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Hello Friends,
First of all I want to let you know that I'm excited to announce my next Town Hall meeting that will be in Keizer this time. Here are all the details: Keizer Town Hall Meeting
So I'm really looking forward to that event. In the meantime, I want to tell you and show you a few things about the legislature over the last week or so.
Though there is still a lot of "appeal" for "more revenue" I think you should see a bit of information that I received this week from the Taxpayers Association of Oregon. This will show you very clearly that once again, Oregon does NOT have a "revenue problem" it has a "spending problem".
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With that graphic above NOW take a look at this screenshot of the recent DHM poll done on behalf of the School Board Association. It CLEARLY shows that Oregon wants the Legislature to spend it's time and money on: 1 - K-12 budget, 2 - roads and bridges. They also think we should stop spending money on "climate change" issues and that we are headed in the "wrong direction". |
You hear every day about "bad bills" in the Legislature and I will be the first to say "yep, there are a lot of them" but not often do you hear about "good bills". Here is one: HB 2100. This bill will create a way to honor the Congressional Medal of Honor recipients in Oregon including the only living recipient a 96 year old World War II veteran from Central Oregon: Bob Maxwell. I'm proud to have been on the work group that put this together and the Veterans Committee that passed it this week.
Ok so now to be fair....a "BAD BILL": HB 2739 which concerned the ability to sue the "patent holder" of Genetically Engineered Crops...ie: Monsanto, Scotts etc. Here's the story: so Farmer Bob grows GE corn and some of the seed blows across the road to Farmer Mary's farm and "cross pollinates" or "contaminates" her farm. Should Farmer Mary sue Farmer Bob? No, under this bill she's sue the "patent holder" for THREE times the damages! In this video you'll see me ask two questions in the committee. The first is directed to a "scientist" who was an "expert" on GMO/GE seeds. My concern was with his credibility. The second question was for a biologist from OSU about whether OSU could be sued under this bill. See both at THIS VIDEO.
Finally, it's always good to have constituents stop by the office and I had a lot of them this week but I was especially happy to have the Oregon Credit Union folks here and particularly my OWN credit union branch manager Craig Williams.
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