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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 2018
Key bills could impact all Oregonians
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Hundreds of bills, resolu-
tions and referrals are lined up
for lawmakers’ consideration
during the state Legislature’s
32-day session beginning in
February.
Among those, at least five
concern issues that Oregonians
deal with on a daily basis:
health care, internet freedom,
global warming, gas prices and
electricity prices.
Health care
While some Republicans
in Congress seek to roll back
entitlements such as Medic-
aid and Medicare, members of
Oregon’s predominantly Dem-
ocratic legislative assembly
are hoping to receive the OK
from voters to make health
care a right under the state
Constitution.
State Rep. Mitch Green-
lick, D-Portland, has pro-
posed a joint resolution to
amend the Oregon Constitu-
tion and obligate the state gov-
ernment to ensure every res-
ident has access to effective
and affordable health care. The
resolution refers the proposed
amendment to voters in the
November election.
The resolution coalesces
with a bipartisan bill intended
to bring more transparency to
the way pharmaceutical com-
panies set prices for prescrip-
tion drugs.
House Bill 4005, spear-
headed by Rep. Rob Nosse,
D-Portland, would require pre-
scription drug manufacturers
to report increases in the price
of medications and the costs
associated with development
and marketing. The proposal
is modeled after a new law
passed last year in California.
Two Democrats and two
Republicans are sponsor-
ing the bill: Nosse, Sen. Lee
Beyer, D-Springfield; Rep.
Ron Noble, R-McMinnville,
and Sen. Dennis Linthicum,
R-Klamath Falls.
The intent of the bill is to
boost transparency and under-
standing of steep, and often
mysterious, increases in drug
prices, said Greenlick, the
chairman of the House Com-
mittee on Health Care.
“The hypothesis is that
drug companies might have
some shame,” Greenlick said.
“I haven’t seen much evidence
that they do, but there is a pos-
sibility that if the process (of
setting prices) is open and in
public, drug companies will be
more restrained in what they
do.”
Net neutrality
House Majority Leader
Jennifer Williamson, D-Port-
land, is seeking state regula-
tions to discourage internet
companies from blocking or
charging more for certain con-
tent, a concept known as net
neutrality. The Federal Com-
munications Commission in
December repealed net neu-
trality, prompting lawmakers
in at least 15 states to introduce
legislation to restore the pro-
tection in local jurisdictions,
according to the Pew Charita-
ble Trusts.
Williamson’s
proposal
wouldn’t go that far, but it
would require state divisions
to purchase broadband access
from providers in full compli-
ance with net neutrality provi-
sions, as an incentive to pro-
viders to keep the internet
open to Oregonians.
The providers would have
to guarantee transparency in
network management prac-
tices, full access to websites
and equal traffic speeds, Wil-
liamson said.
She announced last week
that she plans to amend an
internet privacy bill, House
Bill 4155, to include the net
neutrality rules. That bill
renews an attempt from last
year to outlaw internet ser-
vice providers from disclosing
or selling customers’ personal
information without express
consent.
Gas prices
One way to slow climate
change is to reduce the amount
of carbon emitted into the air.
Democrats Sen. Michael
Dembrow of Portland and
Rep. Ken Helm of Washing-
ton County have filed a bill to
put a price on industry-emit-
ted carbon, a concept called
“cap and invest.” Senate Bill
1507 would require compa-
nies to buy permits to emit
more than 25,000 tons of car-
bon per year. Sold at auc-
tion, proceeds from the per-
mits would go toward projects
intended to curb greenhouse
gases.
Dembrow has said that the
program would likely drive
up electricity and gas prices.
While economic modeling
has projected carbon pric-
ing could drive up gas prices,
there is no evidence of that
at the pump in California,
where a cap-and-invest pro-
gram has been operating since
2013, said Tera Hurst, execu-
tive director of environmental
group Renew Oregon.
About 100 businesses
emitting 25,000 tons of car-
bon per year — including fuel
suppliers, electricity provid-
ers, landfills and manufactur-
ers — would have to buy per-
mits, according to the Oregon
Department of Environmental
Quality.
Electricity prices
Legislation by Republican
Sens. Dennis Linthicum and
Herman Baertschiger Jr., both
of southern Oregon, have pro-
posed an electricity Ratepayer
Protection Act.
Senate Bill 1552 would cap
public electricity providers’
rate of return at 4.5 percent and
would limit increases in fees.
It’s unclear how that would
affect residential rates, but the
intention is to curtail any steep
increases in prices.
The Public Utility Commis-
sion has no limit on how much
rates can be increased each
year, but under law, electric-
ity companies have the right
to request, but not receive,
a return on par with similar
companies.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Trump’s infrastructure plan comes with a huge hole
By JOAN LOWY and
ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — When
President Donald Trump
unveils his plan to beef up the
nation’s infrastructure next
month, it will include a cra-
ter-sized hole.
The trust fund that pays for
most federal highway and tran-
sit aid is forecast to go broke
in about three years unless the
government significantly scales
back its transportation spending
or comes up with more money.
But Trump’s infrastructure plan
is silent on the looming prob-
lem, an administration official
familiar with the plan told The
Associated Press. The official
wasn’t authorized to speak pub-
licly about the plan and spoke
on condition of anonymity.
Fulfilling a campaign prom-
ise, Trump’s plan proposes to
generate $1 trillion in infra-
structure spending over 10
years. But the plan seeks only
$200 billion in federal dollars,
relying instead on state and
local governments and private
investors to come up with most
of the rest of the money.
The administration views
the plan as a supplement to
current infrastructure spend-
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Truck and automobile traffic mix on Interstate 5 headed north through Fife, Wash.
ing. The money would be dis-
tributed through new types of
programs that are designed to
generate greater state and local
government and private sector
spending. Also, there’s no guar-
antee how much of the money
will go to transportation proj-
ects since the administration
is broadly defining infrastruc-
ture as everything from build-
ing water treatment plants to
expanding high-speed internet
access to rural areas.
The administration is open
to working with Congress to
address the trust fund later,
although those conversations
haven’t yet begun, the official
said.
Republican leaders have
been waiting to see what the
White House will propose.
There is wide, bipartisan sup-
port for continuing, and even
increasing,
transportation
spending. But most lawmakers
have been unwilling so far to
back tax increases or spending
cuts to pay for it.
The federal government is
currently spending $15 billion
a year more than the Highway
Trust Fund takes in through gas-
oline and diesel taxes. Autho-
rized trust fund spending for the
federal budget year that ends in
September is about $56 billion.
“Addressing the solvency
of the Highway Trust Fund is
the most important infrastruc-
ture issue facing us today,” said
Bud Wright, executive direc-
tor of the American Associ-
ation of State Highway and
Transportation Officials, which
represents state transportation
departments.
“A failure to address the
long-term solvency of the (trust
fund) could mean a 40 per-
cent drop in highway spending
in 2021,” Wright said. “We’re
hopeful the president will play
a strong leadership role in
addressing this challenge.”
The U.S. Chamber of Com-
merce last week called for a
25-cent, phased-in increase in
the federal gas tax to shore up
the trust fund. Congress hasn’t
passed a gas tax increase since
1993, primarily because being
associated with a highly visible
tax hike felt by most Americans
is viewed by many lawmakers
as political poison. Asking law-
makers to vote for an increase
in an election year seems a
stretch. On the other hand, 26
states have raised their own fuel
taxes since 2013 without signif-
icant political repercussions.
The American Trucking
Associations has proposed
increasing the wholesale trans-
portation fuels tax by 5 cents
a gallon a year over four years
— a little less visible than an
increase at the pump. That
State penalties tripled for underage pot sales
The previous penalty was a
10-day license suspension or a
$1,650 fine.
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OLYMPIA, Wash. —
A jury has found a former
top staffer at Washington’s
Department of Fish and Wild-
life guilty of rape and burglary
in connection with the rape of
a co-worker in 2014.
The News Tribune reported
Gregory Schirato was found
guilty Wednesday of sec-
ond-degree rape and first-de-
gree burglary in Thurston
County Superior Court.
Thurston County prosecu-
tors allege the former agency
division leader broke into the
home of a co-worker after a
holiday party and raped her
while she slept. Schirato was
arrested four months later.
Court documents show the
alleged victim went to a party
on Dec. 17, 2014 and returned
home intoxicated.
She said she woke up
the next morning to find her
clothes undone and a door
window broken.
Investigators say they
linked Schirato to the incident
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Associated Press
The temporary rule will
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effect for six months.
le
PORTLAND — The state
has announced it will tempo-
rarily increase penalties for
those who unintentionally sell
marijuana to minors.
The announcement was
made Thursday by the Oregon
Liquor Control Commission,
which oversees the state’s rec-
reational marijuana industry.
It comes on the heels of a
statewide sting in December
in which almost 20 percent of
state-licensed marijuana retailers
sold pot to customers under 21.
The commission’s exec-
utive director Steve Marks
called the results of the opera-
tion “unacceptable.”
In response, the commission
announced it will triple pen-
alties for those who sell mari-
juana to minors unintentionally.
Those first-time offenders
will now face a 30-day license
suspension or a fine of $4,950.
Sa
Associated Press
would generate about $340 bil-
lion over 10 years, the group
estimated.
Passing the administration’s
infrastructure plan without bol-
stering the trust fund would
amount to “taking one step
forward and two steps back,”
said David Bauer, executive
vice president at the American
Road & Transportation Build-
ers Association.
Michael Sargent, a transpor-
tation and infrastructure expert
at the conservative Heritage
Foundation, said the adminis-
tration appears to view the trust
fund shortfall as “Congress’
problem.”
And, even if it’s not in the
infrastructure plan, “a gas tax
increase is still on the table —
the administration hasn’t writ-
ten it off,” he said.
Chris Spear, president of the
trucking group, said passage of
a tax overhaul bill last month
provides lawmakers with polit-
ical cover if they decide to raise
fuel taxes.
“You have a situation where
the White House and Congress
sent historic amounts of money
back to the taxpayer,” he said.
“We’re here to help this pres-
ident get a bill passed … but
there has to be real dollars in
there.”
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