STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, July 3, 2019
A9
Acrimonious legislative session ends
Democrats tout accomplishments
Republicans describe as ‘overreach’
By Claire Withycombe
Oregon Capital Bureau
The highly public down-
fall of a legislative plan to
cap the state’s greenhouse
gas emissions cast a long
shadow over the last two
weeks of the legislative
session.
Despite its acrimonious
conclusion, though, Gov.
Kate Brown and other Dem-
ocrats were quick to tout
their successes during the
session.
People across the state,
from working parents to stu-
dents to business owners,
will be affected by the Leg-
islature’s work, which con-
cluded Sunday evening.
Democrats cite as key
accomplishments work to
attack the state’s housing
crisis, provide paid leave
from work for new parents
and other caregivers and to
ask Oregonians whether the
state can set limits on cam-
paign donations.
“I just think this has been
an incredibly productive
session,” said Senate Dem-
ocratic Leader Ginny Bur-
dick of Portland. “We’ve
achieved things that have
been kind of the Holy Grail
for years, primarily school
funding.”
Brown told reporters on
Monday that she’d been
fighting for some of those
policies since entering state
office in the early 1990s.
As a candidate for the
House in 1992, Brown’s
platform was “stable, ade-
quate” funding for public
schools.
This year, lawmakers
passed House Bill 3427 —
which raises about $1 billion
a year in new business taxes
to pay for improvements to
the state’s schools.
“The Student Success
Act marks a turning point
for education in Oregon,”
Brown said. “We can finally
invest in an education sys-
tem that will ensure every
single student in our state is
on a path to realizing their
dreams for the future.”
Some of what lawmakers
did will require Oregonians
to weigh in next year. Vot-
ers will be asked whether to
amend the state’s Constitu-
tion to allow for restrictions
on campaign donations, and
whether to raise taxes on
cigarettes and e-cigarettes
to help pay for public health
care.
Lawmakers got more
done than Brown said she
had expected, including the
paid family leave proposal
and a law overturning man-
datory minimum sentences
for juvenile offenders, a
modification to Measure 11.
Behind those accom-
plishments was a politi-
cal shift — and some very
tough negotiations between
parties.
“It was pretty stun-
ning what we were able to
accomplish,” Burdick said.
“We were able to accom-
plish it through some pretty
stormy waters at the time.”
In November, Democrats
gained significant majori-
ties in the House and Sen-
ate enough to pass most bills
without Republican help.
However, a constitutional
requirement gave Republi-
cans leverage and came into
play in a big way this ses-
Oregon Capital Bureau/Claire Withycombe
Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. at
Friday’s press conference announces Senate Republicans
will return to the Capitol after a walkout.
sion. Each chamber needed
at least two Republicans
to have enough legislators
present to legally conduct
business.
Republicans in the Senate
left twice to protest major
bills — the school funding
measure and then cap-and-
trade. In so doing, the Sen-
ate couldn’t vote.
The school funding leg-
islation passed after Brown
struck a deal with the Sen-
ate Republican leader to kill
bills tightening restrictions
on guns and requiring more
kids in public schools to get
vaccinated.
But the cap and trade
walkout was another mat-
ter, thrusting many other
bills into uncertainty while
lawmakers hurtled toward
a June 30 deadline to finish
their work.
Republicans
returned
Saturday, June 29, with just
enough time to pass a full
budget for the state before
adjourning.
The House Republican
caucus said the session was
“defined by overreach.”
“The failure of cap-and-
trade was a turning point,”
House Republican Leader
Carl Wilson said in a state-
ment. “The thousands of
workers that came to the
Capitol this past week sent a
clear message to the super-
majority that enough is
enough.”
Sen. Herman Baertsch-
iger, Jr., R-Grants Pass,
who leads Republicans in
the Senate and spearheaded
what were two improba-
bly successful strikes by his
party, could not be reached
for comment.
“The progressive poli-
cies that my Democrat col-
leagues have wanted for
many years, they were suc-
cessful in passing an enor-
mous number of things that
are going to affect Orego-
nians significantly,” said
Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-On-
tario. “I can say some were
good. Many, I voted against
because I think they’re
overreaching.”
Bentz pointed to the gross
receipts tax on business to
raise money for schools, a
new law to allow undocu-
mented immigrants to get
driver’s licenses and to limit
what crimes qualify for sen-
tencing to the death penalty.
Versions of each of those
policies have gone before
Oregon voters via ballot
measure in the past.
“I think it’s been rather
surprising that these changes
have been made with-
out chance for the people
of Oregon to weigh in on
them,” Bentz said.
It was with a detectable
sense of relief that law-
makers adjourned on Sun-
day evening, but some law-
makers have raised concerns
about how the Legislature
functions in the future.
Some Republicans say
their constituents aren’t
heard when one party dom-
inates the political process.
“The communities that
we represent out in rural
Oregon have just as many
rights as the folks in Port-
land do,” said Sen. Dallas
Heard, R-Roseburg, before
lawmakers adjourned. “And
that’s really all I’m speaking
to, is that there needs to be a
renewing of mutual respect
between the two parties and
between the majority and
the minority.”
Democrats have worried
publicly about a breakdown
of the Legislature’s institu-
tional norms.
“If you look at the insti-
tution and the hit it took, it’s
at least D and maybe even
an F,” said Senate President
Peter Courtney, D-Salem.
“It was really troubling to
me to see this institution get
clobbered the way I think it
was getting clobbered. And
I am concerned about that.”
“I think it’s really clear
that Senate Republican
actions have subverted
the Democratic process,”
Brown said. “And instead
of staying at the table and
engaging in a productive
Last of bills head to Gov. Brown for signature
By Mark Miller,
Claire Withycombe
and Aubrey Wieber
Oregon Capital Bureau
The Oregon Legislature,
delayed by a walkout by Sen-
ate Republicans, sprinted to
finish its work, voting on the
last bill just before 5 p.m.
Sunday.
Here are key bills headed
to Gov. Kate Brown for sig-
nature to head into the law
books:
SIGN OF THE TIMES:
Under Senate Bill 998, the
so-called “Idaho stop” law,
bicyclists will be able to roll
through stop signs at intersec-
tions without having to come
to a complete stop. They’ll
be able to treat stop signs as
yield signs. It will still be ille-
gal for them to go through
without stopping if traffic or
pedestrians are in their way.
Cycling advocates have been
calling on Oregon to adopt
Idaho’s traffic law for years
to make biking through resi-
dential neighborhoods less of
a hassle, but this is the first
time such a plan has actually
passed both chambers of the
Legislature.
BUY YOUR LEAVE:
Workers will lose a fraction of
their paychecks under House
Bill 2005. But in exchange,
they’ll have access to one of
the Western Hemisphere’s
most robust paid leave pro-
grams. A worker could take as
much as 12 weeks off per year
— plus two more for a preg-
nancy, childbirth or medical
conditions — with up to full
pay. It’s not an unrestricted
benefit. Workers will have to
apply for leave and demon-
strate they are taking time off
work to deal with a family
medical emergency, a health
issue, the birth or adoption of
a child or abuse or harassment.
Employers have to chip
in as well, but at a lower rate
than employees. Combined,
Oregon Capital Bureau/Claire Withycombe
Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, stands on the floor of the
Oregon Senate Sunday.
they will pay up to 1% of
wages into a state-run insur-
ance program modeled off
workers’ compensation. Mul-
tiple business lobbies and
labor unions supported HB
2005, which was developed
through a bipartisan process
led by House Majority Leader
Jennifer Williamson, D-Port-
land. It will make Oregon the
eighth U.S. state with paid
family leave.
GREEN LIGHT FOR
CARDS: House Bill 2015 will
allow Oregonians who can’t
prove legal residence in the
U.S. to get driver’s licenses,
nearly five years after Orego-
nians rejected a similar law.
Advocates argued that the
bill could make the state’s
roads safer. Licensed drivers
are required to get insurance.
At least one state with a sim-
ilar law — Connecticut —
has seen dips in the number
of hit-and-run crashes since
implementation.
The bill applies to any-
one who may not have vital
records proving their legal
residence.
POWER TO THE PEO-
PLE: It’ll be up to state voters
whether the Oregon Constitu-
tion clearly allows limits on
campaign contributions. Sen-
ate Joint Resolution 18 refers
a constitutional amendment
to the ballot that would allow
the Legislature, local govern-
ments and voter initiatives to
cap the amount that someone
can give to a candidate for
office, as well as require polit-
ical campaigns to disclose
their donors.
The voter referral was
priority one for campaign
finance reform advocates. It
had the strong support of the
governor, who pledged last
year to push for limits in Ore-
gon’s famously lax campaign
finance system. The state is
one of 11 that doesn’t limit
how much an individual can
give to a political candidate.
MISSING
MIDDLE:
More than 50 Oregon cities,
including virtually the entire
Portland area, will no lon-
ger be able to limit neigh-
borhoods to single-family
homes. House Bill 2001 does
away with what some housing
advocates call “exclusionary
zoning,” requiring cities with
a population over 10,000 to
allow a duplex wherever they
would allow a single-family
house. Cities with more than
25,000 residents and suburbs
of Portland would also have to
allow townhomes, triplexes,
quadplexes and cottage clus-
ters. HB 2001 was amended
several times and picked up
support from Republicans
in the House. It makes Ore-
gon the first state to do away
with single-family-exclusive
zoning, except in its smallest
cities.
SMOKED OUT: Vot-
ers will also decide whether
Oregon will increase its tax
on cigarettes and cigars and
expand the tobacco tax to
cover vaping products. House
Bill 2270 was stuck in neutral
for months this spring before a
compromise referred the con-
cept to voters next November
instead of being put into effect
directly by the Legislature.
Public health advocates say
more tax money is needed to
fund the Oregon Health Plan
and raising the tax will deter
young people from taking up
the nicotine habit, while crit-
ics say it’s wringing more
money out of poor Orego-
nians, who make up a dispro-
portionate share of the state’s
smokers.
LET’S BE FRANKED:
Did you know members of
Congress don’t have to pay
postage on their official mail?
Soon, Oregonians will enjoy
this privilege of “franking,”
as it’s called. Senate Bill 861,
which affects elections start-
ing next year, makes it so bal-
lot return envelopes don’t
require a postage stamp. It
removes a cost, however
small, that election reform
advocates say is a barrier to
poor and homebound Orego-
nians voting. SB 861 was a
top priority for the late Den-
nis Richardson, Oregon’s sec-
retary of state.
MOBILE HOME SECU-
RITY: Mobile homes com-
prise nearly one-tenth of all
housing units in Oregon. But
many of the state’s mobile
homes are aging, a num-
ber of mobile home parks
have closed or are in dan-
ger of closing, and many
mobile home residents sim-
ply don’t have the money
to dispose of a home that is
breaking down or to buy a
new one. That’s where House
Bill 2896 comes in. Mobile
home residents will be eligi-
ble for grants to get out of an
old home and into a new one.
Money is also set aside to
preserve mobile home parks,
including by helping tenants
band together to buy them
cooperatively.
DIRTY DIESEL: #Tim-
berUnity protesters who
thronged the Capitol on
Thursday called for the Leg-
islature to reject the cap-and-
trade bill and also another
piece of legislation some
truckers oppose: House Bill
2007, which sets an emis-
sions standard for diesel
trucks based in Multnomah,
Washington and Clackamas
counties. Trucks using dirty
old diesel engines instead of
newer models won’t be able
to get a title in those three
counties after 2024.
EGGS-CELLENT: Ore-
gon has already created some
rules and a schedule by which
Oregon hens are supposed
to have a certain amount of
room to lay eggs. Senate Bill
1019 takes that a step further
by requiring the state’s Agri-
culture Department to make
rules to require that hens be
“cage free” by 2024. The bill
exempts from state inspec-
tion operations with fewer
than 3,000 egg-laying hens.
discussion, they took their
marbles and went home.”
She said it was an
“important conversation”
for the Senate and House
to have about whether to
change the state’s quorum
rules.
Since time limits on
legislative sessions were
enacted, lawmakers must
act more quickly to get their
work done and a walkout is
more disruptive.
Baertschiger told report-
ers on Friday that he was
reluctant to walk out and
thinks the tactic could be
abused in the future.
Bentz said it should
only be used in “the most
incredibly
difficult
of
circumstances.”
“The only reason that we
used the tactic is because we
viewed the cap-and-trade
bill as an existential threat to
Oregon in general and East-
ern Oregon in particular,”
Bentz said, “Because of the
fact that energy is so incred-
ibly important to our lives
and to cede control of the
price of energy to California
— that won’t work.”
Meanwhile, issues of the
overall climate and work-
place culture in the Capitol
remain in the background.
Next week, the Sen-
ate is expected to hold a
hearing over remarks Sen.
Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, has
made, including saying that
Oregon State Police ought to
be “bachelors” and “heavily
armed” should they be sent
to bring him back to the Sen-
ate to vote.
“Sen. Boquist’s behav-
ior was unbecoming of
an elected official and an
embarrassment to the entire
state of Oregon,” Brown
said. “I expect the Senate to
hold him accountable.”
Gov. Brown
threatens
executive
action on
climate
By Aubrey Wieber
Oregon Capital Bureau
Less than 24 hours
after the 2019 Legisla-
ture closed, Gov. Kate
Brown renewed the
fight for a cap and trade
program, saying Mon-
day she might act with
her executive authority
to drive ahead with the
hotly contested envi-
ronmental policy.
She spoke on the
heels of a major polit-
ical
collapse
last
week, when Senate
Republicans doomed
a vote on House Bill
2020.
The legislation, set-
ting up a market-based
credit system to force
polluting
industries
to reform, had passed
the House and was one
vote away in the Dem-
ocratically controlled
Senate from becoming
state law.
On Monday, Brown
asked industry exec-
utives to sit down
with her and reach a
compromise.
If such negotiations
don’t work, she would
consider her other
options to force down
emissions in the state,
including
executive
powers and direction
of state agencies.
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