STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Gov. Brown calls
special session to tackle
COVID-19 issues
A9
Brown trying to resurrect projects
killed by COVID-19 financial fallout
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
After weeks of negotia-
tions with lawmakers, Gov.
Kate Brown announced a
one-day special session
of the Legislature will be
held Monday to deal with
COVID-19 related issues.
The need for state
action has grown in recent
weeks as Congress has
failed to come up with a
bill extending several key
programs on unemploy-
ment, a eviction morato-
rium and small business
subsidies.
Brown says she will ask
for $800 million to help
Oregon residents who have
battled a pandemic and one
of the worst fire seasons in
state history.
“Many Oregon fam-
ilies are struggling with
unemployment, housing,
food insecurity and paying
their bills, “ Brown said in a
statement. “We must protect
Oregonians now, as we face
some of our hardest days.”
For the third time this
year, lawmakers will come
to the Capitol in Salem amid
an epidemic that has only
grown more threatening
in the intervening months.
Brown did not invoke a
never-before-used consti-
tutional clause that would
have allowed the Legisla-
ture to convene from their
homes, holding hearings and
taking votes in an untested
“virtual” session.
The remote Legisla-
ture provision was cre-
ated to enable the Legisla-
ture to meet in the event of
an earthquake on the Cas-
cadia Subduction Zone,
just off the coast, which
would kill thousands and
make
communications
and travel impossible.
Since lawmakers could be
among the casualties or
unable to contact Salem,
the Legislature would
work under somewhat
different rules. The nor-
mal two-thirds quorum of
each chamber would not
be needed. Using the cat-
astrophic declaration was
opposed by many Repub-
licans because Demo-
crats hold a supermajority
in the House and Sen-
ate that allows them to
pass tax and other reve-
nue bills without support
from Republicans. In the
past two years, the only
tool left to the minority
Republicans was to walk
out on sessions, thereby
denying a quorum and
bringing work to a halt.
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Gov. Kate Brown wants to resurrect
more than 30 projects costing over $200
million that died last summer when the
state bond market collapsed during busi-
ness shutdowns ordered to combat the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Brown’s 2021-23 budget proposal
includes Oregon Lottery bonds set aside
for projects in nearly every corner of the
state.
There’s dam work at Wallowa Lake
and Newport, water system fixes in the
Deschutes Basin and Hood River and
health facilities in Umatilla and Jefferson
counties.
The Oregon Coast Aquarium in New-
port and arts facilities in Lincoln City and
Beaverton are marked to receive millions
for expansion and renovation.
PMG file photo
Gov. Kate Brown
Oregon and other state
legislatures around the
nation have watched as
the Republican-led U.S.
Senate and the Democrat-
ic-led U.S. House have
been unable to reach con-
sensus on relief legis-
lation that must also be
signed by President Don-
ald Trump. Brown said
the state still needs a mas-
sive infusion of federal
dollars to head off finan-
cial collapse for many res-
idents and businesses but,
with just two weeks left
until the end of the year,
did not want to take the
chance of hitting Jan. 1
with no plans in place.
“It is clear that states
must act on their own to
provide a bridge until fed-
eral help arrives,” Brown
said. “This is why I am
calling on legislators from
both sides of the aisle to
come together in the best
interests of the state.”
The session comes as
the coronavirus is spiking
in Oregon and the rest of
the nation. Over the past
week, the state has seen
an average of 1,320 cases
per day, and will soon
pass 100,000 cumula-
tive cases of COVID-19.
Deaths have risen 32% in
the past two weeks, and
are now at 1,168 since
the pandemic began. The
lawmakers will not be
given doses of a new vac-
cine that arrived in small
batches Monday. Inocula-
tion requires two separate
shots three weeks apart
— no immunity could be
built up prior to the spe-
cial session.
The special session
will be conducted with
the Legislature elected in
2018. It will include sev-
eral “lame duck” lawmak-
ers who left office or were
defeated in November,
including Rep. Cheri Helt,
R-Bend, and Rep. Tiffiny
Mitchell, D-Astoria.
Statewide programs would bolster
affordable housing, historic preservation,
redevelopment, levees and public works
programs.
It’s essentially a repeat of the lot-
tery bond allocations approved by the
Legislature and signed by Brown at
the end of the 2019 session. The bonds
were set to go on sale this past summer.
The steady flow of money into the
state-run games of chance make the
bonds attractive as a conservative long-
term investment with relatively small
return but a rock-solid record of paying
off at the end of the bond’s term. The
bonds have performed well during eco-
nomic booms and recessions.
But COVID-19 was what inves-
tors call a “black swan” — a rare
unforeseen catastrophic event that
upends economies, blowing away
the usual rules and strategies of the
boom-and-bust market cycles.
When the pandemic ramped up in
Oregon at the beginning of March,
Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive
order telling residents to stay at home
and shutting most businesses, includ-
ing bars and restaurants. The Lottery’s
points of sale are inside businesses
and the shutdown cratered revenues
as never before. At one point, Lottery
sales were off by more than 90%. The
state’s May revenue forecast indicated
a crippled economy with massive rev-
enue deficits.
Oregon Treasurer Tobias Read
announced in July that the lottery
bonds approved in 2019 would not go
on sale. The bond market required a
4-to-1 revenue to debt ratio on the sale
and the hit on the lottery sales had sent
its balance to just above 3-to-1. With-
out the sale, the projects were dead.
Virus deaths could claim thousands more
before vaccine gets to most Oregonians
‘We can’t vaccinate
everybody at once’
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
Despite the arrival of the
first doses of a COVID-19 vac-
cine, Oregon will likely have
thousands more casualties
before the majority of residents
can be vaccinated, state offi-
cials said Friday.
“We can’t vaccinate every-
body at once, so the sad truth
is there will be more infections
and more deaths,” said Oregon
Health Authority Director Pat
Allen.
Allen said Oregon had been
one of the best states in the
nation at wearing masks, keep-
ing social distance and limiting
gatherings. Since the pandemic
began in February, Oregon
ranks 45th among states for
infection rate per capita.
On Friday, Oregon reported
1,610 new cases, bringing
the pandemic total to 91,421.
Another 16 deaths were
reported, with the death toll
now at 1,138. Severe cases
required 576 patients to be hos-
pitalized as of Friday, up 70%
from mid-November.
Allen said, if Oregon had
the median infection rate in
the country, there would be an
additional 2,000 dead.
Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the
state’s top infectious disease
expert, said statistics coming in
are not showing a major spike
over the Thanksgiving holiday.
The biggest news is the
arrival of the first doses of a
Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19.
About 6.4 million doses will
be sent to states based on their
percentage of the national adult
EOMG/Ryan Brennecke
A sign near the entrance of the Sunriver Country Store details
protocols Friday to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
population.
Oregon is expected to
receive 35,100 doses to be used
as the first two shots needed
from immunity. The state will
then distribute the vaccine to
nine unnamed hospitals that
have the ability to store the
medicine at the required -94
degrees to maintain its potency.
But even this hopeful news
has been tempered by reports
of production bottlenecks at
Pfizer’s manufacturing facility
in Brussels. After promising in
September to provide 100 mil-
lion doses to the United States
by the end of the year, it has cut
that goal in half.
Currently,
Oregon
is
assured of 147,000 doses of
the Pfizer vaccine by Jan. 1.
What happens after that time
is unknown. The United States
had a chance to pre-purchase
another 500 million doses
from Pfizer, but opted to take
“options” for possible addi-
tional purchases. Other coun-
tries pre-purchased the stock of
vaccines offered to Americans.
When additional Pfizer deliver-
ies resume is unknown, though
it could be as late as June.
Allen said the pandemic has
caused delays and shortages
before, so he won’t be count-
ing his doses ahead of time.
“Until we actually see vac-
cines show up on the loading
dock, I would not want to make
a prediction on how long it is
going to take,” Allen said.
A second vaccine made by
Moderna is expected to win
federal approval next week.
Oregon is slated to get just over
116,000 doses over the next
three weeks.
Health officials’ latest
estimate is that Oregon will
receive a total of 197,000 doses
in December.
Both the Pfizer and Mod-
erna vaccines require two
shots spaced about three weeks
apart. The current guaranteed
shipments will be used to vac-
cinate the estimated 300,000
medical and care facility work-
ers who come into direct con-
tact with possible COVID-19
positive patients.
The next rounds will go to
the older patients in congregate
settings such as nursing homes
and long-term care facilities,
which have accounted for
more than half of all deaths in
Oregon.
Brown said the goal is to
ratchet up vaccinations to
10,000 per day until the 2.6
million adults in the state who
want the shots can get them.
The current vaccines are not
approved for children.
A state survey shows that
approximately half of all adults
do not want to take the vaccine.
“Oregon is also one of the
states where we are challenged
with the number of folks who
are opposed to vaccination,”
Brown said. “We have one of
the lowest child immunization
rates in the country.”
The state will roll out an
aggressive program to reach
out to all adults and try to con-
vince them to be immunized.
There are more than 55
other vaccines under develop-
ment, with many already test-
ing on humans. The increase
in options for vaccines, as well
as training more people how to
give the shots, will eventually
ramp up to the point that the
state will knock out the virus as
an epidemic.
“Thanksgiving and Christ-
mas should look very different
in 2021,” Sidelinger said.
There is hope that more
vaccines and more health
workers who can give the shots
could shorten the timeline so
that enough Oregonians are
vaccinated by June or July. But
Allen said not to nail down any
specific timeline.
“This isn’t going to be for-
ever, but this is going to be
awhile,” he said.
The Johns Hopkins Coro-
navirus
Resource
Cen-
ter reported Friday that 70
million people have been
infected worldwide, with just
under 1.6 million deaths. The
United State has reported just
under 15.8 million cases and
294,144 deaths. The virus
has been on a steep climb
worldwide since late Octo-
ber. Infections nationwide are
up 28% from two weeks ago,
while deaths are up 48% over
the same period.
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