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During the daily hustle and bustle of our Legislative Assembly, members of this body can lose sight of priorities that best serve the public. They are too often replaced with favorite projects, as well as new and expanded programs that serve specific segments of our population. Strong advocacy for these efforts by lobbyists, activists and fellow legislators can serve to further insulate lawmakers from the struggles and realities facing residents in their communities. I believe that the planned renovation of the Oregon Capitol Building is such an effort.
The most recent renovation to the Capitol Building took place after the 2007 legislative session. The House and Senate wings were remodeled but not seismically retrofitted. The cost of that remodeling project was $31.6 million, primarily funded through two 15-year bonds. The cost of issuing the bonds, plus the cost of the interest on the bonds until the debt is paid, will be an additional $13.9 million, bringing the total cost of that project to $45.5 million. Taxpayers still owe $24 million in principle and interest on the bonds that financed that 2008 remodeling.
In a newsletter
released last September, I described plans for additional renovation of the Oregon State Capitol Building. The original estimated cost of the Master Plan Project for the capitol came in at $250 million. Of that, $138 million was to be spent addressing seismic concerns.
Lawmakers voted during the 2013 session to approve Senate
Bill 5507. That bill included bonding for a variety of capital construction projects, including $34 million for preconstruction planning and design for the capitol seismic renovation and remodel project. To date, nearly $30 million of that funding has been spent or obligated, including $5.7 million for the contractor and $14.6 million for the architect.
More details regarding the scope and the total cost of the project have now become available to lawmakers and the public. The total construction cost has ballooned by nearly 35 percent, to more than $337 million. The total cost to taxpayers will be more than $590 million, when the cost of issuing the bonds and the interest on the bonds to maturity are included.
It is estimated that the state will be required to spend $161 million during the next two years in order to begin construction on this project. The plan is to finance the project by borrowing the money through additional long-term bonding.
Moreover, we recently learned that only the original part of the building that was constructed in 1934 is intended to be seismically retrofit and remodeled. The plans call for no remodeling, and only marginal seismic retrofitting, in the Senate and House wings of the building.
Further, elements of the plan now include a 4,700 square foot café, a 2,500 square foot lounge for lobbyists, a 3,000 square foot lounge for lawmakers and 1,600 square feet for the press. When one considers the size of the average house, it becomes easy to characterize such amenities as extravagant and arguably unnecessary. To date, we have been unable to obtain even a rough estimate of the division of costs between seismic retrofitting and remodeling.
By contrast, a 2007 Department of Geology and Mineral Industries study regarding statewide seismic needs concluded that there are 275 school buildings throughout Oregon that are at very high risk of collapsing in a major earthquake. An additional 800 school buildings are listed as high risk, and 500 more are categorized as at moderate risk of collapsing during an earthquake. Nine schools located on the Oregon coast are actually constructed in a tsunami inundation zone. The study identifies a total of 1,575 school buildings that will not withstand an earthquake.
These are very real threats that affect the safety of schoolchildren in every corner of the state, in communities both large and small, urban and rural. I believe that any actions by the Legislature to prioritize the safety and comfort of legislators and lobbyists at the expense of school safety would be ill-advised at best.
According to the state Debt Advisory Commission, the State of Oregon currently has between $800 and $900 million in available General Fund and Lottery bonding capacity for the next two years. The principle and interest payments on existing Lottery and General Fund bonding is costing taxpayers nearly $1 billion each budget cycle, from General Fund and Lottery revenue. Those are dollars that will never go towards providing critical services, will never make it to the classroom, and will never help to fund public safety or to pave roads.
When legislators are in session, it becomes easy for us to become complacent and compliant, to become insulated from the daily concerns of those who sent us to Salem to represent them. The activities of lobbyists, advocates and other paid activists helps to widen that disconnect, to the point that ideas that would otherwise seem ludicrous, or priorities that are out of place, sometimes are given more consideration than they merit.
I believe that the Legislative Assembly should do a much better job of limiting and prioritizing public debt. That is nearly impossible to accomplish under current legislative policy.
Legislative leadership insists on including virtually all statewide proposals for General Fund and Lottery revenue bonding in only two budget bills. This practice prevents lawmakers from voting on individual bonding proposals. Our only choice is to vote “yes” or “no” on the entire bill. Efforts made to separate the bonding to finance the Capitol construction project into a separate bill have not been successful.
Although the legislative session is beyond its halfway point, there is still adequate time for both good and bad ideas to gain traction through the process. It is vitally important that the public remain engaged, especially when it comes to state borrowing. Your vigilance is required to ensure that priorities that serve very narrow and self-serving interests are not advanced at the expense of everyone else in the state.
Please remember--if we do not stand up for rural Oregon, no one will.
Best Regards,
Doug
Senate District 28
Email: Sen.DougWhitsett@state.or.us I Phone: 503-986-1728
Address: 900 Court St NE, S-311, Salem, OR, 97301
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/whitsett
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