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July 21, 2017
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
On Friday, July 7, the gavel came down one last
time to signal the end of Oregon’s 2017 legislative session. It was the final
moment of a packed, productive, sometimes disappointing and occasionally
contentious five months in the Capitol.
My heartfelt thanks to all
of you who called, emailed or wrote to provide input on the array of issues
considered by the Legislature. Your concerns,
suggestions and feedback continue to be inspirational.
I am honored to serve as your state
representative. I look forward to
working with you in the months ahead on our shared efforts to build a healthy
and resilient state.
Best,
State Representative
Oregon House District 5 - Southern Jackson County
Rep Marsh at the SB 3 (Suction Dredge) bill signing ceremony w/ Governor Brown, other legislators & advocates
2017 Legislative Scorecard: Wins, and an ongoing to-do list
Vital funding for health care, strong support for
reproductive equity, a line-up of transportation fixes, disappointments on
revenue reform and revitalization of public education, climate change
legislation still to come: that’s a
quick summary of the Oregon Legislature’s 2017 report.
From the first day of the session, much of our
discussion, sometimes heated, centered around our perceptions of the differing
needs between rural and urban areas of the state.
Here in Jackson County we sit somewhere in the
middle of that polarity. While most of
us live in the urban core, our county includes significant rural pockets. Our traditional reliance on the timber
economy aligns us with other resource-dependent areas of the state, but we have
developed a much more robust economy than many rural communities.
Clearly, the rural parts of the state face economic
challenges, including population loss, changing weather patterns, and the need
for diversification, that require specific kinds of investment.
But when we look at the needs of families and
communities, the rural vs. urban construct crumbles. Every Oregonian, rural or urban, needs health
care, a family-wage job, good schools, and a sense of connection. Drawing artificial lines that force us to
choose one side or another is a much less effective strategy than recognizing our
shared values.
Unfortunately, for now those lines exist and they
are difficult to breach. In the end, our work this session produced some solid
policy gains for families and communities. In other areas, our efforts fell short.
Let's start with the very good news:
Health Care
When the legislature convened in February, we were
facing a $900 million deficit in the state’s health care budget, threatening
coverage for one million children and adults served by the Oregon Health
Plan. Thanks to a bipartisan effort that
incorporated cost cutting and a provider tax on hospitals and insurance companies,
we will preserve services for all who qualify – including roughly 50,000
Jackson County residents.
We also approved funding to ensure that all children
have access to health care, regardless of citizenship status. Taking care of kids is the right thing to do. It
is also far more cost effective to provide care than to have a child show up at
kindergarten with chicken pox.
The final piece of the
health care work focused on ensuring cost-free access to reproductive health
care for women, regardless of citizenship status, ability to
pay, or gender identity. For more
information about this legislation, see the article linked HERE.
Transportation
In the waning days of the session the legislature
approved a 10-year, $5.3 billion transportation package. The package utilizes multiple revenue sources
to fund road and highway infrastructure, seismic upgrades, multi-modal
projects, bike and pedestrian paths, and transit. A substantial chunk of new revenue will go to
cities and counties for local projects; the balance will be allocated to
projects of statewide significance.
Rogue Valley Transit District will receive a
game-changing allocation of approximately $4.5 million/year from payroll tax
proceeds; the region will also get funding for seismic upgrades to ensure that
traffic can move in and out of the valley in the event of a major earthquake.
Rural Economic Development
Recognizing the need to boost our rural areas, the
Legislature invested $5 million in a new Eastern Oregon Border Economic
Development Region. We also extended
tax incentives for rural medical providers, increased flexibility for rural
enterprise zones, and approved specific targeted investments, including a tax
credit to encourage employee training programs in Klamath Falls.
Justice System Reforms
Renewed justice reinvestment funding will maintain
and expand the state’s community-based alternative sentencing programs. Additional reforms will implement sentencing
flexibility for certain nonviolent crimes to allow offenders, often women and
frequently struggling with addiction or generational dysfunction, to maintain
critical family connections while undergoing treatment.
Local diversion programs are much more cost
effective than incarceration and may allow the state to avoid opening a new,
very expensive women’s prison.
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HB 2355 - Racial Profiling Date & Drug Sentencing Reform
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HB 3078 - 2017 Safety & Savings Act
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SB 505 - Grand Jury Recordings
Pay Equity
Equal work should always produce equal pay. With the passage of House Bill 2005, the
legislature planted a clear flag, outlawing pay disparities based on gender,
race, color, religion, and other protected classes.
Housing Supply
Lack of affordable,
available housing is a significant problem in communities across Oregon. In
response, the legislature allocated funding to prevent and address
homelessness; increased investments to preserve and develop our housing supply;
and strengthened protections for manufactured park residents. We will continue
work on unfinished housing issues in 2018. You can find a summary of this
year’s legislative work HERE.
Then there were the disappointments:
Revenue
Despite
months of discussion and negotiation, we fell a one vote short of the
supermajority required for a package that would have included fundamental tax
reform, cost containment and greater investments in education and critical
services. But problems with our
underlying revenue structure are not going away. Projections for the corporate
income tax show flat revenues in the coming biennia, and our over-reliance on
income tax produces instability in our tax system. The tax reform debate must return –
soon.
Education
A difficult budget year meant that we were unable
to accelerate investment in our education (cradle to university) system. Instead, we scrabbled together an education
budget that is about $200 million short of current service level. Most K-12 schools will be able to hold mostly steady,
although others, including those with declining enrollment, will see
significant cuts.
We also invested $170 million in career technical
education programs and high school graduation initiatives, a result of the
passage of Measure 98. Support for STEM
programming is important, but I believe most voters thought that Measure 98
money would supplement, not supplant, local school budgets. Given the shortfall in our K-12 budget, I
would have preferred to direct this allocation to general school support, allowing
local districts to decide how to best invest it.
In the early childhood arena, we maintained
funding for full-day kindergarten, Head Start, Preschool Promise, and other
critical programs. Unfortunately,
funding for Employment-Related Day Care, which provides child care subsidies
for working families, fell short. A
$11.7 million cut in the program will eliminate slots that would have served
1,100 families.
We also struggled to invest in higher
education. A last-minute budget
allocation allowed Southern Oregon University to reduce its projected tuition
increase for next year from 12% to 9%.
Still, none of us would consider a 9% increase good news. Adequate support for Oregon’s higher
universities remains on our to-do list.
Environment
Thanks to decisive action by Governor Kate Brown, and with
approval of $100 million in bonding, the 82,500 acre Elliott Forest will remain
in public ownership. Unfortunately,
other key environmental priorities, including clean air and climate
initiatives, fell short. But the effects
of destabilized weather patterns become more obvious every day. Clean energy jobs legislation (cap and invest) must top our list of action items in 2018.
I was honored to carry Senate Concurrent Resolution 7,
honoring the late Senator Alan Bates, on the floor of the House. Doc Bates will
forever remain in our thoughts and in our hearts.
Oregon provides a wide range of services to help citizens with
everything from foreclosure to health care, but sometimes it's hard to find
what you need. 211info is
the resource center for anything from SNAP (food stamps) to mortgage
counseling. The center is here to connect you to the resources you need! Please
click here to find the Community Resource
Directory.
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1405
District Phone: 541-282-4516
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