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Hello Friends,
Senate District 12: 78th
Legislature activities in Review
Kate Brown is the new Governor. No new Secretary of State yet.
The Senate Veterans committee heard
testimony from the Enlisted Association of military members about access to
hunting and fishing licenses. SB 517 seeks to benefit returning veterans with no cost basic licenses.
The Senate Revenue & Finance committee continued working on SB 611 addressing central
assessment and intangible taxes like good will. Good will is vaporizing. We also
put the brakes on SB 59 that the House Revenue Committee could “gut &
stuff” with a $111 million tax increase.
The Senate Rules Committee heard two questionable “elections”
bills: Senate Bill 28 relating to voter registration
signature cards which may unintentionally eliminate access to voter signatures
in the event of challenged ballots or legal proceedings and SB 29 overhauling
major precinct party person elections at taxpayer expense. The bill changes the election process for the
3500 individuals who run for the 17,000 vacant PCP positions. I questioned why Oregon spends hundreds of
thousands of taxpayer dollars to subsidize the two major parties if only 20% of
the vacancies are filled.
The Senate passed SB 1 eliminating Cover Oregon as a stand-alone
federal ACA bad investment. The bill as
written, protects $116 million in low income federal tax credits, saves private
exchange enrollees $2.01 per month and requires advance notification to all
Legislators for any rate increases or IT projects over a million dollars. However, serious problems remain on the
horizon for Cover Oregon’s private exchange and medical assistance program
users.
The Senate passed Senate Bill 324, the Low Carbon Fuel
Standards bill. It passed on a 17 to 13
vote, with one Democrat joining the Republicans in opposition. Before I get into the substance of the bill
let me tell you about the dishonest way this was accomplished. There is clearly a hidden fuel tax in the
measure. The amount is yet to be
determined, but estimates say it could be anywhere from .04 cents to a $1..04 a
gallon. The proponents chose to call it
a “redistribution” rather than a tax, which allows them to do a couple of other
underhanded moves. First, all tax
measures require a super majority vote, which they didn't have. Secondly, because it wasn’t a tax bill, they
were able to put an emergency clause on it.
The reason emergency clauses (which make the bill effective upon passage)
are not allowed on tax measures is simply to allow the public a chance to put
it on the ballot. So basically the
Senate just passed what could be a significant tax increase and at the same
time denied Oregonians their right to appeal.
Legislature 101: All
bills supposedly require sponsors and requestors to be named. HB 2688, which is a $101 million tax
increase, has turned into an interesting 3-ring circus. The Democrat Chief Sponsor of HB 2688 in his
testimony to the committee could not identify where a re-instatement of the failed
green energy manufacturing business energy tax credit (mBETC) came from in his
bill. The price tag to taxpayers last
time for these failed credits was $114 million.
Then throw in the $111 million tax increase masked by a supposed cut in
small business taxes by $33 million. HB
2688 tax increase was originally co-sponsored by two Republican House members including
State Representative Mike Nearman. If
you are confused, stay tuned as we track down answers.
Again, track bills and the session on OLIS - Oregon Legislative
Information System which categorizes a wealth of information on the legislature,
the bills, the committees and legislator contact information. Click on the icon in the upper right corner to open the subject area. For example, clicking on the bill icon will allow you to look up bills by its number, topic areas or
by sponsor. When you click on the bill,
the specific information on the bill will appear including an overview, current
status, scheduled events, proposed amendments and a history of the bill
including where it currently resides.
Yours truly,
Senator Brian Boquist
Senate District 12
email: Sen.BrianBoquist@state.or.us I phone: 503-986-1712
address: 900 Court St NE, S-305, Salem, OR, 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/boquist
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