558 N. Main St., Prineville, OR 97754 | (541) 447-6205
Oregon State Representative Mike McLane (R-55) entered the Legislature in 2010 as a freshman, and will soon join the whirlwind of the upcoming legislative session.
According to McLane, the reason for this shorter session has to do with a constitutional amendment of the people which was passed in 2010, establishing annual sessions. The odd year is the longer session, and the even year session is shorter—with the idea that it allows the Legislature to make budget adjustments and deal with policy issues in an expedited manner as the need should arise.
McLane has served on the Ways and Means Committee, the Emergency Board, and the County Funding Task Force.
“So I am neck-deep in budget issues,” commented McLane. “I saw a lot of Legislators roll up their sleeves and get to work on balancing Oregon’s budget without raising taxes or significant tax increases.”
He noted that this was an accomplishment, compared to the disaster in 2009 during the Legislative session, where Oregon raised income taxes and fees at a record level.
“I think what I learned wasn’t so much a surprise as it was an affirmation of what I had hoped — that by and large, Legislators cooperate with each other. Eighty percent of the time, people work together and try to produce real positive results,” added McLane. “But we don’t hear about it as much as we do the 20 percent of the time they don’t.
“That’s good, and I think that is one of the reasons why Oregon avoided some of the conflicts we saw in some of the other states.”
McLane proposed two bills this session. The first — which involves the hot topic of Central Assessment and data centers, is House Bill 4067. He said that the hearing took place on Jan. 19, and was sent to the House Revenue Committee.
“It has wide bi-partisan support.”
He said the bill also has the support of 48 legislative co-sponsors, 13 senators, and 35 House members.
“I think it has great momentum,” said McLane. “We absolutely need HB 4067 to pass.”
The other bill he has introduced is House Bill 4101, the Columbia River Water Bill. McLane said it sets up a task force of interested parties in the Columbia River Basin to allocate new water out of the Columbia River for aquifer recharging and for conservation for municipal uses.
“The task force will get together to come up with a plan to allocate new water out of the Columbia and will submit it to the Water Resources Department.”
McLane said that there has been a great deal of work done about recharging aquifers and conservation, but they need a bill to make sure the policy in Oregon is clear — new water out of the Columbia is a priority and storage of water during winter flows so that it can be used during summer must be a priority.
“We need to have a plan for it, and we need to move forward on it.”
Some of the biggest challenges for the upcoming session that McLane sees are all centered on the budget, especially health care and education.
“Those of us in the Ways and Means Committee have to do the work in the hearings and meet up with agencies and come up with targeted cuts rather than across-the-board cuts,” said McLane, “so that we can fully fund those programs which are absolutely necessary.”
“Generally speaking, it is clear that we are not going to come out of this recession with a boon recovery — it’s going to be slow.”
McLane added that there would be a lot of issues with healthcare, as well as education. He said they will be looking at everything from Head Start to Children and Family Services, and there are also some higher-education issues, as well.
“Of course, when you talk education, you can’t get past k-12, which is the biggest part of our budget. When you have the General Fund start to miss the mark, then you have to look at the three main areas funded by the General Fund; human services, education, and public safety.”
Unfortunately, when you look at the budget for the state for all that needs to be here, everything is on the table.”
McLane said he is advocating that the Legislature doesn’t delay making hard choices.
“We need to make decisions, so that people can move on and Oregon can grow and prosper. If we continue to kick the can down the road, and we continue to delay the decisions, it creates a dysfunction,” said McLane, “and we add to the atmosphere of uncertainty. And that isn’t serving anybody.”
