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Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc.
Oregon Truck Dispatch
BOB RUSSELL
OTA Vice President/
Government Affairs
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
The war
of the
ballot
measures
SENATE PRESIDENT PETER COURTNEY
recently gave a
speech at the Oregon Business Summit where he compared
the current situation regarding citizen filed ballot measures
to the Civil War. He eloquently described the upcoming
election as a bloodbath that will further divide this state.
I think everyone in attendance thought that this was
one of his finest speeches and that his observations were
unfortunately spot on.
This new reality is a manifestation of two factors. First,
annual sessions have encouraged folks to threaten to take
their issues to the ballot box in an attempt to leverage the
Legislature into giving them what they want during the
short session that immediately precedes the next general
election. Second, the Legislature has made it increasingly
difficult to qualify a citizen filed ballot measure. The result
has been that only the well funded such as public employee
unions and environmentalists can make use of this tactic.
The battle has clearly been joined in preparation for the
short session that began on February 1. Increasing the
minimum wage is a clear example of the new dance. The
public employee unions have filed three ballot measures
that would increase the minimum wage between $13.50
and $15 per hour statewide. These measures also would
repeal the preemption of local governments to set
their own minimum wage. Then, Governor Brown sat
down with the business associations for the purpose of
negotiating a solution. After all, nobody wants these ballot
measures to move forward. After lengthy discussions, the
Governor announces her proposal, which by the way did
not have agreement of the business associations.
The Governor proposed a 6-year phase-in which would
increase the minimum wage in Portland to $15.22 per
hour and $13.50 in the rest of the state. A key feature of
the Governor’s proposal is that it does not lift the local
government preemption. The Senate President and the
Speaker of the House immediately applauded the Governor
for her “reasonable” plan and have indicated that they will
schedule a vote soon after session begins.
A very similar situation is taking place on the
environmental front. The environmentalists have filed
four measures that would phase out the use of coal for
electric utilities and increase the amount of power that
has to be generated using renewable sources such as wind
and solar. The utilities panicked and sat down with the
environmentalists to see if they could find a solution that
could be ratified during the upcoming short session.