HomeMy WebLinkAboutLegislative Report
March 2, 2010
To: Deschutes County Commissioners
From: Mark Nelson and Erica Hagedorn
RE: Oregon 2010 Special Legislative Session Overview
Commissioners Baney, Luke and Unger,
Below please find our February 2010 Special Session overview. Let us know if you have
any questions.
2010 Legislative Session Overview
For the second time in four years, Oregon lawmakers called themselves into a
“supplemental” emergency session this February in an attempt to test annual legislative
sessions.
Because Oregon is one of a handful of states without constitutionally mandated annual
meetings, legislators have tried to demonstrate in the last few years that annual
sessions will serve to improve the management of state government.
The noisy prelude to this February session was a debate over two tax increase
measures the legislature approved last year.
On January 26, just days before the session, voters approved Measures 66 and 67.
These permanent personal and corporate income tax increases were heavily supported
by public employee unions and opposed by the business community. The campaign
was a bitter precursor to the February session, which the press reported was colored by
a rash of retribution bills aimed at certain business groups that opposed the tax
increases.
In past special sessions, leadership kept their promise to kill controversial bills and stick
to the task of balancing the budget and going home. This time, however, legislators
were allowed to introduce all kinds of legislation, from the most bland (economic
gardening) to the most controversial (public use of private waterways, chemical
restrictions and bank regulation). No policy holds were barred during a month that was
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heralded as a time to prop up Oregon’s ailing economy and improve the state’s 11
percent unemployment rate.
Many capitol veterans complained that the session felt like May of a regular session—
an intense, smash mouth session full of surprises at every turn.
The budget-writing Ways and Means Committee proved the quietest place in the
building in February after voters approved the tax increases on which the original
budget was based. The Ways and Means Co-Chairs quickly patched a $100 million
budget hole by “sweeping” dollars from state agency reserves, dipping into state
reserve funds and raiding the state’s tax amnesty account.
Even as economists predicted slow tax revenue collections in 2010, the February
budget reconciliation included new expenditures. These same economists also warned
that the real budgeting horror would occur in the 2011 Session. A year from now, Salem
will be forced to grapple with a $3 billion+ budget hole.
In the end, it was the annual session proposal to voters in the November Election that
delayed adjournment for an extra day. House and Senate leaders haggled over the
number of days they would propose to meet each year. The final deal for voters to
consider proposes 160 days during the even-numbered years and 35 days during the
odd-numbered years. Both chambers rejected proposals to limit the scope of bills
introduced in even-numbered years to reduce the mischief during short sessions.
Voters will have the final say over whether to authorize annual sessions in November.
For Deschutes County, the session yielded generally positive results.
After the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis reported that budget writers would only
need to plug a $100 million budget hole in order to adjourn the abbreviated session, the
House Revenue Committee revealed the framework for garnering $50 million in savings
from a haircut to the to the Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) program.
LFO staff needed to identify another $50 million in budget cuts and savings in order to
balance the budget and ended up sweeping funds from several agencies and reserve
funds, but did not raid county revenue sharing as in previous sessions. HB 5101 did,
however, reduce the video lottery distributions to counties by $3.2 million based on the
revenue forecast.
PAC engaged in the discussions surrounding SB 1050, which would have mandated
“Buy American” materials requirements for public construction contracts. The bill, which
was supported by trade unions, but opposed by local governments and contractors, was
too complicated for the short session and Sen. Joanne Verger, D-Coos Bay, asked that
the conversation about the concept continue into the interim.
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HB 3604, which began as a bill to create public contracting preferences for contractors
who can demonstrate a low carbon footprint, died in Ways and Means because this
issue will be a part of the larger public contracting discussion surrounding SB 1050.
Few big environmental proposals were floated this session, but SB 1059 served as the
hallmark greenhouse gas emission reduction bill in February.
Originally, the bill would have handed a wide swath of greenhouse gas reduction
planning responsibilities to local governments. Local government associations agreed to
amendments that mainly direct ODOT and LCDC to create a “tool kit” for local
governments in Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by using new transportation and land use planning methods.
Although the bill appeared stalled in Ways and Means due to a $2 million fiscal, ODOT
and LCDC rearranged other projects to finance their new responsibilities under SB 1059
and the bill passed.
SB 1031 passed easily, which was the work product of an interim work group after the
last-minute demise of HB 2227, the sweeping destination resort restriction proposal of
2009. The bill creates some sideboards for destination resort development mainly
based on existing Deschutes County standards.
PAC will work with Deschutes County in the interim to develop an agenda for the 2011
session, which is likely to be totally driven by the looming budget “crater.”
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