Legislative Outtakes: Southern Oregon Legislators Blog

Rep. Sal Esquivel

One of the most important roles of government is to help society’s most needy. But it’s also critical to ensure that the resources intended for those people aren’t squandered through waste, fraud and abuse.

An audit conducted in May by the Secretary of State’s Office identified nearly $3 million in erroneously paid benefits. In those instances, payments were made to lottery winners, PERS recipients who had cashed out, and prisoners.

In response, a series of bills were introduced in the Legislature to combat this problem.

Among these common sense proposals was one that would permit the Department of Human Services and Oregon Health Authority to suspend public assistance to those who fail to provide requested documentation regarding possible overpayment of assistance. Another would require DHS to establish a registry of persons receiving social services from counties and the state to enable agencies to coordinate those services. Still another would require public employees who administer public assistance to report suspected fraud.

Two other proposals would require electronic benefit transfer cards to display the photograph of all adults authorized to use it and require DHS to ensure that those cards can’t be used to purchase prepaid credit cards.

Unfortunately, none of those bills received hearings this session.

My House Republican colleagues attempted to pull those bills out of committee this week and bring them up for votes, but that effort was defeated by the Democrats on a party-line vote.

It’s a shame that the majority party allows this abuse to continue.

Rep. Sal Esquivel

When is a tax not a tax? It depends on who you ask.

This week, we took a vote on House Bill 3477. The stated purpose of this bill was to close tax loopholes for out of state banks. But like many issues, this is more complicated than that.

In the 1990s, there were around nine companies that started doing real estate lending in Oregon. The loans they issued made the dream of home ownership possible for people throughout the state by offering them multiple financing options.

These companies were excluded from some Oregon taxes because they had no physical presence in the state. They did, however, pay those taxes in the states where they were actually located.

When HB 3477 came up for a vote, my colleague, Rep. Vicki Berger from Salem, raised the question on the House floor of whether this bill was a tax increase. Rep. Berger is a member of the Revenue Committee, so she is very familiar with these matters.

This distinction was important, because a revenue raising bill requires only a simple majority vote. A tax bill, however, requires the approval of a supermajority of 36 votes.

Even though all indications are that HB 3477 was a tax bill, the House speaker ruled that it  wasn’t. The vote was taken, and the bill passed.

I am appalled that the speaker would disregard the system and processes that guide this chamber, and won’t be surprised if her decision gets challenged in court.

Rep. Sal Esquivel

Less than 24 hours before the release of the state’s latest revenue forecast, Gov. Kitzhaber held a press conference, in which he expressed support for higher taxes on Oregon business.

This comes after a bad month for many big businesses throughout the state.

Integra is moving its corporate headquarters from Portland to Vancouver, Wash. The last lumber mill in Josephine County has closed down. Greenbrier is laying off 200 workers at its Gunderson LLC plant in Northwest Portland. SoloPower announced the suspension of its Portland operations. Xerox is laying off 300 workers in Coos Bay and North Bend. Kinder Morgan pulled the plug on plans for a proposed coal terminal in Columbia County, and CenturyLink just announced the closure of its Hood River call center.

These are just the big businesses that are struggling, and does not include all the small businesses throughout Oregon that are also having a hard time right now.

Calling for higher taxes on businesses sends the wrong signal to job creators at a time when Oregonians need jobs more than ever.

The Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) reforms that the governor has signed are a good first step. But they don’t solve the problem.

I’ve been saying for years that our state government needs to get its spending in line before asking anyone for more taxes. PERS costs affect every school district, city and county in the state. We need to fix those issues immediately, instead of continuing to kick that can down the road.