a series of proposals.
The court didn’t block the campaign fi nance
proposals per se. They can be reintroduced. The
court decided to not step into a dispute between
Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan and the
people backing three campaign fi nance initiative
proposals.
Fagan said the proposals did not comply with
the law because they did not meet requirements.
She pointed out they did not quote the entire sec-
tion of the law that they sought to change. Initia-
tive backers argued other petitions for the ballot
had failed to do that in the past. The Oregon
Supreme Court declined to get involved, saying
the backers could have given themselves adequate
time to make the required changes if they had
started their eff orts sooner. But that ruling essen-
tially means the backers have run out of time.
Campaign fi nance proposals will be back. Leg-
islators will surely bring forth some proposals
during the 2023 session. Supporters of initiative
proposals will try again if the Legislature doesn’t
act, or even if it does.
The interesting question is what should the
limits be? $10 per person per campaign cycle?
$100? $1,000? Should unions get to contribute
what they want but business groups not? That
was one idea that has been proposed in Oregon.
And then there are those independent expendi-
tures not directly tied to a candidate. How would
Oregon corral those?
When you are looking at candidates for the
May primary or in November, you can dive in
yourself and look at where their money is coming
from. Oregon already has strong laws requiring
disclosure of contributions and spending.
Go here: tinyurl.com/ORlookup. Look up
your candidate. It’s not necessarily the most user-
friendly database, but we are sure you can fi gure
it out. Where a candidate gets the money to run
is another piece of useful information when
thinking about how to vote.
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Ag overtime bill is a win, not a victory
BILL
HANSELL
OTHER VIEWS
efore even the fi rst gavel
dropped on the 2022 legis-
lative session, I knew that
one of the most consequential bills
of my legislative career would be
considered.
HB 4002, or the agriculture over-
time bill, was a divisive bill from
the start and presented the Oregon
Legislature with two options. One
that would favor one side to the det-
riment of the rest of Oregon, espe-
cially the agricultural economy. This
is what I called a win — a win for
a select few at the cost of the rest of
us. The other path included com-
promise, good-faith negotiation and
a bill that would generate support
from both parties. This is what I
called a victory — a victory for all
of Oregon.
I worked hard to get a victory, not
just a win on agriculture overtime.
But the fi nal result was a win — a
win for Willamette Valley liberal
special interests who donate money
to the majority Democrat’s cam-
paign funds.
It will make these groups feel
B
good about themselves, but it won’t
make Oregonians better off . HB
4002 will result in higher prices at
the grocery store for working fami-
lies, hours and pay capped for agri-
cultural workers, and ultimately the
shuttering of small family farms that
fi ll my district.
Agriculture is a unique industry.
During harvest seasons, it requires
long hours to reap all the crops
before frost or rains come. In
ranching, there is even more nuance.
The bottom line is that farmers
and rancher don’t set their own
prices, they have to take whatever
price the markets are off ering. The
Democrats advanced an argument
about ag overtime that essentially
stated that a bushel of wheat har-
vested in the 41st hour is worth 50%
more than one harvested at the 5th
hour. Anyone who has grown up
around farms knows that that is not
true. And requiring farmers to pay
their workers as such will soon result
in a dwindling number of family
farms to even employ these workers.
HB 4002 leveled all these unique
distinctions in agriculture and man-
dated a one-size-fi ts-all “solution”
that is really no solution at all. The
“olive branches” that Democrats
extended, the agricultural commu-
nity never asked for. One example:
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Under this new overtime pay man-
date, family farms will now be able
to apply for tax credits to ease the
burden of the new overtime pay
mandate. Now taxpayers will be sub-
sidizing this new program. Farmers
and ranchers never asked for that,
but the majority decided that is what
would be best for them.
I worked hard to come to a com-
promise. Simple adjustments for sea-
sonality, fl exible scheduling, and
recognizing the diff erence between
the kinds of agriculture would
have helped. But the majority party
rejected all these and charged ahead
with what seemed to be a predeter-
mined outcome, driven by their spe-
cial interest groups.
I know how much Oregon’s
farmers and ranchers care about
their employees and their fami-
lies. HB 4002 will now force those
farmers and ranchers to make diffi -
cult decisions about how much they
can aff ord their employees to work. I
grew up on these kinds of farms and
I am afraid that under this policy,
less and less of those farms will be
around in the future.
———
Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, is in
his 10th year representing the seven
counties that make up Senate Dis-
trict 29.
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