Sean C. Morgan
As the state legislative session winds up, State Dist. 17 Rep. Sherrie Sprenger is reporting success and disappointment.
She had some smaller pieces of legislation pass, and she passed her bills to recognize atomic veterans and to allow Native American mascots in Oregon school districts. Funding for schools improved to about $6.5 billion statewide.
Her cougar bill was killed again by a Portland senator, Sprenger said.
“Even though we made great efforts, I don’t think we did nearly enough, anything significant, to make it easier to employ Oregonians or make it easier for Oregonians to pay their bills,” Sprenger said. “I think we need to be more hands-off than we are.”
The real question with the economy is not what kind of laws will help but rather “what kind of laws do we have now that make it harder.”
Mascots
The Board of Education banned Native American mascots last year.
Sprenger and the legislature passed a bill that will allow school districts to work with local tribes and, with their agreement, obtain a waiver to the Board of Education ban.
It passed the Senate with only four no votes, and it passed the House Friday 41-19.
“I think we actually do a little better when we build relationships,” Sprenger said. “This causes a relationship to be built. The tribes have supported me arm in arm.”
It hasn’t been every tribe, Sprenger said, but the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, which includes Indians native to the Sweet Home area, have backed her.
Gov. Kitzhaber has threatened to veto the bill, Sprenger said, but in 1996, he produced an executive order that said state would have government-to-government relationships with the tribes, recognizing them as sovereign nations.
“This is the epitome of that,” Sprenger said. “I certainly hope the governor affirms his belief in government-to-government relationships.”
Cougars
While Sprenger was trying everything she could to get something through before the end of the session, tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, July 3, her bill to allow counties to permit cougar hunting with dogs was killed in committee.
Cougars are already being hunted with dogs, she has explained, but it’s government agents doing the hunting.
The state is spending money to do what hunters already did before state voters passed a law in 1994 banning the hunting of bears and cougars with dogs. In the meantime, the population of cougars has increased, and there have been several sightings of cougars in the 4000 block of Main Street and within the city limits in the past couple of years.
Until adjournment, she was continuing to find any avenue she could to pass this bill.
Veterans Home
The state will cover cost increases for the new Veterans Home in Lebanon, Sprenger said.
“I have a letter signed by the speakers and co-chairs of Ways and Means that the funding will be taken care of in the Ways and Means process.”
The price of the home increased by $4 million based on federal requirements after Linn County voters passed a local option levy to pay some $10 million of the construction costs. That difference will be covered by the state.
Atomic Veterans Memorial
“It passed, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has started the planning to do the Atomic Veterans Memorial,” Sprenger said of her bill to recognize veterans exposed to radiation. “I think that’s important for our atomic veterans – and some still don’t know they are atomic veterans because of secrecy. I think it’s a big win for our atomic veterans, to acknowledge their service.”
Atomic veterans are U.S. Military veterans who were exposed to radiation while stationed in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki after they were bombed or who participated in nuclear weapons testing.
Guns
“To this point there has not been gun legislation that has come over to the House,” Sprenger said. The adjournment on Wednesday is extremely tentative. Until adjournment, “I am vigilantly watching.”
“It’s looking problematic for gun restrictions at this point, which makes me happy,” Sprenger said. “But it isn’t over till it’s over.”
PERS Reform
The real question about Public Employees Retirement System reform is whether it will be meaningful, Sprenger said. The proposed reforms do not change PERS meaningfully, and they’re going to cost more.
One of the reform proposals postpones payments, which means interest will accrue, she said. Changes to the cost-of-living adjustments will primarily affect retirees.