Oregon politics

Last Friday the Salem City Club had a program about Measure 118, a proposal on the November ballot that would give every Oregonian an estimated $1,600 a year by increasing the corporate minimum tax rate on revenues exceeding $25 million.  While the presenters on the pro and con sides each made good points, I came away feeling that while Measure 118 has its heart in the right place, it is too flawed to merit a Yes vote.  Measure 118 is a step in the direction of a guaranteed minimum income for Oregonians. However, it gives money to everybody in our…

It's obvious that the health care system here in the United States has major problems. As is heard so often, we spend much more per capita than other comparable countries, but have poorer health. Since I worked in this state as a health planner and policy analyst way back when (1970s and 1980s), I like to joke that I must have done a great job, since now our health care system is problem-free. Of course, the unfunny reality is that the same cost, access, and quality of care problems then are with us now. Plus some. Such as the corporatization…

My day, which wasn't going so well, in part because I'd left my iPhone at home so felt out-of-touch while grocery shopping, brightened up a lot when I returned, checked on what's happening in the world, and saw a notice from the Statesman Journal that the bill to make standard time permanent in Oregon had met a well-deserved death in the short legislative session that is wrapping up soon. House Speaker Dan Rayfield essentially killed legislation to adopt permanent Pacific Standard Time in most of Oregon, sending the proposal to the Emergency Management, General Government and Veterans Committee with just…

Good news today for most people in Oregon, given that national polls show that about 2/3 of people either want daylight saving time made permanent, or favor sticking with the current twice-yearly time change, and there's no reason to think Oregonians feel differently. But state Senator Kim Thatcher figures that she knows best, so she introduced SB 1548, which would make standard time permanent in our state. I think this is a terrible idea. Here's the reasons why that I included in messages to my state senator and representative where I urged a "no" vote on the bill. (1) This…

One of the worst bills introduced in this year's short legislative session calls for Oregon to move to permanent standard time, thereby doing away with the much-beloved (by me and many others) daylight saving time. This is a horrible idea. State Senator Kim Thatcher of Keizer introduced Senate Bill 1548, which hopefully will have a well-deserved legislative death. Senator Deb Patterson, who represents part of the Salem area, is a co-sponsor of the bill. I hope she comes to her senses. Oregon already has passed legislation calling on Congress to allow our state, along with Washington and California, to be…

It was an Oregon Supreme Court decision that made me ever so happy. Yesterday the court ruled unanimously that a ballot measure passed by voters in 2022 meant that ten Republicans in the state Senate can't run for re-election because they walked out of the 2023 legislative session for ten days. An Oregon Capital Chronicle story describes the decision.  Republican senators who participated last year in the longest walkout in state history cannot seek reelection in 2024 or 2026, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled Thursday.  In a unanimous decision, the court rejected arguments from five Republican senators that Measure 113,…

Oregon is continuing to get national attention for Measure 110, which voters approved in November 2020. It decriminalized possession of previously illegal drugs. Now, though, the backlash against Measure 110 threatens to make Oregon a poster child for what not to do about drugs. An article in the January 22, 2024 issue of The New Yorker describes the high hopes that accompanied the passage of Measure 110. In November, 2020, Oregon launched a historic experiment: the Drug Decriminalization and Addiction Treatment Initiative, known as Measure 110. Approved by fifty-eight per cent of voters, it made Oregon the first state to decriminalize…

I tried to make the title of this blog post convey an enticing peek into what's going to be focused on during the 35-day short legislative session in this even numbered year, which begins February 5. But anyone who follows Oregon politics at all closely won't be surprised by what the Speaker of the House, Democrat Dan Rayfield, and House Minority Leader, Republican Jeff Helfrich, agreed would be the session priorities at a Salem City Club meeting today: Big Decisions -- A Preview of the 2024 Oregon Legislative Short Session. Addressing the shortcomings of Measure 110, which largely decriminalized the…

Stupidity isn't limited to one political party, for sure. There's plenty of dumb moves made by both Democrats and Republicans.  But I've got to give the award for the most egregious display of political cluelessness in the Oregon legislative session that concluded yesterday to four Republican senators and one independent, who I assume was Brian Boquist, as he used to be a Republican. For even though the six-week walkout by Senate Republicans had ended after Democrats agreed to water down two bills dealing with abortion and gun control, those five senators didn't attend the last day of the session yesterday,…

It's difficult for me to say this, since I hate to reward Republican hostage taking, but in this case the hostage is a whole lot of legislation that would benefit Oregonians more than Democrats bending on two bills detested by the Senate Republicans who have walked out would hurt Oregonians. Yes, a month ago I said that Democrats shouldn't negotiate over the walkout, as this will just encourage more walkouts. But now the June 25 deadline when the current legislative session must end is less than two weeks away. So the situation is similar to what President Biden and congressional…

Laurel Hines, my wife, had a great idea. Use a tip line set up by Oregon Republicans hoping to find fraud in state government to report a serious wrongdoing: the walkout by GOP members of the state senate that's gone on now for about five weeks, while those legislators who aren't performing the duty they were elected to do continue to pull in their taxpayer-paid salary. Here's a message that Laurel sent to some friends today. Here is something you can do and go on record regarding the walkout by the Republicans. If enough people flood the tip line, it…

Because this is Oregon, not Alabama or Mississippi, I've gotten used to saying that while our Republican politicians seem to be more reasonable than Republican officeholders in red states, they're actually just as far-right. The only difference being, Oregon Republicans don't have the opportunity to manifest their extremism given how Democrats dominate our state's political balance. Well, now that the walkout of Republicans in the state Senate has entered a fifth week, with the GOP being utterly unwilling to negotiate an end to the walkout (Governor Kotek has said that she's given up on her attempt to broker a deal),…

Republicans are doing their best to make my blood boil. (So far, figuratively.) Nationally, House Republicans seem determined to make their demands so extreme to raise the debt ceiling that the federal government will be unable to pay all of its bills soon, creating a financial catastrophe.  Here in Oregon, the walkout of Senate Republicans entered its 15th day. And they just announced that they'll keep on not doing the job they were elected to do all the way to the last day of the current legislative session, June 25. A story in the Oregon Capital Chronicle describes their unreasonable…