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.
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community that helped us with the tragic fire on
August 4, 2020.
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Water tenders, extra hands, snacks, sandwiches,
beverages, ice, kindness, caring, encouragement,
and support are all truly appreciated.
Thank you!
Long Creek Fire Department
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