Money and power moves were big focuses of conversation among legislators during this year’s short legislative session, state Rep. Jami Cate, who represents east Linn County, told attendees Friday, March 27, at the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce’s monthly Forum Lunch.
Cate was there to report on the session, which ended March 6.
In addition to reporting on how legislators escaped a budget crunch by taking advantage of a federal tax code change that gave the state more money than it expected, Cate spent most of her time Friday fielding questions from the audience.
She told attendees she wasn’t there to talk about her campaign for the District 6 state Senate seat, and she generally steered clear of that topic in a question-and-answer session that lasted a little over half an hour.
She discussed the gas tax referendum, which looks to be on the ballot on May 19, and the effort to get Petition 28 (IP28, known as the “PEACE Act” (People for Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions), on the ballot to ask Oregonians to remove legal exemptions for hunting, fishing, trapping, and animal agriculture.
She also spent quite a bit of her time discussing the increasing polarization of state politics and the bipartisan support she was able to secure for her House Joint Memorial 201, which calls for a permanent federal income tax exemption for wildfire relief, including legal damages.
In response to a request from Chamber Executive Director Rebecca Grizzle, Cate recounted her journey to the legislature, saying that she was born and raised in Lebanon, where her family’s been farming for generations.
“I fell in love with this town and fell in love with community service and still wanted to do the farming thing,” she said. “I loved that and wanted to be a part of my family’s legacy there.”
She was involved with the Strawberry Festival for more than 15 years, was a founding member of the Lebanon Museum Foundation and was involved with other community outreach and charity efforts.
She said that eventually she came to realize that, despite her initial reluctance, in Salem “it’s just service on a different level. It was the same thing that I was doing in my free time.”
In the legislature, she said, “I can fight for the things that I value. I can fight for my community. I can fight for a way of life. And I can be of service to even more people with my time than I can just staying here in Lebanon.”
Dodging Budget Bullet
Cate launched into her comments with a review of the short session, stating that although budget woes were a big concern among legislators, a “partial disconnect” in the federal tax code gave Oregon $320 million for the legislature to apportion.
She said she opposed that because “there’s $320 million in what should have been tax savings to Oregonians that were no longer going to stay in Oregonians’ pockets that helped fill that deficit.”
“I’m a firm believer that we don’t have a revenue problem,” Cate said. “We have a budgeting priorities problem, because the state budget has just continued to grow, grow, grow. And it seems like the philosophy is ‘it’s never enough.’ And I don’t think that best serves Oregonians or especially our rural communities, but that was definitely at the forefront of what we saw in session again.”
She acknowledged that the legislature was able to backfill the ODOT budget without gas tax money.
“We aren’t going to see those cuts in maintenance, which was a huge concern going into the long session last year, and then again this year, when the referendum was successful.”
Gas Tax Referendum
In response to another question, Cate said, in a joking tone, that the reason for the move of the referendum from the November election to May 19 “depends whose version of that you believe,” then quoted Senate President Rob Wagner as saying, “Is it political? Absolutely.”
She explained that Democratic leaders were concerned because “they do not want to share the ballot with their very unpopular gas tax vote (in November).”
She recounted the history of the referendum effort, noting that Gov. Tina Kotek, in particular, wanted it moved because she will be on the ballot in November.
“It’s probably not actually political. Not at all. Yeah,” Cate concluded, wryly.
‘PEACE Act’
In response to what the questioner described as “the anti-fishing hunting” initiative, Cate noted that proponents of the measure to ban the killing of animals have tried several times to get it on the ballot and “each time they’ve gotten a little closer with signatures” and because the proposal has some 77,000 signatures and “they still have time to get the rest of them, I would say it’s a very real threat that we will see this on the ballot.”
She observed that similar efforts have “popped up in other states” and multiple efforts to get a similar initiative passed in Colorado have been unsuccessful.
But, Cate warned, as occurs in the legislature, “the same ideas keep coming, and each time they get a little bit more support, and if they can keep coming, eventually that becomes a real threat.”
The proposed initiative, she said, would outlaw traditional animal husbandry practices, as well as hunting and fishing.
“We wouldn’t be able to raise our own meat here in Oregon, any more,” Cate said. “Most of our recreation would be shut down – even a lot of rodent control.”
Farmers, like herself, would be unable to kill voles, which ruin crops, she noted.
“When the voles come and want to destroy my whole crop, tough cookies, right?”
The best way to combat such efforts, she said, is not to sign the petition to get it on the ballot.
‘Radical Extremism’ in Salem
In response to another question about things constituents should be watching for, Cate said the “probably biggest” issues she sees in Salem is polarization in society and between the parties, perpetuating “extremism over common-sense solutions.”
“As we have continued down this path of seeing really more radical extremism in our politics, our primaries between Democrats and Republicans, it is a race to be furthest right and a race to be the furthest left. So we start seeing more and more radical politicians showing up in Salem.”
She noted some Democrats are running on a “socialist party platform.”
All that makes it “harder and harder to work together, to really address the issues impacting our communities, when you have such radical idealism that is driving the reasons why people are there.
“When that is their mindset and that is the voters that they have to go home to and ask to be re-elected by, it makes it really hard to have common-sense solutions, have balanced solutions that work for all of Oregon.”
Cate went on to say that she has been able to work across the aisle and sometimes the hindrance has been lack of communication more than political entrenchment.
In answer to one question, Cate said she is proud of the bipartisan support for her House Joint Memorial 201, which calls for a permanent federal income tax exemption for wildfire relief, including legal damages.
She noted that, as a Republican, she has to have at least eight Democrats join her, along with all 23 Republicans in the House, to get a bill passed. Plus, presiding officers have to cooperate to even get a bill to the floor for a vote.
“There’s a lot of things that require bipartisanship if you want to pass legislation,” she said. “I have been able to do that. Yes, the thing I’m probably most proud of is that. We were able to bring enough Democrats to the table to have conversations around meaningful tax relief for wildfire victims.”
Advocacy Counts
Cate said citizens need to understand that legislators listen when constituents, particularly if there are many voicing an opinion, have something to say.
She acknowledged that the number of bills introduced in Salem can be intimidating and constituents wonder if legislators have time to listen to them.
“The best way to start is actually to figure out some key issues that you are passionate about or you’re even concerned about, and find an advocacy group that is already doing the hard work of sifting through the bills,” she advised.
“They can really be your guide and the chamber has been good about that connecting our business community with some of the kind of more bite-sized information that’s coming down the pike: ‘Here’s some, you know, a handful of bills that would be radically impactful to our businesses,’ right? That makes it a lot easier than trying to go find all that on your own.”
She said one of her most important bills was the result of a single constituent bringing a problem to her attention.
“And now, a law got passed and fixed that problem for everyone else in the state.
“Your one voice can be meaningful, and it can especially be meaningful when it’s not just you, but you are one of thousands who show up on an issue telling your story.”
She said even form letters can be effective, not because legislators necessarily read every one, but because legislative staffers keep tabs on numbers of responses received.
Legislators can vote on “dozens” of bills a day during a session, “and most of the time I’ve heard from zero constituents on a single one of them,” Cate said. “That’s where I’m having to use my best judgment of knowing where my community is probably going to be at on this issue.
“I love to know where people are, so I’m not guessing. When people actually give meaningful feedback of where they are, how this is going to impact our lives, that gives me ammunition to, like if it’s a bad policy, to go and tell those true stories.”
She urged the audience to “never underestimate the value of your own voice.”
Federal vs. State in Forests
In response to a question about the state’s response to increased federal timber harvests, Cate said although Oregon’s government “is controlled by a notion that we should just not touch our forests, I think anyone who really has experience with a forest understands that you can’t go from having very managed forests to walking away from all of it all at once and not expect these mega fires, because Mother Nature hadn’t been taking care of them.”
“I don’t agree with that logic that we should just leave all of our forests to be this tinder box and threatening our communities. But I will say this: That philosophy cannot be imposed upon the federal government.”
She pointed out that about a third of Oregon lands are federally owned “and the federal government doesn’t answer to Oregon. They supersede Oregon.”
She said “over a dozen bills” were introduced during the short session to try to counteract federal policies, such as limiting local agencies’ cooperation with the federal government, particularly around land sales.
“Basically, a lot of a lot of people in Salem don’t like our president, so they want to try to stick it to him,” Cate said. “OK, except the practicality is the federal government doesn’t answer to the state government. So the federal government can manage those lands and make their own decisions as allowed by the law.
“So, if the state doesn’t like it, the federal government’s going to do it anyway.”