3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2016
Oregon lawmakers rethink
biotech pre-emption rule
Bill would
allow local
governments
to regulate
biotech crops
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — Local govern-
ment authority over genetically
engineered crops is being recon-
sidered by Oregon lawmakers
roughly three years after they
prohibited most city and county
seed restrictions.
Critics of biotechnology
claim that lawmakers haven’t
enacted meaningful policies for
genetic engineering since adopt-
ing a 2013 law pre-empting
local governments from setting
their own seed rules.
The pre-emption bill was
included in a broader legisla-
tive package that included pub-
lic employee retirement sys-
tem reforms that the Oregon
Supreme Court later invalidated.
Proponents of House Bill
4122, which would repeal
statewide pre-emption speci¿-
cally for genetically engineered
crops, claim local governments
should be permitted to pre-
vent cross-pollination between
organic, conventional and bio-
tech cultivars.
“In an ideal world, farmers
will work together, but in real-
ity, people are stubborn and do
as they please,” said Jared Wat-
ters, a Jackson County farmer,
during a Feb. 9 hearing before
the House Committee on Con-
sumer Protection and Govern-
ment Effectiveness.
“Transgenic contamination”
is recognized as an economic
threat to organic and conven-
tional producers who sell into
markets that don’t accept bio-
tech traits, according to support-
Oregon forecast
predicts slow growth
in next budget cycle
Capital Press file
GMO Roundup Ready alfalfa is shown in this photo. Local government authority over
genetically engineered crops is being reconsidered by Oregon lawmakers roughly three
years after they prohibited most city and county seed restrictions.
ers of H.B. 4122.
While opponents of the bill
claim that genetic engineering is
best regulated at the state level,
supports of H.B. 4122 claim
that local governments are in the
best position to understand how
farmers in their area are affected
by biotech crops and restrictions
on them.
“You don’t have to deal with
any of that. This bill puts that
decision with the local govern-
ment,” said Elise Higley, direc-
tor of Our Family Farms Coa-
lition, which supports stronger
regulation of biotech crops.
Physical barriers, geographic
distances and staggered plant-
ings can prevent cross-pollina-
tion among conventional crop
varieties and work just as well
with biotech cultivars, according
to opponents of H.B. 4122.
“Farmers need to work that
out among themselves, not by
voters at the ballot box decid-
ing what can grow on their own
property,” said Scott Dahlman,
policy director of Oregonians
for Food and Shelter, an indus-
grown in the State of Oregon,”
said Anna Scharf, whose family
farms in the Willamette Valley.
Another proposal recently
considered by the committee,
House Bill 4041, would effec-
tively have reversed statewide
pre-emption entirely, not just for
biotech crops but for all seeds.
However, that bill will not
receive further hearings and
would have to be resurrected in
a future legislative session, said
Shemia Fagan, D-Clackamas,
who chairs the committee.
H.B. 4041 was written
so broadly that it could have
applied to nonbiotech crops,
including grass seed, said Marie
Bowers Stagg, whose family
farms in Lane and Linn counties
Crop decisions are based on
soil conditions, market demand
and available equipment but
should not be complicated by
government interference, she
said during a recent hearing on
the bill.
“We already have enough
risks in our day-to-day life,”
Bowers Stagg said.
try group that opposes the bill.
Lawmakers passed a bill
last year that allows farmers of
potentially conÀicting crops to
seek mediation, which the Ore-
gon Department of Agriculture
is now in the process of “Àesh-
ing out,” said Greg Loberg,
manager of the West Coast Beet
Seed Co. and president of the
Oregon Seed Association.
H.B. 4122, by contrast, is
meant to give preferential treat-
ment to nonbiotech crops, he
said. “It’s not about co-exis-
tence. It’s about exclusion.”
Supporters of the bill say
they’re not opposed to media-
tion, but claim it’s not enough to
guard against cross-pollination
or compensate for the lack of
regulation by the state and fed-
eral governments.
However, the idea that rules
for biotech crops would vary
across county lines is one of the
main arguments against H.B.
4122.
“Cities and counties are
not equipped to micromanage
which crops can and cannot be
SALEM — Oregon’s econ-
omists told lawmakers Wednes-
day the state’s economy and
government revenues con-
tinue to grow at a strong pace
as the state rebounds from the
recession.
However, the economists
warned that growth will slow
going into the next two-year
budget that begins in mid-2017.
“Oregon’s economy contin-
ues to grow at a healthy pace,
as do our primary sources of
tax revenue, keeping up every
bit with our expectations we’ve
laid over the last year or two,”
said state economist Mark
McMullen.
Economists expect the gov-
ernment will receive nearly $61
million more in general fund
and lottery revenues in the cur-
rent two-year budget than they
had projected in the last fore-
cast in December, according to
a document from the Legislative
Revenue Of¿ce. The latest fore-
cast is for $19.5 billion in total
state revenues.
At the same time, McMul-
len said, Oregon is getting close
to what economists would con-
sider “full employment” and
“that’s when we’re going to start
to see things slow.”
upcoming budgets.
Oregon’s exports from non-
technology sectors are slack-
ening, with export growth in
the ¿rst quarter expected to be
nearly 20 percent lower than a
year ago, according to a presen-
tation by the state Of¿ce of Eco-
nomic Analysis.
“This is the most depress-
ing number that’s out there
now, which is the growth in
our exports of nontechnol-
ogy products,” said McMullen,
who added that this particularly
impacted agricultural and food
product exports.
Governor cautious
Gov. Kate Brown struck a
similarly cautious tone in her
statement on the forecast.
“I am pleased to see that job
growth is steady and Oregon’s
economy is likely to remain
stable through the remainder
of the biennium,” Brown said.
“Although state revenues are on
track to ful¿ll important com-
mitments in education and other
critical services, my optimism
is tempered by longer-term
dynamics in the forecast that
call for caution. I will work with
legislative leadership to build
reserves for future needs.”
Democratic leaders in the
Legislature also pledged to
maintain state budget reserves
and handle the budget prudently.
Manufacturing
vulnerable
Republicans concerned
McMullen also reiterated
a warning from previous fore-
casts that Oregon is vulnera-
ble to national problems in the
manufacturing sector. “It’s obvi-
ous manufacturing is weak,”
McMullen said.
McMullen said problems
in the stock market that cut
into Oregonians’ investment
income, combined with the
stronger exchange rate for the
U.S. dollar, will likely weaken
state revenue from personal
and corporate income taxes in
Republicans were more
pessimistic.
“Years of one-party rule
plagued by overspending and
government waste and an assault
on small businesses has left us
with a bleak economic outlook
that needs to be addressed now,”
Senate Republican Leader Ted
Ferrioli, R-John Day, said in a
written statement.
The Capital Bureau is a col-
laboration between EO Media
Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
State House passes bill to raise cap on wrongful death awards
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The state
House passed a bill Wednes-
day that raises the cap on non-
economic jury awards for
wrongful death claims from
$500,000 to $1.5 million.
State Rep. Joe Gallegos,
D-Hillsboro, said he proposed
the measure to give victims
who have lost loved ones the
same opportunities for justice
as victims in injury cases for
which there is no jury award
limit.
After passing the House
33-26 Wednesday, the mea-
sure now proceeds to the
Senate.
The legislation stirred
up partisan passions on the
House Àoor Wednesday.
Republicans accused Dem-
ocrats of railroading the leg-
islation without giving full
consideration of the conse-
quences to rural physicians
and others who might have to
pay higher liability insurance
under the measure.
During the debate, House
Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Port-
land, ordered Rep. Bill Post,
R-Keizer, to remove from
the Àoor a poster portraying a
$350,000 check written out to
“Trial Lawyers.”
A “yes” vote would be
“signing the check,” Post said.
Post said he used the visual
aid to make a point that the
House Committee on Con-
sumer Protection and Gov-
ernment Effectiveness had
rejected an amendment to the
bill by Rep. Mike McLane,
R-Powell Butte, that would
have capped attorneys’ fees at
$500,000.
The $350,000 ¿gure was
a reÀection of how much an
attorney would be paid on
average on a $1.5 million jury
award, Post said.
Post said the Oregon Trial
Lawyers Association regularly
contributes thousands of dollars
to Democrat candidate cam-
paigns. The Secretary of State’s
database reÀects that to be true.
Kotek said the visual aid
impugned members who were
voting in favor of the bill.
Republicans challenged her
ban on Post’s visual aid and
called for a vote. Lawmakers
supported Kotek’s order.
Republican
lawmakers
said they also opposed the cap
increase because it would jack
up the cost of liability insur-
ance for already struggling
rural physicians.
Rep. Susan McLain,
D-Hillsboro, said the bill
would help families like those
of Andrew Lane, a 22-year-
old laborer who died from
carbon monoxide poisoning
in 2014 while relieving him-
self in a bucket in the back of
a work truck. Lane’s family
has ¿led a $4 million wrong-
ful death claim in Multnomah
County Circuit Court against
Lane’s employer, Superior
Home Maintenance.
A similar bill passed the
House in 2009 but died in the
Senate, Gallegos said.
Rep. Dan Ray¿eld, D-Cor-
vallis, and Rep. Brent Barton,
D-Clackamas County, who
are personal injury attorneys,
declared a conÀict of interest
concerning the bill but still
voted in favor of it. Ray¿eld
is the vice chairman of the
House Committee on Con-
sumer Protection and Govern-
ment Effectiveness.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
A sto ria E lks
L o dg e #180
V alentin e’ s Day
P R IM E
R
IB
D IN N E R
Montero leaves Seaside Downtown Development Association
Board to search
for replacement
By KATHERINE
LACAZE
EO Media Group
W A NTED
ACCE P T IN G N E W P AT IE N T S
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“She left us in a great posi-
tion,” Swenson said. “She
established building blocks
that will make it a very suc-
cessful year for SDDA.”
Keith Chandler, the board
treasurer, agreed.
“We’ll be ¿ne,” he said.
“Everything works out.”
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SEASIDE — Tita Mon-
tero has resigned as the exec-
utive director of the Sea-
side Downtown Development
Association.
Her resignation was effec-
tive immediately, although
she has offered her assistance
during the transition.
Sarah Dailey, administra-
tive assistant at the associa-
tion since last June, is ¿lling
in as interim executive direc-
tor while the nine-member
board of directors searches for
a replacement for Montero as
soon as possible.
“In a small organization,
with just two of us, it was just
kind of a natural for us to con-
tinue working together, me
“I’ve really come to a conversing and holding con-
and the board,” Dailey said.
Montero, who serves on time where I don’t want to be ference calls with Montero,
the Seaside City Council, the person in charge,” Mon- who has offered her help until
tero said. “You’re a new executive director is
became the full-
basically on call found.
time
executive
“She put a lot of time into
weekends and for
director in February
this. We just feel it’s only fair
events.”
2015. She replaced
She said she that we allow her to gain some
Laurie
Mespelt,
plans to “take a of that time back in the next
who became exec-
breather,” which couple of week,” Swenson
utive director in
will give her time to said. “When she came to us
2007. Montero was
pursue other inter- with this, it was easy enough
the ¿fth execu-
ests and spend time for us to say, ‘Let us make it
tive director for the
with her mother, easy for you. You’ve done so
association since it
Tita Montero
sister and broth- many things for us.’”
started in 1993.
During her year as execu-
er-in-law
who
President Ruth
soon are moving to tive director, Montero helped
Swenson said the
make the Hot Rod Classic
board was meeting with Prineville.
Although the resigna- Charity Golf Tournament and
Montero on Feb. 1 to dis-
cuss general business, and tion was immediate, Swen- Auction Dinner in September a
that was when she ¿rst pre- son said, she has continued big success for the association.
sented her resignation. The
move came as unexpected to
the board.
Montero said the position
required a lot of abnormal
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working hours and brought
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the kind of stress she does not
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