 * “I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
—Helen Keller
If you’re reading this promptly, our pre-2024 legislative Town Halls are tomorrow night (Tuesday) in Medford and Wednesday in Ashland. I hope to see you at one or another.
Here are some of the topics we’ll cover at the Town Halls:
Measure 110
No other topic has drawn remotely as much recent media attention, constituent comment or legislator conversation as the 2020 ballot measure that Oregonians passed to shift the focus of addiction/mental health policies from prosecution and punishment to treatment. A vocal faction of Oregonians, including Republican legislators, blast Measure 110 for increases in drug overdoses, public drug use, urban blight and usage rates by minors. They want the legislature to repeal it outright. Another faction, roughly equal in size based on email I receive, say that other key factors (mostly the fentanyl epidemic) are in play, and that the treatment provisions of 110 haven’t had sufficient time to work. They say that we shouldn’t touch it at all this session.
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Neither of those two camps will be very happy with our work this session. The War on Drugs provided too much evidence of how criminalizing private drug use needlessly destroys lives for us to go back to the pre-110 system. And citizen outcry at the spread of dangerous drug use across public spaces is too intense and widespread for us to do nothing.
There’s a tricky path to find here. That’s been the task over the last few months for our Joint Interim Committee on Addiction and Community Safety Response. They met last Wednesday during Leg Day. Here’s a video of that meeting. It’s long—over two hours—but packed with good context (including a Secretary of State audit of Measure 110) that sets the table for our upcoming decisions.
I wrote about Measure 110’s nuances in an earlier newsletter. I’ll be listening to what constituents think about all this at the Town Halls on Tuesday and Wednesday.
One of my two bills this session goes straight at what everyone sees as a key hurdle to solutions: the shortage of qualified behavioral health workers. LC 94 establishes a collaboration among SOU, Eastern and Western Oregon Universities, PSU and OIT to train students in counseling and related skills that an adequate statewide treatment system will need. I think we have a good shot at getting it to the Governor’s desk.
Housing and Homelessness
In a surprise to nobody, and in line with Governor Kotek’s tenacious agenda, this will once more be near the top of the legislative docket. In recent sessions we’ve appropriated well over a billion dollars to different facets of the problem, and there’s obviously more to do.
It’s not just about money; there’s unfinished business from last session’s HB 3414, the contentious multi-part bill to roll back rules and regulation to facilitate more residential building. It died dramatically on the Senate floor in the final hours of the 2023 session. A work group has done massive work in recent months to narrow the conflict. From what I hear, I’ll be able to support it this time around.
Solving this problem takes more than money. Two key ingredients have to be creativity and flexible thinking. The New York Times recently featured this project, which was long on both. I found it exciting.
If you want the complete picture on Housing and Homelessness in the Rogue Valley and the most promising solutions on the horizon, you might want to attend this conference at Ashland Hills on Saturday, February 3.
Adequate and reliable funding for wildfire
Nothing has taken remotely as much of my time and attention in the legislative interim than the ongoing goal to establish reliable funding for wildfire programs at a level that gives Oregon a fighting chance to survive the intensely hot, dry, windy summers that lie ahead. Because every summer brings clear and present risk, we can’t wait to solve this challenge.
My effort to do that last session was SB 502 which would have taken one-third of the $5.6 billion kicker that’s about to be refunded to Oregon taxpayers for a Permanent Wildfire Trust Fund. The $1.8 billion principle would never be spent but the roughly $100 million that it would earn each year (assuming a 6% return on investment) would be enough to fund our programs into the distant future. The bill got a hearing in Senate Revenue, but that was it. There was no possible path to the 2/3 majority vote that’s constitutionally required to redirect kicker funds to another purpose.
I’m trying something else this session. LC 296 would ask voters in November to restore a version of the timber severance tax that was discontinued in the 1990s, dramatically reducing the money available for forest-related programs and local services in forest counties. I was drawn to this as a fair solution by this investigative news story. To me this article is required reading for any hope of getting past the fruitless and stale old Timber Wars thinking that sees all proposals as “pro-“ or “anti-timber.”
In its current draft my proposal would divide the resulting revenue four ways. The Department of Forestry would receive one-quarter for a variety of purposes including wildfire response. The Office of the State Fire Marshal would get another quarter for Community Risk Reduction, a range of vital programs that bolster local fire districts and departments and help Oregon property owners and neighborhoods expand efforts to fire-harden where they live.
For me, this is the heart of the proposal. I’m fairly confident we’ll always muster the resources we need to fight fires. But when it comes to preventing fires—preventing replays of what happened in Paradise, Phoenix, Talent and other towns—we’re already getting careless. The last budget we approved slashed the $35 Million that SB 762 invested in Community Risk Reduction to $3 Million. That’s flat not doing our job, and my proposal offers a solution.
With that 50% going to the two state agencies, 40% would go to counties and local districts where the logs are harvested, replacing some of what they lost when the severance tax came to an end. The last 10% would go to the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board for grants to small towns whose water supplies in the forest are suffering from wildfire and logging impacts, and whose budgets are far too thin to do what’s needed.
Last week I presented my plan to the Senate Natural Resources and Wildfire Committee. That video is here.
Others see the urgency of this problem. At least two other legislators are bringing forward wildfire funding proposals this session. The one getting more attention comes from a work group convened by Senator Elizabeth Steiner, Co-Chair of the Joint Ways & Means Committee. This article points out key differences between hers with mine. A few days later a second article focusing more on the process than the content of policymaking brought more spotlight to this debate, which will probably make it more central to the 2024 session than it might have been otherwise. I’m expecting discussion with sponsors of the other two measures to see if there’s a way to bring our offerings closer together; a final product might look different from what’s on the table now. I can guarantee in any case that you’ll hear more.
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During Leg Days we have an opportunity to sign on to co-sponsor the priority bills of other members. I was invited onto dozens and by week’s end put my signature on twenty-five, including an attempt to restore parts of the public banking bill that we passed last session but fell to the Governor’s veto, a ban on any future state investment in coal companies (the second half of this article), AI transparency in political ads, the right to repair our own devices and appliances, preventing wage theft and funding summer learning programs. I’ll dive deeper into what interests you in the Town Halls tomorrow and Wednesday.
A lot of media have been asking their readers this one; I’m curious to see how much agreement there is within Senate District 3.
A couple of months ago an advocacy group asked me to urge the Oregon Secretary of State to bar Donald Trump from the May primary election ballot on the constitutional grounds that have since drawn so much attention in other states. The case seems headed to the U.S. Supreme Court for resolution.
Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade has announced that she won’t keep Trump off the primary ballot, and that the courts will almost certainly make the call for the November general election ballot.
What do you think? I’m at sen.jeffgolden@oregonlegislature.gov
OK—see you soon, in Medford Tuesday evening, January 16, or Ashland the following evening? I hope so.
 Senator Jeff Golden, Oregon Senate District 3
Homeowner Assistance and Reconstruction Program
Oregon Housing and Community Services will open applications for the Homeowner Assistance and Reconstruction Program in March. Those who lost their homes during the Labor Day fires of 2020 could be eligible to receive funding to repair, rebuild or replace their homes. There is a possibility for reimbursement to those who were able to rebuild following the fires as well. More information here.
Department of Revenue-Agriculture Employer Overtime Tax Credit
If you are planning to apply for the new Agriculture Employer Overtime Tax Credit, you'll need to create a Revenue Online account before filling out an application. Applications must be filed electronically and will be available by January 1, 2024. No paper applications will be accepted. The application window closes January 31, 2024.
The department provides a YouTube video about how to set up and log in to your Revenue Online account. Details about the tax credit program are available at this website. For general questions about the employer tax credit for agricultural worker overtime, email: Ag.Overtime@dor.oregon.gov
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