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The Oregon legislature is one of only a handful in the country that don't meet every year. That might change. The state Senate passed joint resolution that would bring lawmakers to Salem every year, without having to declare an emergency or hold a special session. The resolution now goes to the House and, if it passes, the proposal will go directly to voters since it would require a change in the state constitution.
The Senate resolution was carried by one Republican and one Democrat, both of whom argued that its passage would help bring Oregon into the 21st century. They also advocated for limits on both sessions, keeping one to 45 days and the other to 135 days, making the claim that this will in fact shorten the average amount of time the legislature meets overall. One senator who opposed the resolution says the limitations are not as cut and dried as he would like them to be and there is room for the legislature to drag out their time in Salem, at the taxpayers' expense.
What questions do you have about the benefits and drawbacks of a legislature that meets every year? Have you lived in a state that did things differently? How would you vote on annual sessions?
GUESTS:
- Jason Atkinson: Oregon state senator (R-Central Point)
- Brian Boquist: Oregon state senator (R-Dallas)
- Angela Andrews: Policy associate at the National Conference of State Legislatures
Tagged as: legislature · special session
Photo credit: jigpu / Creative Commons
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Definitely Maybe.
The Oregon State Legislaturers--both Senators and Representatives--make $1800 per month. This is as much as a full time food service worker at McDonald's or Starbucks. Of course this is for part time work, but not including research, homework and contact with constituents.
If your work load doubled, would you be entitled to a doubling in salary?
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Annual? Isn't the biennial fleecing of voters enough?
I would propose triennial or quadrennial gatherings and shorter sessions. That way they have less time time to figure out the optimal distribution of spoils and patronage before passing legislation.Double their pay and send them all out on paid leave. That would make their work a lot less taxing!
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Would that also mean halving the time to be eligible to Oregon's fat PERS benefits ????
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Just an observation from across the river.
Seems like if you want to have a state legislature they should actually meet annually. Anything else is pretty bush league. Why not expect that the elected officials actually meet to do the peoples' business?
If one of your reps starts cracking wise and asks for more money to meet more often, just say "no". How about no pay for any legislators until they produce a balanced state budget.
Of course, any time a state legislature meets there is a flurry of very silly laws, so you will have 2x the foolishness. Still, it will at least LOOK like your reps are working.
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Why?
What will they do?
Is what they do actually of benefit to the citizens of the state that live in the Willamette Valley? Or perhaps the question is: Do the citizens of the Willamette Valley really need their government to exercise more control (legislation) over them?
Is more money, set to print and doing little else, worth the time wasted and environmental impact it takes to generate it?
The number of laws, codes and just pure BS (Bureaucratic Stuff) that currently exists is enough to cover controlling the citizen cradle to grave. It should be self-evident that Government has no business in the time that precedes and follows “life”. Thus no further legislation volume is actually necessary.
Yet the tendency for “you to wish to meddle in my affairs” is strong in some, and outlet must exist! Therefore to promote generating minimally, productive legislation I propose the following: No new legislation may be passed without repealing an equal amount of existing legislation. Further, only duly elected representatives of the citizenry may generate anything with the force of law, and the document may not exceed two single spaced 10-Font, 8.5*11 Pages, single sided. I can see the need for more time in Salem to begin that winnowing process!
What is actually needed, a massive simplifying of the laws that attempt to control every aspect of life. Start with something simple, basic:
The budget must balance every year. Any surplus collected during any single year by the State of Oregon may or may not be returned to the individual Citizen at the Citizen’s discretion.
Jefferson, is by the actions of Salem heard louder in the winds of change.
Laughing at power, from the center! -
Proposed- The 45 day session be a travelling session, proscribed to the east of the Cascades- Bend, K-Falls, Lakeview, Pendleton, Baker City, Ontario, (Burns, Wagon Wheel, John Day?)
Advantages- Mitigate the incremental population pressure on Salem.
Reset the Legislature's viewpoint governing this state.
Embed a desire to finish up and go home.
Renew the practice of 'circuit riding' - a pioneering pragmatic success.
disAdvantages- Staff/lobbyist logistical nightmare,
host city services strain,
Big Winner- Oregon's RV manufaturers.
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This discussion is a waste of time fore it seems that these elected bodies are never to resolve anything and when people state that government is to big or is the problem, then, perhaps they are right. We could save a lot money by not having senators and representatives whom only represent themselves and not the public that voted them in. In short why not just have a lobbyist government that dictates public policy through the corporations they represent. This way we won't have to worry about Annual Sessions that do not produce anything. What we should really talk about is how the middle and lower classes are taxed in the State of Oregon. Oregon complains about the financial turn down and loss of jobs, however, if one removes certain funds from ones retirement account during retirement, one is taxed three times. One tax is paid to the federal government, a second tax is paid once more to the federal government when your retirement income is combined to your retirement income and taxed as though it is your regular retirement income and a third tax is once more taxed by the State of Oregon on the combined income that has already been taxed a second time by the federal government. So when Oregon and the rest of the nation complains about our financial situation and at the same taxes the hell out you when uses his or her retirement income to make purchases that help the economy and is penalized for doing so, then I do have a problem with big government. Oregon and the rest of the country cannot have it both ways. So here I sit, unable to make purchases because if I do I will be penalized for doing so via taxes and when one is taxed out of his or her fixed income. Then, a no sales tax system means nothing, because you are unable to make purchases, in turn you must turn to the banks and or credit cards where interest rates dictate ones life even if one has been prudent with money during ones life time or remain in a state of suspended animation waiting for nature to take it's course. It is a no win policy for American (retired Americans) from the middle or lower economic classes and NOT EXTRA SESSIONS at Salem that I am concerned with. Last but not least, who's retirement fund is it: I it the government's, or is it a future retirement account for doctors and CEO's of medical and hospitals whom require a living standard better than mine?
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The current Oregon Constitution specifies that the legislature start meeting in September (unless the legislature prescribes another date, which it has since the 1880s). This calendar would work better than the current legislative proposals and keep legislative sessions shorter.
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Annual sessions are a necessary part of Oregon growing up and becoming a real state. Reform of the initiative process is also necessary. Legislators are elected to make law; you can't govern Oregon as though it were a village in New Hampshire.
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1. No $25+ billion a year company can effectively be managed every other year.
2. Our legislature is made up of a bunch of minimum wage employees who can afford to take the jobs and are not dependent on them.
3. We need to pay our legislature good salaries and make the sessions full time. This will put them on an equal standing with the other bodies of government. Higher salaries will not even show up / effect the overall budget.
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The Washington legislature governs a larger state and manages a larger state budget with a total of 165 days in session--105 in odd-numbered years and 60 in even-numbered days. There's no reason Oregon's legislature needs more time, if it's organized and operates efficiently.
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Thomas Jefferson did not say: "No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session."
Gideon John Tucker did.
I know, irrelevant...just sounded a little trite for Jefferson.
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Just a typical lying Republican, he knows he can get away with saying it on the air and not be challenged on air about it.
You can correct him on this board but there are only, what, maybe twenty people who read this board, so he got his shot in and got away with it.
Just a typical anti-government Republican, you can trust them...
to lie.
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People rarely say the entire "Tree of Liberty ... refreshed with the blood of patriots and tyrants" quote. In fact, they use it to justify external wars.
The whole quote refers to internal revolution not external adventurism and Jefferson even ends the quote with: "God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion."
So, in fairness, Jefferson also strongly distrusted government... That being said, Jefferson had a much more nuanced and complex view of government than populist rhetoric.
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Any legislative session comes at a huge hidden cost to state agencies, not just the Legislature. I recently retired from a large state agency after 37 years. When the Legislature was in session, all energy and staff are focused on responding to Legislative questions, endless special interest bills most of which do not pass, dozens of hearings, meetings with interest groups, etc. Anything controversial got set aside until the session was over. Any discussion on adding an annual session needs to come with a detailed financial statement from ALL state agencies.
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" every other mounth starting january " ....; and pay the buggers enough to get people who can read write & think ! Bluntly oregon over the past 30 years has sold out its soul to laws on top of laws ... our police are a prime example of how out of control oregon goverment really is .... research at : oregontracers.com
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This would allow the legislature to play its role as a balance to the executive and judicial branch. More importantly, it would help curb the excesses of the "have your cake and eat it too" Oregon ballot initiative system. Where else can you chose to have larger benefits, kicker checks ,government programs AND reduce your taxes? I'm tired of Oregon being the petri dish for special interest groups, from both sides, trying to set legislative precedent for a national agenda. Thank you for having this show.
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In a written statement to members of the Senate Rules Committee and to legislative leadership--before Senate action on its resolution and bill to move to annual sessions, I argued (unpersuasively) that January of odd-numbered years is the worst time to start a legislative session, since it's on the heels of the General Election, just past the holidays, and there's relatively little that can or does get done in the first 90 days anyway as, typically, new legislators and new legislative committees learn the ropes and get up to speed. (This is relatively less true for the State Senate, which has experienced less turn-over in membership and leadership recently than the House. But bicameralism means that neither legislative chamber can act alone, so the result's the same.)
As an old-timer who's worked around the Capitol since the mid-70s and who lobbied there for over 20 years (until mid-2008), I've watched the pattern of Oregon's regular sessions time and again. I'm convinced that just capping the length of session won't work because the work that needs to be done always occurs at the end of the session, not at the beginning; and a safety valve is always necessary to extend the session beyond the cap. The legislature needs to both start and stop at the right times, and the current legislative calendar doesn't recognize that reality.
An additional and often unmentioned complication in calendaring legislative sessions is avoiding campaign seasons, when candidates' funds are raised and spent. It's critically important that these activities be separated--and squeezing a February session between hotly contested tax referenda and the March filing deadline is only proving to me how untimely a short February session in even-numbered years can be.
Ultimately, SJR 41 is probably better than the status quo. But any change in the legislative calendar would be, so that's a low bar. Annual sessions are not the ring the legislature should be reaching for. A better model for governing Oregon in the 21st century is, and calendaring legislative sessions properly will help.
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I moved to Oregon in 1973, originally to Ontario, then Albany and Salem and now in Beaverton. I believe I know the state better than many. I've paid state income taxes since 1973 and property taxes since 1979. Oregon's taxing methods are not new to me either.
The economic and social issues are very different today than back in 1973. Whether it's the economy, regional governments or the change in population demographics, we can no longer have a legislature that meets biennially to address the state's policy issues. Too much happens in the interim. The legislature's E-Board was created to address money matters during the biennial interim, but that is no longer an effective method of policy and fiscal governance. Again, too much happens to which they can not respond.
Meet annually and begin regular governance of all the state's matters. The process will still be slow but at least it will be address and show some movement.
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Comments are now closed.
BINGO.