|
2019 Legislative Session: Who Really Won?
The 2019 long session has been over for more than a month. In my 8 years as your Senator, I have never seen such a contentious and divisive session as this one. Elections have consequences, and my colleagues and I saw that firsthand.
In an article after the session ended, the Oregonian touted the Supermajority Democratic legislative body as the session “WINNERS”. Really? I thought the Supermajority was supposed to represent the people of Oregon, who should have been called the “winners” for all the good things that were done for the people. The paper saw it differently. They thought the party had won, so let’s do a recap and see who really won.
“Temporary Tax” Farce
In the 2017 legislative session, the legislative body increased taxes on hospitals to pay for Medicaid patients and added a 1.5% new tax for employers that provide health insurance to their employees, which increased the cost of health care. The tax was put on the ballot in a special January mail-in vote, conveniently set up by the majority party ensuring it would be a low turnout after the holidays. In the voters’ pamphlet, they clearly stated that this would be a temporary tax, expiring at the end of 2019. Sure enough, the initiative passed raising hundreds of millions of dollars for the Medicaid program.
Hold your horses there. During the 2019 long session, not only was this “temporary tax” extended to 2026, it was increased from 1.5% to 2%, raising over $350M for their new program. The majority party included smaller hospitals in the legislation that never had to pay before. This is an enormous money grab to pay for folks not eligible to receive these benefits. Transparency be damned. Does it sound like Oregonians won, when the majority party continues to pass legislation that impacts YOU in secret? Does it sound like small businesses won anything other than increased costs to do business? Did their employees win anything with higher healthcare cost? By the way, over 80% of all jobs in Oregon are created by Oregon Small businesses.
Rent Control
Within the first thirty days of the session, statewide rent control was passed. To make this possible, it took the Democratic Party and their minions only a short time to unseat Senator Rod Monroe in a primary and put in their hand-chosen replacement. Rent control, a behemoth piece of legislation was moved out of committee without regard to concerns, to the floor where it passed. The bill exempted many landlords, but those that were covered by the legislation were restricted to a mere 9.9% rent increase limitation per year. So as a renter, how will you handle a 9.9% increase in your rent every year? Doesn’t sound like you won anything other than increased costs for your housing.
|
Unions Take All
House Bill 2016 passed the Senate on a party line vote. The legislation is the majority party’s retaliation against Supreme Court case Janus vs AFSCME, which overturned a 40-year-old precedent that nonunion workers cannot be forced to pay fees to public sector unions.
However, never let the Supreme Court stand in the majority party’s way. They passed a bill, along party lines, that took the onus off the unions and made the state be the collector of union dues. Unions largely fund Democratic candidates, so the majority party also included in the right for a union member to do union work on state time, while still being paid by the state. Furthermore, if you do not want to participate in the union, you must go through the hectic process of driving to the union hall to file your claim, regardless of where you live in the state, but if you want to be a member, all you must do is send in a note. Doesn’t sound like the people were winners on that one. The Unions and their continued contributions to the Majority party came out okay. Was the Majority party working for the people or for their benefactors?
Sales Tax
What about HB 3427, otherwise known as the Gross Receipts tax. The legislation that passed on a party line vote is really a sales tax on all businesses reaching over $1M in sales each year, not profit but gross sales. This tax will raise over $1B dollars per year on the guise that it will all go to education and disguised as “the Student Success act.” Without a constitutional amendment to dedicate the funds, the money can be used for any purpose, such as covering PERS debts. By the way, this money is not directly given to schools. The school district must ask for it in the form of grants, which, of course, means more state employees to handle those grants.
Oregon has had record income and yet the majority party still raised taxes. It will cost a family of 4 about 4% of their yearly income to cover these costs, as 1) most businesses will pass the cost on and 2) the tax is additive on products so that a single product could be taxed four, five, or even six times by those that handle the product.
As an example, to buy a new car, to which a .1% sales tax, oops that is privilege tax was added last year, the car manufacturer will pay the gross receipts tax. They make over $1M. The trucker who delivers the new car will have to pay if they make over the limit, and of course the new car dealer will also have to cough up the money from their sales. So, if you are buying a new car, do you feel like a “Winner” with all these costs being passed on. If you finance your new vehicle, your payments will be higher because you will have to finance more than in prior years. This is just one example, but you can count on your groceries, your medicine, and all the other necessities of life costing you more. By the way, the “Gross Sales Recipes Tax" was voted down by the Oregon voters less than three years ago with a 18% margin. That’s almost a landslide, folks. Doesn’t sound like the voters won here.
PERS
A PERS bill was passed, but it did nothing but kick the debt can down the road even further. In other words, business as usual. You probably have already heard that the unions are suing to stop this legislation. Once again, who are the “winners”?
Disabled Veterans
Senate Bill 500 was a piece of legislation that would provide increased property tax exemptions for those veterans with a 40% or greater disability due to their service to the country. This bill passed the Senate unanimously and was sponsored by 28 Senators. The Chair of the House Revenue committee let the bill die in committee at the end of session. I guess veterans were not worthy of this increase. Veterans certainly did not win on this one.
Voter Suppression
The Majority party took it upon themselves to pass two bills, SB 116 and SB 761 to greatly reduce the peoples’ ability to refer legislative items to the ballot. SB 116 allows the majority party to write the ballot title and the vote explanation. Sounds fair to me. SB 716 restricted the ability of voters to use e-signature petitions. Talk about rigging the system. It you can’t win on the field of play, change the rules to your favor. In this case the Oregonian says “…if legislators instead abuse their power to manipulate the system and cut out voters, it will only increase people’s mistrust of the political establishment. Senate Democrats, don’t mistake your Supermajority for a coronation.” The full article can be read here: Initiative bill smacks of voter suppression
Most fees we pay have increased, even for fun activities such as kayaking on Oregon’s beautiful rivers. “We need the money” is the common response from Democrats, even though Oregon has seen a robust increase in revenue – about $737M according to state economist, Mark McMullen.
There is still more “great” news to pass on.
- The Governor wanted to take the kicker. They did move $108M into other state coffers, but we will win on this one because the Kicker is estimated to be $1.4B
- The majority party passed a law to severely cripple the death penalty law, without giving Oregonians a chance to vote on it. The legislative body was told it is not retroactive, but lo and behold, major problems now exist, with the Department of Justice not understanding the legislation.
- The voters turned down drivers’ cards for illegals by a large margin. Once again this meant nothing to the Majority Party. They passed the bill along party lines and even put an emergency clause on it so we the voters would have no say in the issue. Are you a “Winner” on this one?
There are many more issues that were passed without thinking about how they would impact Oregonians. They were passed for Party and not the People. We, the Republicans, did walk out of session preventing a quorum so that some very egregious bills would not pass. Mandatory vaccinations, gun laws that would have made the common citizen a criminal, and most importantly Cap and Trade or HB 2020 did not pass due to our walkouts. Cap and trade is a horrible piece of legislation that would have cost you 22 to 33 cents at the gas pump in the first year alone and raised $550M from productive companies that provide good jobs. It also would have raised your heating and cooling costs significantly all in the name of reducing CO2, which by the way, the Democrats’ own experts said it would not do anything to change our climate. I will discuss this issue in depth in the next newsletter.
So, I guess the big question is, do you think you won in this legislative session, or did the Majority Party win? In my opinion, the answer is very clear, since all state employees are getting a 15% raise in the next two years. Did your salary go up that much? I can assure you that your cost of living will go up because of the legislation passed by the Majority. I guess the Oregonian was right, the Democrats are the “WINNERS”, which makes us the losers. Too bad. A legislator’s job is to make your life better, at least that is what I believe.
Sincerely,
Alan Olsen
Senate District 20
Email: Sen.AlanOlsen@oregonlegislature.gov
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1720
District Phone: 503-266-4599
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, S-425, Salem, OR 97301
District Address: 675 Northwest 2nd St., Canby, OR 97013
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/olsen
Senator Olsen's Committees:
Senate Committee On Veterans and Emergency Preparedness - Chair
Senate Committee On Environment and Natural Resources - Vice-Chair
| 
