Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 2020)
STATE MyEagleNews.com Wednesday, August 12, 2020 A9 State agencies, financial institutions prepare to roll out $500 checks for unemployed Amounts will not count against unemployment benefits By Peter Wong Oregon Capital Bureau Thousands of Oregonians who await unemployment ben- efits, whose claims were denied or who never filed in the first place will soon have a chance to obtain one-time $500 checks from a state fund. Legislators, who set aside a $35 million fund at a meeting of the Emergency Board on July 14, are preparing to roll out the program with the help of two state agencies and participat- ing financial institutions. Appli- cants will have to meet some eligibility requirements, but the application form will be kept simple. “The goal of this is to pro- vide a small amount of payment as quickly as possible,” said Lisa Taylor, a spokeswoman for Senate President Peter Court- ney, D-Salem. “We wanted to make this with as low a barrier as possible.” She said more details will be announced after the participat- ing institutions — mostly credit unions but believed to include at least one bank — sign con- tracts with the Department of Administrative Services and Department of Justice. The Employment Department is not involved. She said lawmakers do not want to prompt a run on participating institutions. Taylor did say that legisla- tors expect the entire $35 mil- lion, which comes from the state’s share of federal corona- virus relief funds, will be spent. An official of SELCO Community Credit Union con- firmed Friday that the credit union is one of the participants. She said people will not have to be members of the participat- ing credit unions to apply for money. “We just see it as a way to help out our fellow Oregonians when it’s clear a lot of people need help right now,” Tiffany Washington, a SELCO senior vice president, said in an inter- view. “For a credit union, that is at the core of what we do. We had an opportunity to do our part in helping deliver this money to people.” SELCO has most of its branches in Eugene/Springfield (six) and Bend/Redmond (five), but also in Portland, Salem, Albany and Burns. “A lot of work has been put in to create a really simple application,” Washington said. “Our hope is that people will be able to visit a credit union and Unemployment claims Oregon lawmakers were poised Monday to achieve their special session aims by cutting spending and rebalancing the state budget, and passing other bills affecting unemployment claims and further limiting police use of chokeholds. The main committee for the Legislature’s second special session this summer pushed through most of the bills during a six-hour meeting on Monday. Members did so despite com- plaints about access restric- tions resulting from the coro- navirus pandemic, which has closed the Capitol in Salem to the public. “We cannot continue to do public policy with no commit- tees and no public input,” Sen- ate Republican Leader Fred Girod of Lyons said. The 10-member committee handled 11 of 13 bills, includ- ing all related to the budget, that Democratic legislative leaders had drafted for the session. Most of the debate was not about the budget, but over bills relating to unemployment claims. A different six-member panel cleared a bill (House Bill 4301) to limit police use of chokeholds by requiring police to give a warning and allow a “reasonable opportunity” for someone to cease resistance. Lawmakers during their first special session in June lim- ited chokeholds to instances where police can employ the use of deadly force. Both bills stopped short of an outright ban on the practice. Some issues did not make it onto the legislative agenda. Among them was legisla- tion to disconnect Oregon’s tax code from three federal tax breaks included in the CARES Act. Supporters said it would recoup potential losses of $225 million for state coffers, but business groups argued that the federal provisions were designed to lower their tax liability and let them retain needed cash. The House Rev- enue Committee heard the pro- posed bill on Thursday. Also left hanging was whether lawmakers should approve a liability shield for businesses, schools and others against lawsuits arising from the coronavirus pandemic. Budget work Lawmakers did much of the budget work weeks ago, after budget committee leaders unveiled their plan to eliminate a gap of more than $1 billion File photo Oregon legislators in a spe- cial session Monday complet- ed most of the session goals, including balancing the state budget. between declining tax collec- tions and previously approved spending for the current two- year budget. Budget subcom- mittees heard testimony July 22-24. The plan maintains a $9 bil- lion state school fund — about half of which already is spent — but lawmakers will have to draw $400 million from an education reserve to do it. About $400 million will be left in that reserve, and law- makers do not plan to tap the state’s rainy-day fund, which will be just under $1 billion by mid-2021. The main bill cuts $481 million in other spending from the tax-supported general fund, including debt repayments for building projects that now are suspended. That total exceeds the $387 million target origi- nally set by the budget com- mittee leaders. “Practically every agency with general fund was reduced,” John Borden, a leg- islative fiscal analyst, told the committee. Unlike the original bud- get-balancing plan, the main bill will leave open two state prisons. Shutter Creek Correctional Institution, a 260-bed mini- mum-security prison in North Bend, would have closed in September. Warner Creek Correctional Facility, a 400- bed minimum-security prison near Lakeview, was scheduled for closure at the end of the budget cycle in mid-2021. The main bill also would leave an ending balance of about $100 million, down from the nearly $1 billion pro- jected for mid-2021, before the pandemic resulted in shut- downs of business activity and public life and ate into tax collections. The Emergency Board, which consists of 20 lawmak- ers who handle budget mat- ters between sessions, will have $200 million more for pandemic and wildfire emer- gencies. The state emer- gency fund was down to $10.3 million. whether applicants may be eli- gible for regular benefits — which are drawn from a state trust fund — thousands are awaiting adjudication of their claims before they draw any money. The agency is begin- ning to advance benefits to some of these people. “Current” excludes the supplemental $600-per-week federal benefits that Congress authorized under the CARES Act back in March. That pro- gram expired July 31 — the actual qualifying week in Ore- gon ended July 25. Employ- ment Department officials say people who were eligible for the supplemental benefits before July 25 will still receive them. A top state administra- tor warned legislators that it might take weeks to set up the program. But it is being launched in about four weeks, which Taylor says is akin to light speed for government. “I get the sense that every- body is pedaling as fast as we can,” SELCO’s Washington said. Office workers will have to wear masks indoors as COVID-19 emergency extends into fall Lawmakers move ahead with special session bills By Peter Wong Oregon Capital Bureau leave with their money.” The amounts will not count against unemployment benefits. To qualify for $500 checks, people will have to be at least age 18, prove their identity and their current Oregon residence so that there is no duplication and no out-of-state beneficia- ries. They also must attest on the application form that their monthly pretax income was $4,000 or less — and that they are experiencing severe or indi- rect financial hardship resulting from Gov. Kate Brown’s exec- utive orders that virtually shut down business activity and pub- lic life during the coronavirus pandemic. If applicants submit false information and are caught, they will have to repay the money. Also, check recipients must not be current on their unem- ployment benefits. “Current” means that, except for the cur- rent claim week, they have received all of their regular unemployment benefits or fed- eral benefits under the Pan- demic Unemployment Assis- tance program. The latter program is for people newly eligible for benefits, such as self-employed workers, inde- pendent contractors, freelancers and gig and temporary workers. If people are “current” in their benefit payments, Taylor said, “you are not eligible for this program.” The Employment Depart- ment recently cleared a back- log of 70,000 applications for that federal program. But because the agency is required under federal law to determine The main special session committee cleared two of three bills relating to unem- ployment claims. One bill (Senate Bill 1703) will allow the Department of Revenue to share information on tax returns, which are con- fidential, with the Employ- ment Department. Some shar- ing already takes place, and for regular claims against the state unemployment trust fund, the Employment Department can check payroll records of wage earners. But without this bill, the Employment Depart- ment was slowed in process- ing claims by people that the CARES Act made newly eligi- ble for unemployment benefits in a federal program. Among them are self-employed peo- ple, independent contractors and freelancers, gig and tem- porary workers. Many do not have payroll records, but all have filed tax returns. A second bill (Senate Bill 1701) will allow a higher threshold for earnings — $300 per week, rather than 10 times Oregon’s minimum wage at $132.50 — before unemploy- ment benefits are reduced. This change will expire at the end of 2021. State Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle put forth the idea after she consulted with her counterpart in Georgia. She said the change would allow some workers to earn more money without losing benefits, and some employers to take on more workers. It won the endorsement of Jason Brandt, president of the Oregon Restau- rant and Lodging Association, who said, “We decided to share our position because we think this is the right thing to do.” Oregon’s leisure and hos- pitality industry has been affected most by the pandemic downturn. A third bill (Senate Bill 1702) failed. It would have facilitated unemployment benefits for employees of pub- lic and private schools other than teachers, researchers and administrators — main- tenance workers, cooks and other staff — and removed them from state adjudication of claims that usually takes weeks. Four of five House mem- bers on the committee voted for it, but Democratic Sen. Betsy Johnson of Scappoose joined two Republican sen- ators to oppose it. The bill required majorities from House and Senate members to advance. Rules expected to be announced this week By Gary A. Warner Oregon Capital Bureau Office workers will be required to wear masks indoors to help keep Oregon on track to suppress the growth of COVID-19, Gov. Kate Brown said Friday. “It’s a small act that can make a big difference,” Brown said. The rules for face cov- erings in the workplace are being finalized and could be announced as early as next week. Brown made the com- ments during an Oregon Health Authority media briefing on the pandemic’s impact on Oregon. Official state statistics show 20,636 cases and 348 deaths from the virus. On Friday, the state reported 423 new cases and nine deaths. The fatalities were in Deschutes, Umatilla, Jeffer- son, Marion, Malheur, Clack- amas, Jackson, Malheur and Yamhill counties. Eight of the dead were over 75 years old. The youngest was a 64-year- old man in Klamath County. Despite the daily num- bers, state officials said overall trends show the rate of growth of new COVID-19 cases has improved. Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the state’s top infectious disease expert, said after more than two months of increases, the rate of COVID-19 infection statewide was leveling off. Currently, each case leads to one addi- tional case, a rate that would keep infections at or near cur- rent levels. Maintaining the flat rate is the key to keep Oregon moving toward allowing some in-class instruction at K-12 schools and colleges, the state officials said. Hospitals will have enough hospital beds and ventilators to take care of the state’s COVID- 19 cases. “Rather than just a plateau we would like to see our curve and cases drop off,” Sidelinger said. Until a vaccine is cre- ated and widely distributed, health officials can only try to suppress growth in cases, while medical researchers find ways to decrease severe cases with a mix of medicines and treatment. Sidelinger noted that Ore- gon was holding at a high rate Oregon Capital Bureau file photo Gov. Kate Brown details steps Oregon is taking to limit the spread of COVID-19 at a press conference in Portland on March 12. of infection and that even a 10% increase in cases would lead to an exponential rise in hospital- ization that could swamp the state health care system and quickly drive deaths up. Progress has not been uni- form. Infections have been spiking in Morrow and Uma- tilla counties, where restric- tions on businesses and pub- lic gatherings have been rolled back under a directive from Brown. Umatilla County was moved from Phase 2 to base- line, which includes the “stay- at-home” order in place prior to the phased reopening of coun- ties in May. Morrow County moved from Phase 2 to Phase 1 after volunteering to insti- tute local voluntary controls. The latest list of zip codes with the highest rates of infec- tion were topped by Herm- iston in Umatilla County and Boardman in Morrow County. Warm Springs, in Jef- ferson County, was third and has seen its rate of infection continue to rise. The majority of zip codes with the highest rates of infection are in East- ern Oregon. The state currently has nine counties on its watchlist of places where the infection rates are worrisome: Baker, Hood River, Jefferson, Mal- heur, Marion, Morrow, Mult- nomah, Umatilla and Wasco. Brown said COVID-19 would continue to challenge the state and she expected to renew the state of emergency she declared March 8 when the current order expires Sept. 4. Health officials have said the largest driver of new infections was informal get-togethers that extended beyond immediate family. “Keep your social cir- cle very tight,” Brown said. “Keep your bubble small and consistent.” While state health and worker safety officials have inspected thousands of busi- nesses for compliance, the state will count on residents’ common sense to follow the rule of no more than 10 peo- ple at private gatherings. “I’m not going to be the party police and knocking on people’s doors,” Brown said. Future plans to curb COVID-19 include possible travel restrictions. Brown first floated the idea last month, but has said since that the tar- get was unnecessary leisure travel and that any restric- tions had to be worked out with neighboring states and not impact commercial or business travel. Any restric- tions would be done in con- cert with neighboring states that adopt the same poli- cies. No action is imminent, Brown said. Despite pressure from medical and education groups, Brown said she was not inclined to change rules that allow bars to stay open. Critics have said that bar patrons have difficulty main- taining social distancing and that strangers interact, making virus tracing more difficult. Health officials said many people go to bars with small groups of friends, whom they can identify if there is an infected person in the group. Brown noted she had ordered bars to close earlier — 10 p.m. — and limit customers to no more than 100. Inspectors from the Oregon Liquor Con- trol Commission were actively inspecting for compliance. Michael B. DesJardin Dentistry, PC Preventive, Restorative & Endodontics New Patients Welcome! Steel on the inside where it matters most. 208 NW Canton John Day 541-575-2725 mbddental@live.com michaelbdesjardinmd.com Thank you to everyone in the Long Creek community that helped us with the tragic fire on August 4, 2020. Shops Garages Commercial www.WSBNW.com 855 • 668 • 7211 S197701-1 Industrial Sandy, OR S199188-1 Water tenders, extra hands, snacks, sandwiches, beverages, ice, kindness, caring, encouragement, and support are all truly appreciated. Thank you! Long Creek Fire Department S202756-1