State government roundup: Dems aim for $15 minimum wage; transportation plan does not include Columbia bridge; Novick frustrated about out-of-town flier from state legislator’s group; Board of Agriculture submits report.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Here’s our legislative update as the first week of the 2015 session comes to a close:
Democrats in Salem are supporting a bill that calls for a $15 minimum wage by 2018, the Statesman Journal reports:
“I stand here for one very straightforward reason,” said Sen. Chip Shields, D-Portland, during the conference. “People in my district want a chance, not charity.”
House Bill 2009 would raise the minimum wage statewide in gradations over a three-year period — to $11.50 an hour in 2016, $13.25 in 2017 and finally to the magic number, $15 per hour, by 2018. A similar bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate in just a few days.
House Speaker Tina Kotek said the transportation package the Legislature is working on this session will not include the bridge connecting Oregon and Washington.
The Portland Tribune reports:
While there has been lots of talk about what work a plan should fund and how the money will be raised, Kotek says no one has mentioned reviving the failed Columbia River Crossing for Interstate 5.
Lawmakers approved Oregon’s $450 million share of the $3 billion project early in their 2013 session, but the Washington Senate declined to approve $450 million already approved by the House. An Oregon-led financing option was floated, but it never reached a vote of the House or Senate in the 2014 session, and the project was shut down.
A recent mailer from Oregon Capitol Watch Foundation — a group founded by GOP state Rep. Jeff Kropf — blasted Portland mayor Charlie Hales and commissioner Steve Novick about a street tax.
The Portland Tribune reports that the flier rankled Novick:
Novick says OCWF wasted its contributors’ money with the mailing: “No responsible political consultant would advise a client to spend money on a hit piece in January of a nonelection year,” Novick said. “There must be other, more prudent right-wing extremist groups in Oregon that spend their contributors’ money more effectively.”
Kropf said OCWF was formed to educate Oregonians about misspending by state lawmakers. He explained the mailing went out because Hales and Novick are now lobbying the 2015 Oregon Legislature to increase state taxes for transportation in the hopes of receiving more state road funds.
The Board of Agriculture submitted a report to the legislature outlining the industry’s top issues.
The Statesman Journal reports that irrigation, market access and labor supply are some of the top concerns:
“This report is designed to educate our legislators on what is important to the agriculture industry,” said Steve Van Mouwerik, chairman of the 10-member board.
Among the recommendations:
- Increasing support for water supply developments.
Agriculture accounts for 80 percent of Oregon’s water consumption. But snowpack and glaciers have been diminishing and drought declarations are becoming routine.
- Continuing support for access to local, regional and international markets.
Finally, the calls for Oregon’s top man’s job have grown louder and more frequent.
The Oregonian’s editorial board wrote Wednesday that — despite endorsing Gov. John Kitzhaber — it’s time for the governor to step down amid growing ethics complaints against first lady Cylvia Hayes.
OregonLive.com ran the opinion piece:
More ugliness may surface, but it should be clear by now to Kitzhaber that his credibility has evaporated to such a degree that he can no longer serve effectively as governor. If he wants to serve his constituents he should resign.
To recite every reported instance in which Hayes, ostensibly under Kitzhaber’s watchful eye, has used public resources, including public employee time and her “first lady” title, in pursuit of professional gain would require far more space than we have here and, besides, repeat what most readers already know. Suffice it to say there’s a pattern, and the person who bears the responsibility for allowing it to form and persist is Kitzhaber, who should know better. After all, as he pointed out during Friday’s press conference, he’s been serving in public office on and off since the 1970s.Consider, instead, what Oregonians have learned during only the last couple of weeks. First, Hayes received a combined $118,000 in 2011 and 2012 through the Washington, D.C.-based Clean Economy Development Center even as she served as an unpaid energy adviser to Kitzhaber. This income is not fully accounted for on tax forms Hayes provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive. Neither has the governor fully accounted for the money in ethics filings.
