Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Page 10
Mixed bag of results reviewed, as 2007 Legislature hears gavel to end session
(Continued from page 1)
improve primary-care ac-
cess. That bill was passed
into law, along with another
piece of legislation address-
ing health insurance for pub-
lic bodies.
But Maurer noted that
when it came to bad bills
introduced and passed, “the
list is endless.”
“The worst bill to pass
this session, from a financial
standpoint, is Senate Bill
426, the pooling of school
district health insurance,” he
said.
SB 426 was a top legis-
lative priority for Democ-
ratic Gov. Kulongoski’s
office. It was signed into
law in March, and took ef-
fect immediately thereafter.
Maurer said that the bill
was a “huge payoff” for the
Oregon Education Associa-
tion (OEA), the statewide
teachers union. That group
contributed large sums to
Kulongoski’s 2006 re-
election campaign. Plus, the
governor’s chief of staff,
Chip Terhune, worked as an
OEA lobbyist prior to his
current stint.
The passage of SB 426
will have “unintended con-
sequences on the direction
of the center of power in this
state,” Maurer said.
Maurer said that SB 426
will enable OEA to win its
continuing battle with the
Oregon School Boards As-
sociation (OSBA), which is
partially funded through its
own insurance pool.
“In my opinion, it has
nothing to do with health
insurance,” Maurer said.
“It’s the power struggle be-
tween the OSBA and OEA.
This was the OEA’s way of
cutting off financing to their
enemy.”
He also found fault with
SB 2 and HB 2007, which
outlawed discrimination
based on sexual orientation
and established the legal
framework for civil unions.
An attempted rewrite of
Measure 37, a property
rights law passed by voters
in the 2004 election, was
passed during the session
and will be referred to voters
in November. Maurer said
that he disagreed with the
proposed changes.
“Measure 37 clearly is
an example of how Portland
Democrats controlled the
process,” Maurer said. “The
battle is really not about
Josephine County. The bat-
tle truly is about the Wil-
lamette Valley, where there
are a number of very con-
tentious Measure 37 claims,
which are really the basis for
the whole animosity and
vitriolic rhetoric that sur-
rounds it.”
Maurer said that he
learned a lot during his first
session, and was able to
work well with legislators
including Sara Gelser (D-
Corvallis) and Tina Kotek
(D-Portland).
“It’s a steep learning
curve, but I enjoyed the
process,” Maurer said. “I
have every intention of re-
turning.”
Sen. Alan Bates
(D-Ashland)
Bates, a legislative vet-
eran, couldn’t be happier
about the 2007 Legislature.
“This is one of the best
sessions I’ve had,” Bates
said. “I accomplished more
this time than any of the
previous ones.”
Adequate funding for
K-12 education, along with
the state’s universities and
community colleges, tops
Bates’ list of positive devel-
opments at the capitol. A
bill to add recycling deposits
to water bottles also was
included, along with a state-
wide system for reclaiming
old television sets and com-
puters, statewide renewable
energy goals, increased pay
for Oregon judges and hir-
ing 100 new Oregon State
Police patrol officers.
Bates sponsored legisla-
tion to provide incentives
for physicians to operate in
rural areas, on the basis that
it will increase access to
health care. It didn’t come
easily, though.
“I had to battle for that
one,” Bates said. “That was
one of my bigger bills. It
was a hassle to get it passed.
But ultimately, we got that
bill passed, and it did what
we wanted to do to get
everyone covered.”
Another health-care bill,
SB 329, was co-sponsored
by Bates and Sen. Ben
Westlund (D-Tumalo), and
provides a “road map” to
ensure coverage to all Ore-
gonians by 2009.
Bates, a member of the
budget-writing Ways and
Means Committee, also was
pleased at establishing a so-
called rainy day fund.
Legislators set aside
nearly half a billion dollars,
Bates said, adding that, “I
expect it to go to $3 billion
within the next three or four
years.”
Having those reserves
in place will serve the state
well during its next eco-
nomic downturn, Bates said.
A lack of revenue during the
last two legislative sessions
forced lawmakers to make
drastic cuts in programs, and
having a rainy day fund will
make it easier to avoid such
a scenario, he said.
“Those of us who went
through the last recession up
there know what it’s like,”
Bates said. “We don’t want
to repeat that for ourselves
or anybody else in the fu-
ture, especially not for the
people of Oregon. They de-
serve better.”
Bates, a physician, said
that he plans to continue his
practice full time after tak-
ing some time to fish on the
Rogue River. He also will
ponder whether or not to
challenge U.S. Sen. Gordon
Smith (R-Ore.) in the 2008
election, but won’t make a
decision for another month
or two.
Rep. Peter Buckley
(D-Ashland)
Like Bates, Buckley is
pleased that the Legislature
was able to fund K-12 edu-
cation at $6.2 billion, after
several years of painful cuts.
“We turned the corner
on education and got back
moving in the right direc-
tion,” Buckley said. He also
is proud that Oregon law-
makers were able to pass
bills capping the interest
rates on payday and auto
title loans.
“I think that’s going to
have a very positive impact
on families and communi-
ties,” Buckley said. “People
will have less problems fal-
ling into that spiral of debt.”
As chairman of the
House Education Commit-
tee, Buckley said that more
work is needed on the for-
mula for community college
funding.
“Rogue Community
College is still not getting a
fair shake,” he said.
Buckley said that during
the next session, legislators
need to seriously examine
JoCo fire protection group ready to present findings
(Continued from page 1)
The last committee,
which met in ‘96, was
chaired by Raffenburg. At
the time, he was a member
of the county’s planning
commission. And while the
last committee’s recommen-
dations were not imple-
mented, they formed the
basis of the current commit-
tee’s work.
“The standards they’re
working on this time are
derivative of the work that
was done in 1996,” Raffen-
burg said.
It appears that what is
likely to emerge from the
latest set of meetings is a
nonexclusive franchise
agreement with operations
and training standards, and a
license that would allow the
county to collect a fee from
the provider.
Raffenburg said funds
collected from those fees
I.V. Lions Club elects officers
David Anderson, who operates Anderson Excavating, has
been elected president. He and the following will serve
through June 30, ‘08.
Steve Culver, 1st vice president; Sam Michel, 2nd vice
president; Dennis Reviea, 3rd vice president; Lewie Spencer,
treasurer; Steve Lyons, secretary; Blake Peterson, Lion
Tamer; Vale Hatch, Tail Twister.
Hatch, Lew Lyons and Shawn Hardy were elected to two-
year directorships; and Jerry “Zorro” Sommers and Tom
Lindewahl will serve one-year terms. Sam Michel is member-
ship chairman.
Planning on selling your home and carrying the loan?
Our professional staff will process your monthly payments at a
reasonable rate.
Se t-up $100, basic monthly fee ONLY $7
would go toward enforcing
the agreement.
The state of Oregon has
standards in place for fire
protection personnel, and
Oregon Dept. of Transporta-
tion (ODOT) has standards
for emergency vehicles.
However, enforcement of
standards is left to local ju-
risdictions, Raffenburg said.
At present, the board
has a similar franchise
agreement for ambulance
service with American
Medical Response (AMR).
The franchise agree-
ment, if implemented,
would be in place temporar-
ily until a fire district could
be established.
Formation of a fire tax-
ing district was recom-
mended by the committee.
However, Raffenburg said,
“The board wasn’t ready to
go there at this point.
“As we go through the
next few years,” he added,
“we’ll see how the new sys-
tem is working, and I imag-
ine that at some point in
time in the near future, in
five to 10 years, the issue
will probably raise its head
again and will have to be a
center of discussion in the
community.”
Changing demographics
in the county may prompt
the formation of a taxing
district, Raffenburg said, as
those new residents typi-
cally come from areas
where such systems are al-
ready in place.
Members of the Jose-
phine County Fire Protec-
tion Committee will meet
with the board on Thursday,
July 5 at 3 p.m. The com-
mittee tentatively is sched-
uled to make a public pres-
entation during the board’s
weekly business session on
Wednesday, July 11 in
Anne Basker Auditorium in
Grants Pass.
Once the board has
been fully briefed, Raffen-
burg said, members of the
public will be able to add
their input to the process.
“At this point, we’ll be
ready to hold public hear-
ings on it maybe as early as
late July; I hope no later
than August,” he said.
how the state handles its
senior and mental health
service programs.
Rep. Dennis Richardson
(R-Central Point)
Richardson began his
stint in the Legislature dur-
ing the 2003 session. He
served as speaker pro tem
during the 2005 session, but
found himself in the minor-
ity for the first time this
year.
Those circumstances
required some adjustment
for Richardson and the other
members of his caucus.
“We had to react to one
piece of legislation after
another that was all care-
fully orchestrated through
the session,” he said.
House Republicans
maintained a united front in
defeating several tax pro-
posals, Richardson said, as
well as preventing some
legislation from being
passed.
“I feel like we accom-
plished some things, and as
a minority party, we were
able to stop some bad bills
from going through,”
Richardson said. “We pre-
vented a number of tax in-
creases from being placed
on the backs of Oregon tax-
payers at a time when there
was more than $2.5 billion
of additional revenues to
spend.”
Richardson said he was
pleased by the Legislature’s
actions on education fund-
ing, the rainy day fund and
OSP. However, he was dis-
appointed at the lack of im-
migration reform this ses-
sion, although Republican
legislators proposed several
bills addressing that issue.
Land-use was a sticking
point for Richardson, who
opposed the Measure 37
rewrite.
“A huge disappointment
was the way the Measure 37
issue was handled,” he said.
“Although the Democ-
rats said there would be a
bipartisan approach to solv-
ing the problems with Meas-
ure 37, in reality, it was
really a liberal Democrat-
controlled campaign to re-
write Measure 37 in a way
that’s pleasing to 1,000
Friends of Oregon and other
supporters of the current
land use system,” Richard-
son said.
He said that he plans to
seek re-election in 2008.
“I hope we regain the
majority, but either way, I’m
planning on continuing to
serve,” Richardson said.
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