The Legislative Dirty Dozen
Take Aways from a Very Odd Session
The 2023 Oregon Legislature long session limped to a close yesterday. Here’s a short wrap up of some important legislation.
The Senate Makes a Deal. Contrary to expectations, Senate President Rob Wagner compromised with Republicans on some controversial bills to get them to return. He did NOT excuse the absences that 10 of them racked up, however, and Measure 113 prohibits them from running for reelection. The dam broke when Melissa Unger, Executive Director of SEIU, opted to see how Measure 113 played out in the courts, rather than pursue a quorum change. As someone commented to me when Ms. Unger decided not to run for governor, “Why would she want a demotion?”
No, not that Dirty Dozen. Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Healthcare. As part of the deal, the Senate watered down a bill securing abortion and transgender care for minors. The amended version allows minors 14 and under to consent to abortion without parental permission if their healthcare provider believes that asking the parents would result in harm to the youth or would otherwise not be in their best interest. As passed, the bill also ensures that health insurance must cover gender-affirming care and protects healthcare providers who provide abortions and gender-affirming care.
Ghost Guns. In another part of the deal, the Senate passed a bill prohibiting “ghost guns” without serial numbers or identifying features, but eliminated provisions restricting gun possession by 18- to 20-year-olds.
Courtesy of Everytown for Gun Safety, ways folks get around federal firearms laws with “ghost guns” Rent Control. The legislature passed a cap of 10% on annual rent increases. This amended an earlier law that limited the increases to the inflation rate plus 7%. High inflation rates caused the rate of allowable rent increases to exceed 14%, although the average rent increase was under 4%.
Rental Assistance. The last state budget reflected massive contributions from the federal government for pandemic rental assistance. Despite my urgings, the Legislature did not identify a sustainable source of funding to replace the federal largesse. This biennium, the Legislature scraped together $80 million, less than the $100 million requested by housing advocates.
Measure 110 Reforms…but not the kind you’re thinking of. Kudos to Rep. Rob Nosse for shepherding through a raft of reforms that will help ensure better access to treatment for those suffering from drug addiction. Of note, it does NOT reinstate criminal penalties for minor drug possession.
Cops and Robbers. Deputy District Attorneys received a raise in compensation…sort of. They now will fall under the police and fire retirement provisions for 25-year retirements, in contrast to the usual 35-year PERS retirements. This does not apply to elected district attorneys, just their subordinates. Thanks to Rep. Paul Evans, a $96 million package of reforms for public defenders also (finally) passed, although details about implementation are a bit scarce. The state is just starting to re-invest in the long-neglected criminal courts.
The deposed king vegetable Po-TAY-to, Po-TAH-to. We have a new state vegetable - the potato. Being a fan of the onion, our previous state vegetable, I oppose this earth-shattering change. However, I would be amenable to adopting camas, to honor our history (although I’m told it is an acquired taste).
The new royal family The Legislature Again Fails to Strengthen Democracy. Per its usual habit, the Legislature failed to pass popular measures to limit political donations, eliminate gerrymandering, and start open primaries. Folks, if you think the legislators, 100% of whom were elected under the current, less democratic system, are going to suddenly embrace a new system of more democratic governance, I’ve got a bridge to sell you. They earn partial credit for referrals to the voters to implement ranked choice voting for some elections (although NOT in state legislative elections) and to improve compensation for elected officials.
Speaking of Bridges…The Legislature passed the first tranche of about $1 billion in funding for a new I-5 bridge across the Columbia River. Details are still very much TBD.
One vision for the new bridge A Weird Oregon Tradition Dies. You will soon be able to pump your own gas. Gas stations will still be required to have staff available to do it for you. Inability to pump your own gas is apparently constitutes an “emergency,” so the bill becomes effective immediately after the Governor signs it. Opponents predict a new trend of exploding gas stations.
A gas station explosion in Russia, although one caused by a tanker putting gas into the station, not someone pumping their own gas. Executive Accountability. In 2024, voters will get to decide whether to amend the State Constitution to allow the impeachment of statewide elected executive officials by the Legislature. Rumors that it was part of the “y’all come back!” deal are supported by its unanimous passage in the House, despite the Democratic majority opposing it when Rep. Drazan and I pushed it last session.
Credit to Christine Drazan for keeping the impeachment referral alive.
As noted by many, the long session was certainly one to remember, if perhaps not for the reasons anyone hoped. Coming to a county fair near you, expect initiative petitions to -
Implement open primaries
Stop political gerrymandering
Stop the long, illegal tradition of whichever party is in the legislative majority ignoring open meetings requirements
Set campaign contribution limits
And undoubtedly many more!
Other News
Department of Why Are We So Bad at This? The DMV, Legislature, and most other Oregon agency computers went dark last week, after the DMV was hacked and virtually all personal information was captured by parties unknown. Yes, yours. It’s a good idea to freeze your credit, which is free through TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. You can do it online or through the mail.
This is just the latest IT fiasco by the state, in the long tradition of CoverOregon, the Oregon Employment Department (twofer for unemployment and paid family leave!), and rental assistance. In fairness, most other governments are bad at IT, too. The US Army is raising the white flag and moving its unclassified e-mail over to Google. When government does something very poorly and the private market does it well, is it such a bad thing to consider moving over?
Only You (and Your Power Company) Can Prevent Forest Fires! An Oregon jury awarded, well, let’s just say a TON of money, to people injured by fires caused by Pacific Power (PAC). The jury found PAC grossly negligent for failing to power down its lines during storms in 2020. The storms downed the power lines, causing fires that burned the plaintiffs’ homes down.
Because electricity is provided by regulated monopolies in Oregon, folks immediately asked if they were going to end up paying the penalty, as part of their power bills. While the immediate answer was “no,” the real answer is more complicated. Over the short term, the company and its insurer will pay the judgment, assuming it holds up on appeal.
However, who do you think eventually pays for their insurance? You do, through your power bill. As the Executive Director of EPUD once told me, there are a lot of things that can be done to prevent electrically-generated fires, and they require only a little planning. These include using thicker power lines that are less likely to droop or short out and using 8-foot crosstrees instead of 6-foot ones. Prevention is cheaper than punitive damages.
Russia and Ukraine. Russia had an unsuccessful mutiny last week by Wagner Group mercenaries. It’s all on the upside for Ukraine, since Wagner had some of the most effective battlefield troops. We’ll see the fallout from this for quite some time.
Thinking about the Attritable Revolution. Developments from the battlefields of Ukraine are showing the value of small, disposable platforms like air, land, and sea drones, as well as cheap satellites. While manned vehicles and traditional massive communications and intelligence satellites are expensive and must be reliable, attritable resources can be quite cheap and suffer from fairly high failure rates while still providing the service needed. For instance, a Patriot missile costs $4 million, while a Shahed-186 Iranian drone costs about $20,000, making it an expensive trade when Ukraine uses the Patriot to defend against the Shahed. On the other hand, a shell from an old school German Gepard anti-aircraft gun costs about $20 to take out the same drone. The US Department of Defense just contracted to buy a bunch. Similarly, Starlink provides worldwide internet services through hundreds of small, cheap satellites that are designed to wear out and burn up in the atmosphere after 3-5 years, rather than multiple, billion-dollar comsats. As a result, their service is faster, cheaper, more reliable, and upgradable. The implications of the larger lesson - that quantity has a quality all its own - are ongoing, as DoD continues to invest heavily in expensive legacy systems that can’t survive on the modern battlefield.