Updates: February 11, 2008

February 11, 2008

The much anticipated (by some of us anyway) supplemental session of the Oregon Legislature got underway on Monday, February 4, 2008 at the Capitol in Salem.  It started with a bang on the House side with adoption of the House Rules for the supplemental session.  Some members of the House (and many Oregonians) complained that Speaker of the House Jeff Merkely (D-Mid Multnomah County) intended to accept campaign donations for his run for the US Senate during the legislative session.  While this is not a violation of the law, it is certainly a violation of the spirit of the House rules that do NOT allow members to accept campaign contributions while the House is in session.  Of course this came during the debate over why the Democrats wanted the Republicans to get 31 signatures for a minority report on bills they didn’t agree with coming out of Democratic chaired House committees.  Normally (what a silly word to use), a minority report takes 2 members to sign on.  You might remember that 31 votes in the House constitute a majority.  After three hours of heated debate, the rules were passed and the House got down to the business of the session.

To make things more interesting for the first ever test drive of an annual session, both the House and Senate office wings are undergoing a major remodel and are closed. Representatives and Senators, their staffs and many of the legislative office staff are in temporary offices while the construction takes place.  This means that members have to meet with constituents and lobbyists in the hallways.

The session is limited and scheduled to last only until the 29^th of February so timelines are very tight and bills could only be introduced through last Wednesday.  The Senate members are allowed one bill introduction each and House bills must be introduced by House committees.  Even though this is designed to keep only the most important bills that absolutely need to be addressed in play, there is no shortage of questionable issues being introduced into the process.

The main purpose of meeting on an annual basis is for the entire legislature to oversee the state budget and deal with ongoing issues of importance to Oregonians.  The first big blow came on Friday when legislators received a report on the revenue forecast for tax collections in the coming months.  The news was sobering.  Forecasters predict that there will be $183 million less available for state spending than was predicted in December.  Given the state of the economy nationwide, there is no reason to believe that the state of Oregon’s economy will see a robust growth any time soon.  It is unclear at this time how the budget-writing Ways and Means Committee will deal with the projected shortfall, but it is unlikely any new spending programs will be approved during the one-month session.

Where do we go from here?  That is the question of the month.  JWA is keeping an eye on all pending legislation winding its way through the process.  Given the fact that this is a test drive to see if legislators can truly get along and deal with only the most urgent of issues, there is no guarantee that Oregonians will allow the legislative body to meet on an annual basis.  The state’s constitution requires the legislature to meet biennially (once every two years) and any change from that to annual sessions would need to be approved by a vote of the people. 

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