STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Sondland
sues to
recover
legal fees
Oregon House OKs election-day postmark for ballots
By Peter Wong
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon, the fi rst state to
conduct all elections by mail,
would join the ranks of states
accepting ballots postmarked
by Election Day under a bill
that has cleared the Oregon
House.
House Bill 3291 was
approved on a 39-21 vote
Monday, May 24, and goes to
the Senate.
The bill would align Ore-
gon with 17 states — includ-
ing Washington, California
and Nevada — that allow bal-
lots to count if they are post-
marked by Election Day.
Four other states count bal-
lots if they are postmarked the
day before the election. Ore-
gon is among the states that
have required ballots to be in
the hands of county elections
offi ces by the close of Elec-
tion Day.
Under the bill, ballots
PMG fi le photo
Oregon ballots would be accepted if postmarked by Election
Day in a bill passed by the House.
would have to arrive in county
elections offi ces no later than
seven days after the election
if they are to count. States that
allow Election Day postmarks
range widely from three to 20
days.
Rep. Dan Rayfi eld, a Dem-
ocrat from Corvallis and the
bill’s fl oor manager, said about
150 voters in Marion County
cast ballots in last year’s gen-
eral election, but they did
not count because they were
received after Election Day.
He said the concept of
Election Day postmarks has
been on the table for two
decades, going back to when
Republicans were the major-
ity party in the House.
Rep. Greg Smith, a Repub-
lican from Heppner who then
was in his fi rst term, voted for
it in 2001 and now. The only
other Republican who voted
for it Monday was Rep. Ron
Noble of McMinnville. The
other 21 Republicans voted
against it.
The vote in the House
Rules Committee was along
party lines.
“It creates another level of
complexity in a system that is
problematic,” House Republi-
can Leader Christine Drazan
of Canby said. “A deadline is
a deadline is a deadline.”
Drazan also said the U.S.
Postal Service has shifted
most of its mail processing to
Portland in the two decades
since the 2001 vote.
She also questioned a pro-
vision that allows a ballot to
be counted even if the post-
mark is unclear.
Rayfi eld said that when a
voter signs the return enve-
lope containing a ballot — a
signature is required for elec-
tions offi cials to match it with
a signature on fi le — it will
include a statement that the
ballot was mailed on or before
election day. If a voter does
otherwise, it is considered
perjury, a Class C felony pun-
ishable by a maximum fi ne
of $125,000 and fi ve years in
prison.
Secretary of State Shemia
Fagan, the state’s chief elec-
tions offi cer, endorsed an
Election Day deadline in tes-
timony to the House Rules
Committee on Feb. 11. She
said it was time to end pub-
lic confusion about when bal-
lots should be mailed in time
for county elections offi cials
to receive them.
The bill also would change
an optional election date from
the third Tuesday in Septem-
ber to the fourth Tuesday in
August.
Oregon Capital Bureau
Portland hotelier Gordon
Sondland, an ambassador who
provided key and colorful testi-
mony in President Trump’s fi rst
impeachment hearings, is suing
former U.S. Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo to recover legal
fees.
The Washington Post
reported Monday that Sondland
fi led a $1.8 million federal law-
suit in U.S. District Court for
the District of Columbia. Sond-
land’s attorneys say the Trump
administration paid only a small
part of the hotel owner’s legal
bills related to the impeachment
inquiry.
Sondland is founder and
chairman of the Provenance
hotel group, which operates
13 hotels across the country,
including Portland’s Heath-
man, Hotel Delux, the Sentinel,
Hotel Lucia and the Woodlark.
He was a major contributor to
President Donald Trump’s inau-
guration fund, and was named
ambassador to the European
Union.
Sondland’s November 2019
testimony to the House Intel-
ligence Impeachment Inquiry
outlined a link between presi-
dential attorney Rudy Giuliani
in Ukraine and the White House
in an attempt to get information
on Hunter Biden’s activities as a
member of the Burisma energy
company board.
“I know that members of
this committee frequently frame
these complicated issues in the
form of a simple question: Was
there a quid pro quo?” Sondland
told the committee in his Nov.
20 testimony. “As I testifi ed
previously, with regard to the
requested White House call and
the White House meeting, the
answer is yes. Mr. Giuliani con-
veyed to Secretary (Rick) Perry,
Ambassador (Kurt) Volker and
others that President Trump
wanted a public statement from
President Zelensky committing
to investigations of Burisma
and the 2016 election.”
Sondland was dismissed
as ambassador after President
Trump was acquitted in the U.S.
Senate.
Oregon revenue forecast: State coff ers and ‘kicker’ surge
$1 billion more than
projected just three
months ago
By Peter Wong
Oregon Capital Bureau
For Oregon’s state budget,
and for Oregon taxpayers, it
appears everything’s coming
up roses these days.
An economic surge as the
coronavirus pandemic wanes
will produce $1 billion more
for state coff ers than state
economists projected just
three months ago. That will be
enough to boost state spend-
ing, without cuts, as lawmak-
ers fi nish work on the state
budget for the next two years.
Meanwhile, that surge will
result in an estimated $1.4 bil-
lion — more than twice the
amount projected back on Feb.
24 — going back to taxpay-
ers next year in the form of
“kicker” credits against their
2021 tax bills. The fi nal fi gure
will be determined in the Sep-
tember economic and revenue
forecast, but the share of tax
liability is projected at 13.6%.
For the average taxpayer
with a household income of
$67,400, the credit will be
$636. For the median with
household income between
$35,000 and $40,000 — half
are above and half below that
range — the credit will be
$312.
“I have never seen such a
strong outlook,” State Econ-
omist Mark McMullen told
members of the House and
Senate revenue committees
during his quarterly forecast
on Wednesday.
“There are a whole lot more
resources available than when
we last reported in March, and
even more than we reported at
the beginning of the session,
when the budget was drafted.
It’s quite a remarkable turn-
around from a few months ago.
“When the pandemic hit,
we saw these massive job
losses that blew a $2 billion
hole in the budget. That hole
was fi lled by the March fore-
cast (on Feb. 24), and now we
are past where we thought we
would be even pre-pandemic.”
Gov. Kate Brown pro-
posed $25.6 billion in spend-
ing from the tax-supported
general fund and lottery pro-
ceeds, the state’s two most
fl exible sources, back on Dec.
1. Legislative budget writers,
bolstered by $2.6 billion in
federal aid from President Joe
Biden’s pandemic recovery
plan, unveiled a framework for
almost $28 billion in spending
on March 24.
Brown said in a statement
that the latest forecast, coupled
with projections for the fol-
lowing two budget cycles, sets
the stage for a better Oregon:
“Our anticipated state reve-
nues will allow us to fully fund
our state agency base budgets,
make investments prioritized
by the Racial Justice Council,
move forward with a $9.3 bil-
lion school budget, fully fund
the Student Success Act, and
ensure no one is kicked off the
Oregon Health Plan, among
other things.
“These investments will
help Oregonians recover from
the COVID-19 pandemic and
move Oregon toward a future
where equity is realized and all
are equal.”
Some Democrats want to
spend more; Republicans say
spending should focus on one-
time purposes. Budget writers
have already proposed to save
some of the federal aid for the
2023-25 budget period.
Senior economist Josh Leh-
ner said what has helped prop
up the economy in Oregon and
other states is the massive fed-
eral spending during the pan-
demic, including payments to
individuals and businesses.
Biden’s plan gave $1,400 pay-
ments to an estimated 95% of
Oregonians.
“It has been unprecedented
outside of wartime,” Lehner
said. “It has allowed house-
holds and fi rms to keep their
heads above water. It does not
mean that some people haven’t
fallen through the cracks —
they have — and some busi-
nesses have closed.”
McMullen said economists
have not seen the steep down-
turn triggered by the onset of
the pandemic — Oregon’s
unemployment rate went from
a modern-low 3.5% in March
2020 to a modern-high 13.2%
the following month — and
the equally speedy recovery.
The April 2021 rate was 6%; it
has hovered around that mark
for a few months.
McMullen said he still proj-
ects it will be the fourth quarter
of 2022 before Oregon returns
to its pre-pandemic employ-
ment levels, still shorter than
A7
the seven years following
downturns in 1980 and 2007.
“Obviously, a lot of things
can happen in two years,” he
said. “But right now we are
on a pretty strong footing. The
consensus (of economists)
ranges from good to great.”
McMullen said the amount
of the projected kicker could
change, given that Oregon tax
fi lings just closed on Mon-
day, May 17, a month later
than usual because of the pan-
demic. It would not be the larg-
est since the kicker was created
in 1979 and put into the Ore-
gon Constitution in 2000; $1.1
billion was rebated in 2007
and $1.7 billion in 2019, both
just before Oregon’s economy
took sharp nosedives.
Unlike the Great Reces-
sion between 2007 and 2010,
Oregon had built up general
and education budget reserves,
plus a big ending balance, that
cushioned the latest downturn.
They will be at $4.2 billion at
the close of the current bud-
get period June 30, but drop to
$2.2 billion — slightly under
10% — in 2021-23.
“I would implore that sav-
ings going forward is a must,”
McMullen said.
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