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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2017
Tenant protections bill dies in state Senate Oregon lawmakers
Attempt to deter
OK state REAL ID
mass evictions
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A tenant pro-
tections bill — a chief priority
for state House Speaker Tina
Kotek and several other Port-
land-area lawmakers — has
died in the Senate.
Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Port-
land, gave an emotional speech
on the Senate floor Thursday,
saying the failure of the bill
was his “greatest disappoint-
ment” of the more than five-
month session.
The legislation began in
the House as an effort to try
to deter mass evictions and
retaliation and discrimination
against tenants. The House
narrowly passed the bill 31-27
in early April. The bill would
have banned no-cause evic-
tions and required landlords to
pay relocation expenses to ten-
ants when they ask a tenant
to leave for certain allowable
business or personal reasons.
Rep.
Carla
Piluso,
D-Gresham, who volunteers
as president of Human Solu-
tions, a nonprofit organization
that operates a family shelter in
Gresham, has said the primary
Capital Bureau
A Portland Tenants United
flier distributed earlier in
the 2017 legislative ses-
sion. A tenant protections
bill — a chief priority for
House Speaker Tina Kotek
and several other Port-
land-area lawmakers — has
died in the Senate.
reason families come to the
shelter is “they lost their home
to no-cause eviction.”
The Senate Human Ser-
vices Committee modified the
bill to make it less punitive
against landlords. The com-
mittee’s amendments reduced
the circumstances under which
landlords would have to pay
relocation fees to tenants who
were forced to leave at no fault
of their own. The Senate also
removed a provision to lift a
ban on local rent control.
However, the proposal
lacked support from any of
the Senate’s 13 Republicans.
Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, for
instance, has said restrictions
on landlords are counterpro-
ductive to solving Oregon’s
shortage of affordable rental
units and has advocated for
measures that make it easier for
investors to develop new hous-
ing units.
“Oregon’s land use laws are
the problem and if the speaker
was serious about address-
ing the problem she would be
attacking restrictive land use
laws instead of renters and
tenants,” said Jonathan Lock-
wood, spokesman for the Sen-
ate Republicans.
At least two key Dem-
ocratic senators, Sens. Rod
Monroe, D-Portland, and Betsy
Johnson, D-Scappoose, also
opposed the bill. Monroe, who
is a landlord, has said outlaw-
ing no-cause evictions would
be too restrictive to landlords
who have problem tenants.
An effort by Senate Major-
ity Leader Ginny Burdick,
D-Portland, to negotiate a com-
promise more acceptable to
landlords also failed to win the
needed votes.
“I am sad we couldn’t
reach agreement on a reason-
able bill to limit no-cause evic-
tions. I commend the alliance
of housing advocates for their
hard work and I’m very disap-
pointed we couldn’t get there,”
Burdick said Thursday.
The compromise was
included in an amendment to
the bill by Senate Rules. Ali-
son McIntosh, deputy director
of policy for housing advocates
Neighborhood Partnerships,
said the compromise struck
“a balance between protecting
tenants and property rights.”
Monroe and Johnson faced
backlash from some tenant
advocates. Some advocates
demonstrated at Monroe’s
church in Portland. They also
entered the Capitol before the
building opened and left strong-
ly-worded notes on the doors
of lawmakers who opposed the
bill. Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Ath-
ena, said on the Senate floor
earlier this week he was con-
sidering filing a trespass com-
plaint with Oregon State Police.
“I’m sure it didn’t help to
gain support for the bill by
intimidating lawmakers and
breaking into the Capitol build-
ing early in the morning and
string up offices with caution
tape to look like a crime scene.
The gangster tactics used to
push this bill were doing vio-
lence to the passage of the bill,”
Lockwood said.
Legislature approves election dates for referrals
Republicans
plan to fight
provider tax
By CLAIRE
WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The state Leg-
islature Thursday approved
election dates for two major
pieces of legislation if they are
referred to voters.
A $5.3 billion transportation
funding package passed Thurs-
day and new taxes on health
care providers to pay for Med-
icaid could get referred to vot-
ers next year.
Oregonians can petition
to refer legislation to the bal-
lot. The referral typically gets
voted on in the next general
election, but the Legislature
has the authority to hold special
elections.
Three Republican lawmak-
ers plan to file a petition to
refer the so-called $550 million
“provider tax” to the ballot.
Democrats in the state
House and Senate passed legis-
lation Thursday to hold the pos-
sible referral election on that
issue in January, rather than
the November general elec-
tion. The same elections bill
says that if the transportation
package gets referred, it will
be voted on in the May primary
election.
The transportation pack-
age, an effort more than two
years in the making, raises $5.3
billion over 10 years through
increased gas taxes, registra-
tion and title fees and a flat tax
on adult bicycles priced more
than $200.
Many Republicans have
cried foul at the Democratic
effort to hold a January elec-
tion on the possible provider
tax referral. State Sen. Alan
Olsen, of Canby, was moved
to remark on the Senate floor
Thursday: “It’s like the Grinch
stole the election.”
The state already assesses
certain urban hospitals 5.3 per-
cent of their net revenues to
help pay for Medicaid. Hospi-
tals receive most, if not all, of
the amount back in the form of
payments. Legislation passed
this session creates a tax of
.7 percent on those hospitals,
a new 4 percent assessment
on rural hospitals, and taxes
insurers.
Democrats have said that
holding the election in January
gives lawmakers time to find a
backup plan to fund Medicaid
in the short legislative session.
Hospitals, who initially sup-
ported the provider tax and
could as such be an important
ally of provider tax proponents
in a ballot battle, say they have
not decided whether they’ll
advocate for the tax at the bal-
lot, now that the Legislature
appears likely to pass another
piece of legislation affecting
how much they get paid for
certain services.
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A bill to give
Oregonians a voluntary path
to upgrade their state-issued
driver’s license or ID card to
federal standards is headed
to Gov. Kate Brown for a
signature.
The state House of Repre-
sentatives voted 56-1 to pass
Senate Bill 374 Thursday.
The Senate passed the bill
28-2 in June.
The upgraded identifica-
tion will be necessary as soon
as 2018 to board domestic
commercial flights and enter
any federal facility, including
Bonneville Dam or a federal
courthouse. Without compli-
ant state-issued ID, travel-
ers will instead have to use
a passport or other federally
approved form of ID.
The bill will keep the
state’s “engines of travel
and commerce going,” said
state Rep. Mike Nearman,
R-Independence.
The Oregon Legislature
long resisted more stringent
requirements by the federal
government for state iden-
tification cards, known as
REAL ID.
The state Legislature
passed a law in 2009 that
prohibits state officials from
spending money to comply
with the federal law unless
the federal government reim-
burses the state for the cost.
Lawmakers also had privacy
concerns about some of the
federal requirements. The
state already has received
three extensions for com-
plying with the law. The
last extension expires Oct.
10. State officials have said
Oregon would be unlikely
to receive another extension
without passing the bill.
Under the bill, the earliest
Oregonians will be able to
obtain a REAL ID is July 1,
2020, Nearman said. Offer-
ing the service will cost the
state about $580,000, he said.
OREGON CAPITAL
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About the
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