A8
Legislative Briefcase
Blue Mountain Eagle
Lawmakers
consider
extending fish
screen tax credit
Lawmakers are consid-
ering whether to extend a
tax credit for Oregon farm-
ers who install fish screens
on their irrigation intakes,
which expires next year.
Under Senate Bill 172,
the tax credit — which cov-
ers 50 percent of installation
costs up to $5,000 — would
expire in 2024 instead of
2018.
Screens are intended to
prevent fish from getting
sucked into irrigation sys-
tems and killed.
Lawmakers
consider
consolidating
marijuana
regulation
State legislators are mov-
ing toward consolidating the
state’s medical and recre-
ational marijuana industries
into one regulatory system.
The co-chairwomen of
the Joint Committee on
Marijuana Regulation have
dropped several bills that
would move regulation of
medical marijuana from the
Oregon Health Authority to
the Oregon Liquor Control
Commission, the regulatory
agency for recreational sales
of the drug. Another propos-
al would establish a separate
agency specifically for can-
nabis regulation.
OHA has regulated the
medical marijuana program
since it was created through
Ballot Measure 67 in 1998.
When voters legalized rec-
reational cannabis use with
Measure 91 in 2014, regula-
tion of the new program was
assigned to the liquor com-
mission, while the health au-
thority retained its oversight
of the medical program.
Bill seeks reversal
of Oregon GMO
preemption
Biotech critics are call-
ing on Oregon lawmakers to
overturn a prohibition against
local government restrictions
on genetically engineered
crops because statewide reg-
ulations haven’t been enact-
ed.
In 2013, the Oregon Leg-
islature passed a law that pre-
empted cities and counties
from setting their own rules
over seeds, which blocked
most local ordinances ban-
ning genetically modified or-
ganisms, or GMOs.
Groups that opposed the
preemption bill say state in-
action since then has justified
the passage of House Bill
2469, which would carve out
an exemption allowing local
GMO regulations.
Public employees
blast proposed
PERS reforms
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In a demonstration of the
fraught political territory
lawmakers enter when they
scrutinize the state’s public
pension system, firefighters,
nurses, and teachers Monday
testified against two Oregon
Senate bills aimed at reducing
the costs of that system.
The bills, both sponsored
by Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend,
are the latest round in the
Legislature’s seemingly pe-
rennial battle with the costs of
PERS, the unfunded liability
of which has been estimated
to be at least $21.8 billion.
Senate Bill 559 would re-
quire that retirement benefits
be calculated using the aver-
age salary from the final five
years of employment, instead
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Wednesday, February 15, 2017
of the current three years.
Senate Bill 560 would take
the 6 percent of salary em-
ployees contribute, or have
contributed on their behalf,
to a defined contribution plan
called the Individual Account
Program and redirect it to
their retirement benefits. The
bill also caps the amount of
salary used in benefits calcu-
lations at $100,000.
Legislators
seek to control
prescription drug
price hikes
Backers say state legis-
lation proposed this month
would go further than any oth-
er state to control the price of
prescription drugs to patients
and insurers.
A bill by Rep. Rob Nosse,
D-Portland, would cap pa-
tients’ out-of-pocket copay-
ment for prescriptions, require
pharmaceutical companies
to explain steep increases in
the cost of a medication and
mandate rebates when prices
exceed a certain threshold.
Three other bills by Sen.
Elizabeth Steiner Hayward
would take similar steps but
also require pharmaceutical
companies to include the av-
erage wholesale price of a
drug in any type of direct con-
sumer advertising.
Bill would
prohibit state
union, contractor
campaign
contributions
Rep. Knute Buehler,
R-Bend, has proposed a law to
prohibit state contractors and
public unions from contribut-
ing to political campaigns.
The legislation has a com-
panion bill that would require
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bidders on state contracts to
disclose their five greatest
campaign contributions in the
state.
Buehler was scheduled
to drop the legislation Mon-
day, the same day an opinion
piece in Forbes Magazine by
Illinois-based conservative
activist Adam Andrzejew-
ski claimed that Gov. Kate
Brown and Attorney General
Ellen Rosenblum have re-
ceived more than $800,000
combined in campaign con-
tributions from more than 200
state contractors.
Buehler, who is a rumored
candidate for the 2018 guber-
natorial race, tweeted out a
link to the opinion piece Mon-
day when he announced he
had introduced the legislation.
Bill would
prevent
employers from
recovering
attorney fees in
wage disputes
Oregon employers would
be stripped of the ability to
recoup attorney fees if they
win a wage and hour lawsuit
under a proposed bill before
state lawmakers, while anoth-
er would allow claimants to
file liens on their employer’s
property before winning a
judgment.
Only employees who file
and win such cases would be
entitled to attorney fees under
House Bill 2169, which is be-
ing considered by the House
Committee on Business and
Labor. Currently, either work-
ers or employers can recover
such costs if they win legal
disputes over wage and hour
claims.
Under House Bill 2180,
workers who file a complaint
over unpaid wages can file a
lien against their employer’s
property.
Similarly, under House
Bill 2181, if a worker is fired
within 90 days of filing a wage
claim, the employer faces the
“rebuttable presumption” that
the termination was intended
as retaliation.
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