State
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, July 12, 2017
A9
Legislature adjourns difficult session with mixed outcomes
By Claire Withycombe
and Paris Achen
Capital Bureau
Oregon lawmakers ad-
journed a contentious legisla-
tive session Friday.
The more than five-month
session yielded a two-year
budget, new taxes, transporta-
tion funding, expanded health
care benefits and staved off
the need for a second wom-
en’s prison. But lawmakers
also succumbed to partisan
gridlock over corporate tax
reform, paring pension costs
and tenant protections.
“At best, our successes are
tempered by disappointment,”
said Senate President Peter
Courtney, D-Salem.
House Minority Lead-
er Mike McLane, R-Powell
Butte, said the session was the
“most partisan and divisive”
one he had “ever been a part
of.”
The state faced a $1.4 bil-
lion revenue shortfall in the
budget for the next two years.
Republicans agreed to support
moderately increasing taxes
on corporations in exchange
for reducing the cost of pub-
lic employee pension costs
and spending reductions, but
the two parties were unable to
reach an agreement.
Contributed photo/Oregon Department of Transportation
The Legislature adjourned Friday after a contentious
session. Although a budget and a transportation
package were passed, there was no progress on long-
term pension cost and revenue reforms.
A last-ditch effort to re-
structure small business tax-
es, which would have raised
nearly $200 million in the
next two years, also went by
the wayside.
“The session will be more
about missed opportunities
than anything else,” McLane
said. “The sound of a can be-
ing kicked down the road is
resonating.”
Lawmakers passed a
long-awaited transportation
funding bill, made repro-
ductive health care free-of-
charge to patients and made
undocumented children el-
igible for health care under
Medicaid.
Democrats and Republi-
cans did cooperate to pass
a health care provider tax
to help offset the state’s in-
creasing financial responsi-
bility for expanded Medic-
aid. Without the tax, 350,000
Oregonians would have lost
health coverage, some Dem-
ocrats argued.
“I am just really proud of
the work they did this legisla-
tive session,” said Gov. Kate
Brown, a Democrat. “There
were some very difficult votes
taken, both sides of the aisle,
and I want to applaud their
courage and their willingness
to put politics aside and do the
right thing for Oregonians.”
Some of those accomplish-
ments, including the transpor-
tation package and the state’s
funding mechanism for Med-
icaid, appear to face possible
challenges at the ballot box.
The legislature convenes
the five-month session in odd
numbered years. In that time,
they must balance the state’s
budget.
Lawmakers made cuts and
ended tax credits in the effort
to close the $1.4 billion gap.
“Our budget was the best
we could do without real rev-
enue reform,” Senate Presi-
dent Courtney said. “It funds
schools better than expected.
It limits tuition increases. It
protects the Oregon Health
Plan.”
Lawmakers came up with
a few ways to save money in
the future through Senate Bill
1067, mainly through holding
down costs of public employ-
ee health benefit plans. The
savings attributable to the bill
in the next two years are in-
determinate, according to the
legislative fiscal office, but
are projected to save about $1
billion in the 2019-21 bienni-
um.
The transportation fund-
ing bill crowned lawmakers’
accomplishments this session,
after a similar plan crumbled
in 2015. Brown and legislative
leaders identified the transpor-
tation funding deal as top pri-
ority for the session.
The bill raises the revenue
over 10 years through an in-
crease in the gas tax and regis-
tration and title fees, a flat tax
on adult bicycles priced more
than $200, and a 0.5 percent
excise tax on the purchase of
new vehicles.
However, lawmakers sig-
naled fear that voters might
challenge the proposal at the
ballot: They passed another
law to move up the date of any
election on any referral to May
2018.
While a bill to ban no-cause
evictions came to a standstill,
the Legislature approved tens
of millions of dollars in fund-
ing to address the state’s crit-
ical affordable housing short-
age with emergency housing
assistance, affordable housing
preservation,
state-backed
bonds for development and an
increase in the cap for the af-
fordable housing tax credit.
Other legislation helps
to accelerate permitting for
affordable housing and ac-
cessory dwelling units and
establishes a loan program to
developers to purchase land
for affordable housing.
“We made good progress,
but we need to do more to pro-
tect renters from staggering
rent spikes and no-cause evic-
tions. In 2018, we will push to
finish this session’s unfinished
business on housing,” said
Speaker Tina Kotek.
To avoid opening a second
women’s prison, lawmakers
expanded early-release and
alternative programs to help
keep low-level female offend-
ers out of prison. They also
reduced penalties for drug and
property crimes, which are the
main drivers of female incar-
ceration.
Under another law, secret
grand jury proceedings must
be recorded.
Lawmakers also instituted
a new mandate aimed at re-
ducing racial profiling during
police stops. The law requires
police to collect data on race,
gender and other information
during law enforcement stops.
The Criminal Justice Com-
mission would analyze the
data to identify trends and the
Department of Public Safety
Standards and Training would
provide training to all law en-
forcement on preventing pro-
filing.
has the authority to hold spe-
cial elections.
Three Republican law-
makers plan to file a petition
to refer the so-called $550
million “provider tax” to the
ballot.
Democrats in the House
and Senate passed legisla-
tion Thursday to hold the
possible referral election on
that issue in January 2018,
rather than the November
general election. The same
elections bill says that if the
transportation package gets
referred, it will be voted on
in the May 2018 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,
registration and title fees and
a flat tax on adult bicycles
priced more than $200.
Many Republicans have
cried foul at the Democrat-
ic effort to hold a January
election on the possible pro-
vider tax referral. 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
percent of their net revenues
to help pay for Medicaid.
Hospitals 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 hos-
pitals, a new 4 percent assess-
ment on rural hospitals, and
taxes insurers.
L EGISLATIVE B RIEFCASE
Transportation
package heads
to governor
A $5.3 billion statewide
transportation package is
headed to Gov. Kate Brown
for a signature after the Senate
passed the bill 22-to-7 Thurs-
day. The House of Represen-
tatives passed the bill 39-to-
20 Wednesday.
The 10-year plan includes
hikes in the gas tax, registra-
tion and title fees and new
taxes on payroll, new vehicle
purchases and bicycles priced
more than $200.
Legislature passes
bill requiring
coverage of
abortion at no cost
The state of Oregon will
soon require insurers cover
specific health services, in-
cluding abortions, at no out-
of-pocket cost to patients.
House Bill 3391, approved
by the Oregon Senate Wednes-
day, now heads to Democratic
Gov. Kate Brown’s desk.
The legislation would
prohibit plans from impos-
ing a deductible, coinsur-
ance, copayment or other
cost-sharing requirements
on specific services, such
as preventive reproductive
healthcare,
contraception
and postnatal services.
The House passed the bill
after hours of debate Satur-
day, repeated briefly in the
Senate Wednesday.
One point of contention: A
provision that would have the
state separately provide abor-
tion coverage for women who
have health insurance through
religious employers exempted
from covering the service in
their health benefit plans.
Under the bill, the Oregon
Health Authority will develop
a program with the Depart-
ment of Consumer and Busi-
ness Services to cover abor-
tion services for employees
with those plans.
The bill sets aside about
$10 million in the next two
years for the Oregon Health
Authority to administer the
provisions of the bill. The bill
also would guarantee cover-
age of the specified services
for Oregon residents regard-
less of immigration status or
gender identity.
Senate Democrats said in a
statement that the bill would
expand access to contracep-
tion for over 18,000 Orego-
nians and reduce the number
of unintended pregnancies in
the state.
Senate Republicans, on the
other hand, said they did not
oppose the bill in its entirety,
but wanted to amend the bill
to exclude required coverage
for abortion, a move they por-
trayed as a possible bipartisan
compromise. A motion to re-
fer the bill back to the com-
mittee to consider the amend-
ment was voted down.
Many Republicans who
spoke on the floor before the
vote made clear their opposi-
tion to abortion.
“The issue here is real-
ly quite simple: What we’re
talking about is the unjustified
taking of an innocent human
life,” said Sen. Dennis Linthi-
cum, R-Beatty.
them, saving Oregonians bil-
lions of tax dollars, and the
lives of thousands of loved
ones, each year,” said Rep.
Rich Vial, R-Scholls.
Vial and Sen. Elizabeth
Steiner Hayward, D-Beaver-
ton, sponsored the legislation
to help prevent youth from
becoming addicted to tobac-
co. Tobacco-related disease
is the state’s leading cause of
preventable death and claims
the lives of more than 5,500
Oregonians each year.
Bill to raise state
smoking age
to 21 passes
Legislature
approves election
dates for referrals
Oregon is on its way to
become the third state to raise
the legal age to buy tobacco
from 18 to 21.
The House of Represen-
tatives on Thursday passed a
bill to increase the legal age.
The Senate, which had pre-
viously passed the bill, then
approved a minor language
change made by the House,
sending the bill to Gov. Kate
Brown for a signature.
“Research has shown that
raising the minimum legal
sale age of tobacco products
and electronic cigarettes to
21 years, in line with alcohol
and marijuana, significantly
reduces the number of youth
who begin using these prod-
ucts and become addicted to
The Oregon Legislature
Thursday approved election
dates for two major pieces of
legislation if they are referred
to voters.
A $5.3 billion transporta-
tion funding package passed
Thursday and new taxes on
health care providers to pay
for Medicaid could get re-
ferred to voters next year.
Oregonians can petition to
refer legislation to the ballot.
The referral typically gets
voted on in the next general
election, but the Legislature
05880
Oregon
lawmakers
approve state
REAL ID
A bill to give Oregonians
a voluntary path to upgrade
their state-issued driver’s li-
cense or ID card to federal
standards is headed to Gov.
Kate Brown for a signature.
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 compliant state-is-
sued ID, travelers will instead
have to use a passport or oth-
er federally approved form of
ID.