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Please do not reply to this email. Click here to you wish to contact Representative Yunker.
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Greetings, friends and neighbors!
Oregon’s 2024 legislative session adjourned last Thursday. The day started with the sound of blaring horns and ended with a show of seeming bipartisanship.
Read on as I recap that last day of session, my 2024 voting record, and Oregon’s adjusted 2023-25 biennium budget.
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In other words, dear Oregon taxpayers: it's time to find out how Salem will be using your money this year.
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Let’s start with last Thursday.
The blaring horns came from a small convoy of logging trucks as they encircled the walls of the Oregon State Capitol. The loggers were protesting Tina Kotek’s forestry plan, a grave threat to Oregonians’ lives and livelihoods, see link [here].
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Horns have power. They can warn of danger and proclaim truth. On Thursday they highlighted the hypocrisy between the Democrat majority party’s words and actions. The protesters said it best: “Special interests versus working families” and “Who is the endangered species?”
The show of seeming bipartisanship came from the House floor, of course. But because the Democrat majority party controls every legislative committee, bills don’t get hearings unless the Dems want them to pass. Agreement and cooperation usually mean going along to get along. I guess after last year, no one wants to hear an unfair “Do Your Job” ever again.
I won the Oregon House Republican “Red Button Award” for having the highest No-vote count this session. But the funny thing is, I voted Yes on a ton: 85 Ayes and 66 Nays if the measure tracker is accurate.
Given how terrible most of the bills we voted on were, it's beyond me how anyone could find more than 85 to approve.
If bipartisan worked both ways, we could have passed end-Measure 110 House Bill 4036. Which media outlet will grill the Democrat majority party for blocking common-sense legislation proven to work in states all across the nation?
Instead, we have House Bill 4002: an Obamacare expansion bill masquerading as recriminalization. House Bill 4002 is a huge windfall for Obamacare “Coordinated Care Organizations” like the biggie in Josephine County, AllCare. The company now has about 48.5% of the county's population on socialized medicine, up from about 15% just nine years ago.
The irony of the Democrat majority party claiming they made housing more affordable while passing a forestry plan that makes building materials like lumber unaffordable is really just too much to take.
And the governor's housing bills didn't cut any red tape. Rather, they are just tons of state taxpayer money for local problems and far-left radical special interests:
• $65,000,000 - Project Turnkey
• $25,000,000 - Albina Vision Trust
• $7,000,000 - Urban League of Portland
• $5,265,823 - Bridges to Change
• $3,000,000 - Unite Oregon
• $1,400,000 - 4D Recovery
• $1,250,000 - Center for African Immigrants and Refugees Organization
• $1,000,000 - Seeding Justice
None of this helps the housing market. Not even close.
If the housing bills are bad, the end-of-session Senate Bill 5701 called "Christmas Tree" handout to special interests is worse. Most of these people create more problems than they solve. Billions more dollars tacked on to the budget. How is this the role of state government? How does any of this make sense?
• $100,000,000+ for state taxpayer-funded daycare for families of four earning $60,000/year
• $30,000,000 for Business Oregon's discriminatory "Equity" plan, passed under protest
• $30,000,000 for state-funded baseball
• $2,000,000 for immigrant and refugee advancement
• $1,100,000 for educator "equity"
• $1,000,000 for "just futures"
And the 74-page list goes on, see link [here].
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Republicans' biggest achievement this session was that for the first time in a long time, the Democrat majority party didn't have a supermajority.
The Democrats couldn't steal the Kicker and impose a statewide property tax and more, at least not this session.
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But the bills passed this session will break the budget in the next biennium. It's time to stop this madness. Isn't Oregon's tax burden already top-five in the nation?
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Public education in Oregon is already broken.
Homeschool or get your kids into private school, if you can. My fellow Republicans and I are the only ones in the legislature pushing to improve schools and protect childhood innocence and parental rights.
This session we showed that political will plus threatening to raise holy hell can achieve results, despite being outnumbered. Unfortunately, the worst education bill of the session still passed.
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The good
Republicans successfully blocked Senate Bill 1583, a bill that would have gutted school boards’ ability to have even a modicum of control over their district’s materials and curriculum. The bill is now under review for the 2025 session.
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Another bad bill, House Bill 4070, state lottery funds for new school-based health centers, died once the Democrats realized we'd make a stink about it all year.
After last year’s passage of House Bill 2002, Oregon’s controversial abortion and transgender legislation, many parents have grave concerns about Oregon’s age of medical consent, and care that takes place behind the school gates, behind parents’ backs.
These centers are pushed by Planned Parenthood and their ilk and in Oregon must provide "reproductive health services" without involving parents. See link [here] (p. 17) for minimums, most do much more.
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I believe parental consent should be required for all state-funded medical services for minors. The Oregon Department of Education, the Oregon Health Authority, and the Admiral Rachel Levine-led U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can't be trusted with our kids’ bodies.
The bad
Arguably the worst education bill of the session, Senate Bill 1552, a deeply-troubling seizure of power by the Oregon Department of Education, was pushed and passed by the Democrat majority party.
When the new director of the ODE, Charlene Williams, was appointed last year, she indicated that one of her top priorities as director was to create legislation to grant the state agency more authority over local school districts. In other words, remove local control and chip away at parents' rights. Parents will be shocked to learn that a state bureaucrat in Salem will be tracking their child’s grades. This bill is Big Brother and worse, and it may have serious unintended consequences, especially for minors.
Republicans proposed and attempted to pass three terrific education bills this session, all voted down by the Democrat majority party. Parents' rights, charter schools, and long-standing high school graduation essential skills requirements aren't controversial.
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While the Democrat majority party controls the state, things may seem discouraging. But that’s all the more reason to keep Josephine County really solid. We aren’t for sale. Not to the authoritarians in Salem. As the loggers said Thursday: “Life, liberty, and freedom from tyranny.”
Now that we’re out of session, we’ll be going to a monthly newsletter. Please make sure you are subscribed by entering your email in the “e-Subscribe” box on my website, link [here].
My priorities for the rest of 2024 will be staying in touch with you and serving you, investigating some of Oregon’s state agencies, and requesting new legislative concepts to make Oregon a better place to do business and raise a family in 2025.
Upcoming 2024 legislative dates include task force days and committee days in May, September, and December, the legislative concept request deadline on Sept. 27, and the bill filing day on Dec. 13.
I look forward to hearing your concerns and suggestions!
Please be in touch with me via email at Rep.DwayneYunker@oregonlegislature.gov, over the phone at 503.986.1403, or catch up with me in Grants Pass!
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Sincerely,
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1403
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, H-371, Salem, OR 97301
Email: rep.dwayneyunker@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/yunker
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