Oregonians – especially those in rural regions – should be acutely aware, after last year’s legislative session, that we have to pay attention to what’s going on in Salem.
It isn’t easy. Even dedicated newspaper reporters who cover Salem found it nearly impossible to keep tabs on the 4,000-some bills that made appearances during last year’s long session. There weren’t enough reporters to follow the tendrils running everywhere. It was a maze.
Of course, midway through the session rural residents really started waking up to the threats to their livelihoods and peace of mind. Signs started popping up along highways warning of threats to Second Amendment rights. Truckers, loggers, agricultural workers and others banded together to express their concerns at the capitol via Timber Unity.
That was then; this is now, and the same supermajority of urban Democrats is in place to try for another run.
In this year’s short legislative session, which began last week and which is supposed to last for 35 days, lawmakers have already introduced some 250 pieces of legislation. It will be impossible for more than a few of those to get to the finish line in that time – and that’s the real problem.
Democrats – with supermajorities in both chambers and control of the governor’s office – say they’ll tackle the state’s most urgent issues. They insist they are honoring the purpose for which voters created legislative short sessions in 2010: addressing budget and policy matters that cannot wait, and completing unfinished business.
Their list includes that cap-and-trade bill, restrictions on gun owners, plus a bunch of new stuff: bans on flavored vaping products, campaign contribution limits, independence for the state public records advocate, mental health, foster care, controls on the sale of kratom, proposals for combating wildfires, and changing rules for quorums.
Oh, and Gov. Kate Brown wants voters to amend the state constitution to permit the state to impose real estate transfer taxes on property sales of over $500,000.
That proposal comes after House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, announced she plans to ask lawmakers to declare a housing state of emergency in Oregon and that she would push a $120 million package meant to help communities establish shelters and provide low-income housing.
Not everything on their list is bad. But to do all or even some of it in 35 days? It’s foolish, and unless we’re gazing through green-colored glasses, that should be obvious.
We should all be concerned.
State Sen. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer), speaking to the crowd at the Timber Unity rally at the capitol last week, described it as a “rushed, and rigged short session.”
Why should we be concerned? Let’s do the math: There are roughly 250 bills on the table, there is acrimony in the capitol after last year’s legislative circus, the “unfinished business” includes that cap-and-trade move and urban legislators’ desires to make sure every gun In Oregon has a lock on the trigger.
In short, what we see here are large steps toward Big Brother offering the state’s residents safety and security – at a cost: more control and more taxes, because nothing is free, particularly in government. Call that simplistic reasoning, but it’s true.
We’re in an extended period of economic boom, in which the state’s unemployment rates are at historic lows. Democratic lawmakers are in the driver’s seat and control the steering wheel – and the brakes.
All state residents should be very concerned.
In this limited space, we obviously can’t even touch on every proposed measure mentioned already – and they’re just the tip of the iceberg, but here’s a sampling.
The big item back on the table, of course, is the revival of the greenhouse gas cap-and-trade bill. It was temporarily stymied by Republican senators who fled the state because they refused to vote on it, charging that their protests and attempts at reason had been virtually ignored by legislative leaders.
But, of course, it isn’t dead, because the majority in Salem has made it clear they’re determined to make Oregon a ground-breaker in combating global warming, even though our state reduced its CO2 emissions by 8.3 percent between 2000 and 2016, and 0.2 percent between 2015 and 2016.
It’s true that Oregon has a high per-capita emissions rate, compared to other states, but in 2016, the most recent years for which rankings are readily available, we ranked 38th in total emissions – below North Dakota, which has less than one-fifth the population we do, one of 15 states ranked above us in total output that have smaller populations than our state.
We’re certainly not advocating the pumping of carbon dioxide willy-nilly into our atmosphere. But our legislative leaders appear to be blind to the fact that this isn’t really a big problem for the current health and welfare of our state, and we wonder if their motivation is simply to make a point – thank you, Mr. Trump.
Aren’t there other issues that loom bigger in the minds of all except, possibly, those in charge (and the urban residents who elected them)?
How about foster care? Legitimate housing needs? Forest fires? There are genuine needs that legislators actually should address.
One particular concern to us is a move to crack down on nicotine vape products.
Why do we care? Isn’t vaping damaging our youth? We care because we see this as a classic example of state leaders’ craving for control – and that’s a reasonable description. This one comes in the midst of a public health hysteria, fueled in part by agenda-driven government agencies, social media and mainstream media.
Again, let’s do the math: About 60 people have died nationwide after inhaling tainted THC vaping cartridges. The Oregon fatality total: two, not to mention several others who got sick.
In response to this crisis, legislators are now highly motivated to crack down on products they say threaten kids. (It’s always great politics, by the way, to protect kids and pets, though in today’s political climate that doesn include the unborn.)
While teen addiction is a real concern, how many of us are naive enough to think that if electronic cigarettes disappear, teens are going to stop using nicotine because they can’t vape?
Lost in this hysteria is the reality that tobacco-related deaths in Oregon have hovered around 7,500 for the last five-plus years. Also lost is the fact that cigarette smoking dropped from 31.7 percent of 11th-graders in 1998 to 7.7 percent in 2016 and 2017, with a corresponding decrease among eighth-graders.
According to the state, in 2018 8.8 percent of high school students in Oregon smoked cigarettes at least once a month, 2 percentage points lower than that year’s national average.
So which is preferable, inhaling some nicotine without tar, or inhaling cigarette smoke?
Specifically, legislators are attempting to ban flavored vaping products and Internet sales, neither of which will stop the so-called youth vaping epidemic any better than banning flavored alcohol would stop them drinking (compared to vaping, more than twice as many kids drink).
In a short session, aren’t there more significant issues affecting Oregonians?
We like the idea of more construction of housing for those who need it, but sneaking another under-the-rug sales tax past the state’s populace, on the heels of that Gross Receipts Tax that we’re left with after last year’s long session, is not the way to do it.
Another move that smells to us is the legislature’s attempt to get us voters to change quorum rules, to allow legislative houses to convene with only a simple majority of lawmakers present instead of the current two-thirds requirement.
Democrats argue that only three other states have Oregon’s requirement, but it’s funny it hasn’t really been a concern until last year’s Republican walkout. The Democrats didn’t think it was a problem when they similarly walked out in 2001, when Gov. Brown was the Senate Democratic leader.
At least, we voters get to decide.
The Timber Unity rally turned some heads, but this legislature will need to be reminded throughout this session that their actions will have consequences. These politicians are elected by people. Any change will start with the populace.
Rural residents who are concerned about what’s happening in the Capitol can’t sit back and watch.
To stay informed, a good way to start is paying attention to what’s conveyed by their own legislators and groups like Timber Unity, dearoregon.com and news media that report what’s happening in Salem, particularly oregoncapitalinsider.com, a joint effort by newspapers to stay on top of things.
Also, word of mouth is important. Rural residents need to make sure their city cousins, who may be largely removed from the realities of life here, know what’s happening. Try to connect with friends and relatives who live in urban areas that voted this supermajority in. Tell them your story.
Call, write and vote. Rent billboards. Input has a much greater effect in the halls of government than most of us think, because politicians assume (probably correctly) that one voice represents thousands who didn’t bother to call. They’re watching the numbers. It’s incumbent for rural residents to make sure the numbers say something.