Salem Political Snark

Gov. Brown and Salem Reporter shine in climate bill saga

After being deeply upset with how Democrats and Republicans behaved in the walkout of GOP members of the state Senate over HB 2020, a cap and trade climate bill, it's great to find some bright spots in this saga -- Governor Kate Brown and Aubrey Wieber, a Salem Reporter journalist.

Governor Kate Brown has earned back my admiration after she responded to the first May walkout of Republican senators by agreeing to kill two bills that were opposed by the GOP, being Democratic priorities  (a pro-vaccine bill and a gun control bill).

I thought this bad move would encourage Republicans to test Democratic resolve later in the legislative session. But I figured such would happen in the House, not the Senate, since GOP members of the Senate had agreed not to walk out again for the rest of the session.

They lied.

Pleasingly, it appears that Brown didn't give up anything of importance in the second walkout. After ordering the Oregon State Police to find the Republican senators who had deserted their posts, they came back on their own and played nice, mostly, during a rush to vote on over a hundred backed-up bills last weekend. 

Brown inspired the crowd at a pro-climate bill rally last Tuesday in her brief but passionate remarks, even though Senate President Courtney had declared HB 2020 dead earlier in the day given lackluster support among Senate Democrats. 

So there's a good chance the walkout of Senate Republicans had no effect on the passage of HB 2020, given that at least three Senate Democrats were either strong No's or leaning that way prior to the walkout.

Today Governor Brown made a strong statement in favor of pursuing the carbon pollution reduction goals of HB 2020, either through executive action or reintroduction of the climate bill. Here's the first part of a Salem Reporter story by Aubrey Wieber, "Governor threatens to do by rule what she couldn't by legislation."

Less than 24 hours after the 2019 Legislature closed, Gov. Kate Brown renewed the fight for a cap and trade program, saying Monday she might act with her executive authority to drive ahead with the hotly contested environmental policy.

“Let me be very, very clear,” Brown said. “I am not backing down.”

She spoke on the heels of a major political collapse last week, when Senate Republicans doomed a vote on House Bill 2020. The legislation, setting up a market-based credit system to force polluting industries to reform, had passed the House and was one vote away in the Democratically controlled Senate from becoming state law.

Brown wasn’t taking her most significant legislative loss lightly.

Brown said she wants to see action sooner than later, and is open to calling a special session to again advance the legislation.

“I believe the bill needs some fine-tuning, but I don’t think it needs to be entirely rebuilt,” she said.

Brown said she campaigned on cap and trade, as did many Democratic legislators elected in November. Recent polling shows climate legislation is popular among Oregonians, though more so in urban areas. Her plan was backed by most Oregon voters, she said.

Excellent. Very heartening. Makes me hopeful that Oregon will be a leader in fighting global warming.

It's great that Brown and Democratic leaders in the state legislature, with the notable exception of increasingly useless Senate President Courtney, are standing firm against Republican efforts to declare HB 2020 dead and gone forever, which, clearly, it isn't.

I followed news about the walkout of Republican senators, and what happened after they returned, with rapt attention.

Journalists with the Oregonian, Statesman Journal, and Willamette Week all did very good reporting. But I consider that Aubrey Wieber and his colleagues at the online-only Salem Reporter stood out from the journalistic pack.

Political junkie that I am, Wieber's frequent tweets on Twitter were highly appreciated, especially during the drama in the Senate last Saturday and Sunday. On Twitter I also follow reporters from the newspapers I just mentioned.

Wieber blew them away with his cogent, informative, and grammatically correct tweets. (Yeah, I'm old fashioned. I like complete sentences and accurate spelling in tweets.) I had the feeling that I was looking over the shoulder of a skilled reporter as he observed the machinations in the state Senate, telling his Twitter followers what was going on.

I realize that many people consider Twitter to be an annoying echo chamber of little value. However, it also can be the best means of conveying breaking news, which Wieber masterfully did. As far as I could tell, he was on duty at the legislature for very long hours over the weekend. 

Hopefully Wieber will get a vacation soon, because he deserves one. For not only did he excel on Twitter, his "long form" stories in Salem Reporter were marvelously written as well.

Oregon democracy threatened by Senate GOP walkout

It wasn't pleasant, but I forced myself to read How Democracies Die by two professors of government at Harvard University, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. 

This is a scary book that, when I read it, seemed like it contained warnings for the United States as a whole in our age of Trumpism, with Oregon being immune from the worst of the ways democracies die.

But the current walkout of Senate Republicans from the state legislature is a clear and present danger to Oregon democracy. This was a message of the recent rally at the capitol by supporters of the climate bill that the Republicans are preventing a vote on, due to their walkout making it impossible for the Senate to have a quorum.

Speakers and signs at the rally noted the threat to democracy that the walkout poses. 

Sure, walkouts have been used for leverage previously by both Democrats and Republicans in the Oregon legislature. However, those walkouts only lasted a few days and were designed to draw attention to an issue, not to bring legislative proceedings to a halt.

Here's why this walkout is so dangerous to democracy.

(1) Senate Republicans are refusing to return to Salem unless they get a guarantee that the climate bill, HB 2020, won't pass. This isn't how democracy works. Votes are taken. Surprises happen in voting. Legislators can change their minds at the last minute. It appears that there aren't enough votes to pass HB 2020, but this can't be guaranteed. 

(2) Democracy respects majority rule. Republicans are in the minority in both the state House and Senate. This was the will of the people. Yet Senate Republicans are acting as if they are the majority party. They're claiming they speak for most Oregonians, but obviously they don't, or they'd control the legislature.

(3) Refusing to take part in the legislative process unless your demands are met is hostage-taking, plain and simple. Strong-arm tactics can't be tolerated in a democracy. As others have noted, what the Senate Republicans are doing is a form of lawmaking terrorism. Winning the hearts and minds of voters should be how a party succeeds in lawmaking, not by engaging in temper tantrums that bring the legislative process to a standstill.

(4) Sen. Brian Boquist, a Republican taking part in the walkout, threatened Oregon State Police troopers with bodily harm (shooting) if they tried to enforce Governor Brown's lawful order to find the Senate Republicans and bring them back to the legislature. Militia members have offered to protect the Senate Republicans. 

(5) Senate Republicans also staged a walkout in May, which unfortunately led to Democratic leaders giving in on several of their demands, including killing two bills that were Democratic priorities. The Senate Republicans agreed in writing to not walkout again for the rest of the legislative session. But they lied, given their second walkout.

In How Democracies Die there's a lot of talk about norms, basically unwritten rules, that need to be followed for democracies to work. Trump, of course, has been demolishing presidential norms almost daily. I'd hoped that Oregon would escape similar Republican craziness. 

Here's a passage from the book:

A second norm critical to democracy's survival is what we call institutional forbearance. Forbearance means "patient self-control; restraint and tolerance," or "the action of restraining from exercising a legal right."

For our purposes, institutional forbearance can be thought of as avoiding actions that, while respecting the letter of the law, obviously violate its spirit.

Where norms of forbearance are strong, politicians do not use their institutional prerogatives to the hilt, even if it is technically legal to do so, for such actions could imperil the existing system.

How the walkout is resolved thus is all-important. In no way, not even in the slightest, should the Senate Republicans be rewarded for what they've done. 

Governor Brown and Senate President Courtney should do these things:

-- Enforce the statutory $500 a day fine for failing to carry out legislative duties
-- Make sure GOP senators aren't able to use campaign funds to pay their fines
-- Have a vote on HB 2020 as required by Senate rules
-- Publicize the agreement GOP senators broke when they walked out a second time
-- Call the senators liars for walking out when they promised not to
-- Say over and over that if HB 2020 isn't enacted this year, it will be reintroduced every year until it does pass
-- Affirm that never again will a walkout of legislators be rewarded in any fashion

Lastly, here's a passage from an excellent Rolling Stone story published today, "Runaway Senators, Militias, and Koch Money: What the Hell Just Happened in Oregon?"

Thanks to Rolling Stone for calling this debacle what it is: Republicans ratfucking the legislative process. (Except rats have more ethics than Senate Republicans.)

The Republican War on Democracy has taken many forms — from extreme gerrymandering, to undermining voting rights through voter-ID laws and disenfranchising people with criminal records, to the Trump administration’s foiled attempt to rig the census in favor of white people. In Oregon, Republicans have chosen a different tactic: ratfucking the legislative process, while making open threats of violence.

Salem Climate Rally -- photos, video, commentary

Here's inspiring photos of the Climate Rally in support of HB 2020 that I took yesterday on the capitol steps, plus a video of Gov. Brown's remarks.

Even though Democratic leaders have declared the bill to be dead, I and other supporters of reducing carbon pollution and creating renewal energy jobs still have hope.

Senate Republicans need to end their walkout temper tantrum and vote on HB 2020, along with other legislation they're holding up.

Climate bill is dead. So are Oregon Democrats, to me.

It's time for me to face reality. Democrats here in Oregon aren't willing to fight for what they believe in. So why should I remain an active Democrat?

That's a question I'm grappling with after Governor Kate Brown, Senate President Peter Courtney, and other Democratic leaders in the state legislature unilaterally surrendered to Republicans on a top priority for Dems, HB 2020, a cap and trade bill that would have put Oregon in the forefront of efforts to combat the carbon pollution that is wreaking havoc on our planet.

Shortly before noon today I arrived at the steps of the capitol building to take part in a rally in support of HB 2020. I wasn't aware that earlier in the morning Courtney had said that the bill was dead. 

Not because a vote had been taken, and there weren't enough Senators in favor of the bill to pass it. (The Oregon House already passed HB 2020).

No, Courtney just said that the bill was dead. Apparently there isn't going to be a Senate vote, so it looks like we'll never know if Courtney's vote-counting was correct, or if a legislator with doubts about HB 2020 could have been persuaded to support the bill.

I'm depressed right now because I wrongly thought that I lived in a state where Democrats are passionate about progressive causes. I believed that Oregon was an oasis of progressive sanity in a country where Trump-led Republicans are acting increasingly crazy.

Like, the Republican members of the Oregon Senate walking out this year not once, but twice, to deny a quorum in the Senate, which requires 20 of the 30 senators to be present (there are 18 Democrats and 12 Republicans).

I couldn't believe it when Brown, Courtney, and other Dem leaders rewarded the first Republican walkout in May by killing two bills the GOP detested, just to get them to return to the legislature and do the job they're required by law to perform. Giving in to hostage-taking generally results in more hostage-taking.

Which, not surprisingly, happened again this month, even though Senate Republicans had promised to not engage in any more temper tantrum walkouts. They lied, as Republicans often do in this age of Trump.

A central demand of Senate Republicans, who reportedly were on vacation in Idaho, was that Oregonians be able to vote on HB 2020. That was an unreasonable demand, since the climate bill has been ten years in the making and was debated extensively in not only this legislative session, but the previous session.

I figured that Democrats would hang tough.

After all, Gov. Brown claimed to be a big backer of HB 2020. She said she'd call a special session in early July if the Senate Republican walkout lasted until the statutory end of the regular session on June 30. Democrats have supermajorities in both the state House and Senate. Oregonians care deeply about the environment.

Again, I figured wrong.

Courtney and Brown collapsed like a house of cards in a hurricane. Today they both declared that HB 2020 was dead without a vote being taken. And from what I can tell from newspaper stories, there won't ever be a vote on the climate bill -- likely to avoid making it clear who the three Democrats are who oppose HB 2020.

A Salem Reporter story describes what happened after Courtney made his surprise announcement.

Looking down at Courtney was a gallery full of supporters of cap and trade, mostly teens, that had traveled to the Capitol to show their support. 

As it became clear Courtney was telegraphing a message to Senate Republicans, whom he wants to return to the Capitol, a man stood and directed the crowd to stand and turn their backs on the Senate President, showing their disdain for his words. 

Brad Reed, spokesman for Renew Oregon, the chief advocacy group pushing cap and trade, said Courtney's words came as a shock. Sixteen senators had given the group confirmation they would vote for it, he said.

"Instead of having the Senate vote on the floor and stand up to the public, the Senate President is allowing members to hide behind a contradictory statement. Make them vote and answer to their voters and Oregon's children," Reed said in a statement after the speech. "This is the biggest failure of public leadership in Oregon in recent memory."

That's putting it mildly.

I've lived in Oregon since 1971. I can't remember any more cowardly action by a state elected official than Governor Brown and Senate President Courtney rewarding Republican walkouts twice by killing important bills that were top Democratic priorities.

It's tough for me to find anything positive in this debacle.

What the Dems have done is establish a deeply dangerous precedent. Whenever Republicans in either the state House or Senate are in the minority, yet have enough members to deny a quorum, all they have to do is walk out, head to a conservative state like Idaho, and wait for Democratic leaders to give in to their demands. 

On social media I've been seeing progressives optimistically say that even though the climate bill is dead now, it can come back to life in another legislative session. Huh? How? This will be impossible unless Democrats have walkout-proof majorities in both the House and Senate.

And that doesn't just mean enough members with a "D" after their names, because in this session two Democratic senators, Betsy Johnson and Arnie Roblan, have said they oppose HB 2020 and so likely would support another Republican walkout. 

The only good news I can dredge up in my mind is that I now can delete email messages from the Oregon Democratic Party and Governor Brown without reading them. When they start fighting for what progressives like me believe in, I'll feel better about my Democratic registration. 

Until then, I'll oppose crazy Republican policies, but I'll admire the GOP in this state for using every tool at their disposal to stand up for what they value. I just wish Oregon Democrats would do the same.

Note: on Facebook today I shared a single photo (shown above) out of the many I took at the noon rally in support of HB 2020 today, saying that I'd share more photos and a video of Brown speaking later.

But now I see no point in doing that, since it would simply depress me further to recollect the passion of real environmental advocates, including many young people, who've been screwed over by Brown, Courtney, and other Democratic leaders. 

Well, since I'd already uploaded the video of Brown speaking to You Tube, I might as well share it. When I heard Gov. Brown, I wasn't aware that she'd called HB 2020 dead. This explains her call for patience in the video. Our planet needs urgent climate action, but Brown is fine with waiting years or decades for Oregon to do our part. 

UPDATE: One of the few bright spots on social media following the announcement that HB 2020 was dead came from Rep. Paul Evans. I liked what he said a lot, and agree wholeheartedly with Evans.

But Republican Senator Kim Thatcher didn't like his mention of "terrorists," so Willamette Week is reporting that she's not inclined to return to the legislature, even after the Dems declared the climate bill dead. Well, that's what happens when Democrats give in to legislative terrorism.

Willamette Week also has obtained a copy of the May agreement between Senate Republicans and Democratic leadership where, as noted above, the Dems killed two bills in exchange for the Republicans promising not to walk out again for the rest of the session. 

Instead of making the Republicans hold up their end of the agreement, Courtney and Brown now have declared HB 2020 dead in the (likely vain) hope that this will bring Senate Republicans back to Salem. Excerpt:

WW has obtained the one-page document that formed the basis for Senate Republicans coming back to work May 13, after the first time this session they fled the Capitol to deny Democrats a quorum.

The document included a pledge not to walk out again. Yet Senate Republicans walked out a second time last week.

...The fact that GOP senators aren't back in Salem yet supports the widespread belief in the Capitol that their second walk-out was about more than HB 2020, that it was about figuring out how to undercut other Democratic priorities, including the corporate tax passed earlier in the session and is set for referral.

The existence of the May 13 document also makes more puzzling Courtney's decision this morning to announce on the Senate floor that he did not have the 16 Democratic votes necessary to pass HB 2020. Rather than trying to hold Republicans to the agreement, Courtney capitulated.

The more I learn about this fiasco, the more irritated I get at how spineless Oregon Democrats allowed Senate Republicans to get away with two walkouts and being able to take credit for killing the cap and trade bill.

Since this story is being discussed nationally, the cowardice shown by Dems in this state likely will embolden Republicans elsewhere to take advantage of Democratic weakness. After all, if Republicans can bend Democrats to their will in a blue state like Oregon, they should be able to do it in other areas also.

Walkout of Senate GOP gives Oregon bragging rights

I'm trying to find a bright spot in the irritating walkout of eleven Republican members of the state Senate. They're opposed to a bill that has a pretty damn good rationale behind it: preserving our one and only Earth for human habitation. 

But since these ignoramuses in the GOP view carbon pollution and global warming as a good thing -- plants grow faster! summer all year long! -- they're determined to give the finger to democracy and prevent a Senate vote on the Oregon Clean Jobs bill for as long as possible.

About the only good thing I can find in this debacle is that now no one can say that Oregon has Republican politicians that are nicer, less extreme, and more courteous that Republicans elsewhere in the country.

Hey, our GOP is just as off-the-rails as Alabama! The only reason Oregon isn't stuck in the muck of right-wing craziness is that our voters have the good sense to elect a Democratic governor and Dem supermajorities in both the state House and Senate.

A little thing like giving voters the respect they deserve didn't stop Republican members of the Senate from fleeing out-of-state, though, where they've said they'll remain until their temper tantrum is rewarded by changes to the Oregon Clean Jobs bill that Democrats would be insane to go along with.

After all, anybody who has experienced life with a toddler or puppy knows that you don't reward bad behavior. That's why I was so pissed at Democratic leaders, including Governor Brown, when they agreed to kill two bills that were top priorities of the Dems to lure Senate Republicans back from their May walkout. 

Not May of another year. May of this year.

Yes, after Democrats rewarded Senate Republicans last month, it isn't a huge surprise that they're seeing what they can get from Democrats this time around. They're hoping for a lot, such as a referral of the Oregon Clean Jobs bill to voters, which is totally uncalled for.

Further proof of how our Republicans in the legislature are just as sleazy as Congressional Republicans is that the Senate GOP agreed to play nice and not negage in any more walkouts if Democrats agreed to kill the two bills mentioned above, along with considering Republican amendments to the Oregon Clean Jobs bill.

Both of which happened. Democratic legislators heard the arguments for the amendments, then voted them down. This is how democracy works. Voters elect legislators, then those legislators decide on bills.

If you want to be sure that your desired legislation gets passed, first you need a majority in the legislature. Oregon Republicans are skipping the "get elected" part and jumping right into petulant walkout politics.

Oregon Democrats have a nice-looking wanted poster.

The Washington Post has a story with a headline that brings back memories of the Malheur Refuge takeover by armed militants, some of whom reportedly are now staking out the Oregon capitol building just in case -- oh, the horror of it -- the legislature tries to convene and do the people's business.

Here's some excerpts from "Threats from militia provoke shutdown at Oregon capitol, a day after GOP lawmakers fled."

Oregon’s top lawmakers will shut down the state capitol after receiving threats from militia groups, who authorities say are planning to demonstrate there in support of the 11 Republican senators who fled the state to dodge a vote on climate change.

State Senate President Peter Courtney (D) told his colleagues on Friday that Oregon State Police had informed him there was a credible threat to him, the rest of the remaining senators — all of whom are Democrats — and the building’s staff.

...State police confirmed the danger in an emailed statement.

...The militia groups’ alleged threat was the second apparent mention of violence to mar state politics in recent days.

Sen. Brian Boquist, one of the Republicans on the lam, sent a warning to state police Wednesday.

“Send bachelors and come heavily armed,” Boquist said. “I’m not going to be a political prisoner in the state of Oregon. It’s just that simple.”

Hopefully the Oregon State Police will be able to find at least two Republican senators and bring them back to Salem so the Senate will have a quorum. However, it isn't a good sign that one senator is hiding in plain sight, according to an Oregonian story.

In the meantime, senator sightings were popping up across social media Saturday.

B.J. Soper, a leader with the Central Oregon Constitutional Guard, posted on Facebook that he’d bumped into Sen. Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls, at breakfast.

“I order bacon and eggs, the wife orders huevos rancheros, the kiddo a Mickey Mouse pancake. I look across the room and lo and behold who do I see sipping a cup of joe??? SENATOR DENNIS LITHICUM,” Soper wrote. “I walk over and say ‘What in the hell are you doing here?’

“He says, ‘Good morning!! Having bacon and eggs just like you.’ I’m astonished at his candid attitude and I say ‘Man, (Oregon State Police) is on the lookout and this is a bold move.’

“He tells me, ‘It’s ok, I’m not worried, pretty sure the boys have me covered,’” Soper wrote. “He looks up at the table across from him as 4 dudes raise their cups up to acknowledge. I couldn’t help but smile! I said “OK, carry on and be safe. Let me know if I can help!!”

Walkout of Senate Republicans shows weakness of Oregon Democrats

What a complete non-surprise.

Eleven Republican members of the Oregon Senate have walked out to deny Democrats a quorum needed to pass House Bill 2020, much-needed legislation to reduce carbon pollution in this state. 

Many, if not most, have travelled out of state, which puts them outside the reach of state troopers Governor Kate Brown has ordered to bring them back. 

Back in May I predicted bad things would happen after GOP members of the Oregon Senate pulled the same stunt, minus the going out of state part.

I was so irritated at how the Democrats caved, agreeing to kill two high priority bills in order to entice the Senate Republicans back to work, that I called my post, "Oregon Dems surrender to Republicans like scared little mice." I love to quote myself, so I will.

Disgusting. Horrible. Shameful.

Those are the non-profane words I can use to describe how Governor Brown, Senate President Courtney, and House Speaker Kotek caved in to the walkout of Senate Republicans without putting up any fight at all.

...Actually what happened here is that Democrats gave in to a ransom request by Republicans. Not surprisingly, we can expect that since the GOP ploy worked, they're going to try it again.

Now, I admit that what I was thinking of when I said "they're going to try it again" was that the House Republicans would stage a walkout, since the Senate Republicans promised to play nice for the rest of the legislative session if the pro-vaccination and gun control bills opposed by the GOP were killed.

They just broke that promise. And why not? 

Senate Republicans saw how weak the Governor and Democratic legislative leaders were in May, so they understandably expect that they'll be able to get away with a June walkout also. 

This is what happens when Democrats fail to act like the supermajority in both chambers that voters entrusted them with in the 2018 election. Instead of seizing the reins of power to make life better for all Oregonians, they bent over backward to give the Republican minority what they wanted. 

Sure, the Senate Republicans are acting like jerks. That's what Republicans are good at -- using every political tool at their disposal to get their way to the greatest extent possible.

It's astoundingly irritating to read the crap that is coming out of Senate Republican mouths. Which likely are situated in Washington and Idaho, or maybe even Hawaii, since they could be on vacation from their legislator jobs for most of the rest of the summer.

Voters rejected giving Republicans the majority in both the state House and Senate.

But I've got to give the GOP credit for acting like they're in control, rather than being the minority. Here's some quotes from an Oregonian story, "What happens if Oregon Senate Republicans don't come back?"

Senate Republicans have left the Oregon Capitol with no apparent plans to return. Their absence puts into doubt whether Democrats will finish their business during the 2019 legislative session, which has to conclude by June 30.

The GOP protest stems from Republican’s staunch opposition to House Bill 2020, a massive proposal to regulate carbon emissions. A vote on the measure had been scheduled for Thursday.

...the walkout threatens the future of dozens of other bills and puts funding for several large state agencies in jeopardy.

The list of legislation that would die if Senate Republicans don’t return includes several Democratic priorities, including a bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to get legal driver’s licenses, a bill to modify the state’s death penalty, a bill that would refer an increase in the cigarette tax to voters, and a bill that would allow duplexes in single-family zoned neighborhoods in some cities.

...Knopp said the timing of his return would depend upon what bills Brown and Democratic legislative leaders schedule for consideration. On Wednesday, the governor said she was preparing to call a special session on July 2. But there is no guarantee Senate Republicans would show up.

“I feel no constitutional obligation to stand around so they can pass their leftist progressive agenda for Multnomah County that my constituents don’t happen to agree with,” Knopp said. “I think that’s true for every other Senate district that’s out there that’s represented by Republicans.”

What would meet Knopp’s bar to return to Salem?

Budget bills, legislation to address workplace harassment at the Legislature, and a paid family and medical leave insurance plan negotiated with businesses’ and Republicans' input. It passed the House on Thursday with bipartisan support. Knopp said not all Senate Republicans might agree to return to vote on the family and medical leave proposal, although Republican leaders listed its passage among their demands to return from the first walkout in May.

Unbelievable. 

If Democrats had threatened to walk out and prevent a Republican majority in the legislature and Governor's office from passing its top priorities, the GOP would have had state troopers following the Dem legislators around to prevent them from heading out of the state.

But since Oregon Democrats are used to acting like scared little mice, there's a good chance Republicans are, once again, going to get their way after walking out.

The only bright side to all this is that I don't have to search Google Images again. I already have an illustration of Democrat leaders in this state.

I hope the Clean Energy Jobs Bill makes me pay more at the pump

We Oregonians aren't paying enough for the gasoline that fuels our cars and trucks.

Hopefully Oregon's Clean Energy Jobs Bill, also known as cap and trade, will pass in this legislative session and increase the state gasoline tax to a level that comes a heck of a lot closer to reflecting the long-term costs of the carbon pollution that is fueling global warming to increasingly dangerous levels.

A recent story in the Portland Oregonian has some good news on this front:

Almost three quarters of the revenues expected from the bill would come from increases in transportation fuel prices. The Legislative revenue office expects that to translate to about 22 cents a gallon increase at the pump in 2021, when the policy kicks in, increasing to 78 cents a gallon 10 years later and $3 a gallon by 2050.

Excellent! The higher gas prices go, the more incentive there will be for people to buy electric cars/trucks in some form: all electric, plug-in hybrid, or regular hybrid. 

My wife and I bought a 2019 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid about a week ago. We're enjoying it a lot. It gets about 40 mpg, which is pretty darn good for a decently-sized all wheel drive SUV.

We're avid environmentalists, but have resisted jumping back into the 100% electric car pond after experiencing some range anxiety after buying a 2012  Nissan Leaf (there were other more important reasons we sold the Leaf and got a Chevy Volt, though).

Thus we serve as a good example of why the Oregon legislature needs to overcome the resistance of industry groups, along with the always-irritating theatrics of pseudo-Democrat Sen. Betsy Johnson, who has proposed a bunch of amendments to the bill that would dilute its carbon-reducing impact considerably. 

Government action is essential if the world is to escape the worst effects of rapidly rising temperatures. A big reason why is the Tragedy of the Commons situation that I learned about way-back-when in my Systems Science graduate school days. 

The notion is simple.

Everybody in a town wants to graze their sheep on commonly owned land. It makes sense for each sheep owner to do this, since the grass is there for the asking. Or rather, grazing. But when everybody does what makes sense for them, the commons is over-grazed, the grass dies, and everybody suffers.

Likewise, every car and truck owner wants to do what makes sense for them. Sometimes this is good for everybody -- buying an electric car and charging it with solar panels, for example -- but usually it isn't. 

Which is why the Clean Energy Jobs Bill is crucial for Oregon.

Carbon pollution can't be solved by individual actions. Greenhouse gas emissions are rising too rapidly. Market forces work fine for pricing bananas, but not for pricing greenhouse gas emissions.

Only government can do that. So let's do it, Oregon legislature. The arguments against the bill in the Oregonian stories are very weak.

Oregon has little impact on global emissions. So what? Every country in the world could say something similar, as could every state in the United States, every city in each state, and so on. A global problem requires global action at every level. 

Oregon would be only the second state to institute an economy-wide limit on greenhouse emissions, behind California. Again, so what? Oregon used to take pride in being an environmental leader. Bottle bill. Public beaches. Land use planning. We led the way in these areas. So let's lead the way in limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

Hopefully the Democrats who control both houses of the state legislature and the Governor's Office will realize that this is the moment to take a stand for the habitability for humans of our one and only Earth.

If they fail to pass the Clean Energy Jobs Bill in the nest two weeks, the opportunity may never come again.

 

Gov. Brown makes Oregon an anti-vaxx paradise

A few days ago I wrote "Oregon Dems surrender to Republicans like scared little mice."

Now I'm even more irritated at what Governor Kate Brown and her spineless cronies in the state legislature (notably Sen. Peter Courtney and Rep. Tina Kotek) did -- needlessly killing much-needed bills to enhance vaccination rates and control guns in a misguided effort to entice Senate Republicans to end their short walkout, which denied a quorum in the Senate.

I'll let excerpts from some newspaper stories do the explaining for why this was such a bad idea. I've boldfaced parts for emphasis.

(1) Nigel Jaquiss' Willamette Week story, "Oregon Lawmakers Abandoned  Vaccination Requirements in Order to Raise Taxes. That Could Make Oregon an Anti-Vaxx Haven." 

An attempt to compel Oregonians to vaccinate their children morphed into perhaps the most emotional and polarizing debate of the 2019 legislative session. Then, on May 13, it blew up in a way nobody expected.

After a brutal process, the bill passed the Oregon House on May 1. As proponents and critics prepared to relitigate their differences in the Senate, Democrats agreed in a backroom deal May 13 to kill the bill—in exchange for Senate Republicans' agreement to return from a self-imposed exile and allow passage of a $2 billion tax measure to fund schools.

...Although the bill passed the House 37-21, five Democrats voted no and at least two Democratic senators opposed it. One of them, Sen. Lee Beyer (D-Springfield), told Oregon Public Broadcasting he didn't think the votes were there. Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland), a chief sponsor of the bill, disagrees. He thinks the votes were available in the Senate—but the courage wasn't. "The Senate is a hospice where good bills go to die," Greenlick says.

...Greenlick says he wasn't consulted about senators' capitulation on his bill and only learned about the deal Monday morning. He says he hasn't decided whether to try again next year or leave that task to future Legislatures. "I'm not very happy," Greenlick says. "This really is an important issue. And when you get blackmailed, you shouldn't fold."

(2) AP reporter Sara Zimmerman's "Oregon vaccine bill dead as US  measles count soars."

Critics blasted a decision by Oregon lawmakers that killed a bill aimed at getting more children vaccinated for measles and other preventable diseases in order pass a tax on large businesses, saying it jeopardized public health.

Despite passing the House and having the necessary votes in the Senate, the measure to make it harder for families to opt out of required vaccinations was nixed as part of a deal announced Monday to end a week-long Republican walkout over a multibillion school funding tax.

Under the vaccination measure, sponsored by state Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, children would only have been be able to forgo vaccine requirements with a doctor's note, otherwise they'd be unable to attend public school.

...Oregon has the highest rate of unvaccinated kindergartners in the country, with at least 7.5% of toddlers claiming an exemption. In some schools, more than 40% of children are unvaccinated through the state's lax exemption process. That makes Oregon uniquely susceptible to an outbreak, according to Diane Peterson, associate director for Immunization Action Coalition, which receives funding from the CDC.

"Oregon in particular is a hotbed for a measles outbreak," Peterson said. "All you need is to introduce one person with the disease into the community and it will spread like wildfire."

(3)  AP reporter Andrew Selsky's "Enough GOP senators return to end Oregon tax bill standoff." 

The sergeant-at-arms of the Oregon Senate had a new regular duty in recent days: Searching the state Capitol for Republican senators who had been staying away and brought the legislative body’s business to a halt.

...To get the Republicans to return, Democrats, who hold a supermajority, agreed to not advance a measure requiring vaccinations for children to attend public schools, unless they have a doctor’s note. Democrats also agreed to drop gun-control legislation. Senate President Peter Courtney told reporters it was a painful but necessary move.

“We had a crisis of government shutdown on us. It could have gone on and on and on,” Courtney said. “It could have involved the state police. It would have been a nightmare.”

Rep. Cheri Helt, a Republican and co-sponsor of the vaccination bill, was incensed that it was sacrificed. Few Republicans were for the measure that vaccination opponents had flocked to the Capitol to protest.

Helt tweeted on Monday that “the loudest/most extreme voices in our politics prevailed.”

...Senate Republican leader Herman Baertschiger, Jr., had negotiated with Courtney to end the stalemate, officials said.

The November 2018 election gave Democrats a three-fifths supermajority in Oregon’s Senate and House of Representatives, enabling them to pass tax-raising measures without getting Republicans on board. But they didn’t have enough seats for a quorum.

“The tactic of denying a quorum doesn’t mean we shut them down forever,” Baertschiger said on the Lars Larson Show, a conservative talk radio program. “We all know that we’re gonna have to return. But what it does do is shine a light on what the Democrats are trying to do to us.”

Baertschiger attended the Senate on Monday afternoon, allowing the body to reach its minimum 20 senators for a quorum.

So the Senate Republican leader admitted that the R's weren't going to walk out forever, just long enough to draw attention to the tax bill that they didn't like.

But in an amazing display of political idiocy, Governor Kate Brown gave Republicans way more than they deserved, and expected to get. 

Grover Norquist was ecstatic. Which is why I'm not, being a Democrat who believes that hardball tactics by Republicans that amount to political ransom should be fought, not rewarded.

Oregon Dems surrender to Republicans like scared little mice

Disgusting. Horrible. Shameful.

Those are the non-profane words I can use to describe how Governor Brown, Senate President Courtney, and House Speaker Kotek caved in to the walkout of Senate Republicans without putting up any fight at all.

That walkout prevented the Senate from having a quorum, so no business could be accomplished.

According to a Salem Reporter story, "Tough  choices, closed door deals result in Senate returning to business," Courtney didn't want to do what Wisconsin governor Scott Walker reportedly did in 2011 when Democratic legislators walked out: use the state police to bring them back.

Courtney has been Senate president since 2003. He has the power to ask the governor to call out the Oregon State Police to bring wayward senators back to the Capitol for a vote, and he exercised it in 2007 when Republicans attempted to boycott a tax vote.

This time, Courtney chose not to send state troopers after the missing Republicans, saying that would have been “a nightmare.”

“I don’t have to conquer or win,” Courtney said. “I like it when the institution works.”

OK, I'm now moved to profanity: that's fucking insane, Courtney. You're an embarrassment to Democrats everywhere.

The institution of the Oregon Senate didn't "work" when you and other Democratic leaders agreed to kill the vaccine and gun control bills in exchange for Republicans returning to do the job they were elected to do: take part in Senate proceedings.

Actually what happened here is that Democrats gave in to a ransom request by Republicans.

Not surprisingly, we can expect that since the GOP ploy worked, they're going to try it again. So says a Statesman Journal story, "Education funding bill passes Senate as Republicans end walkout." 

Senate Republicans returned to the chamber floor Monday after securing major Democratic concessions, ending their four-day walkout and allowing Democrats to pass a multi-billion dollar education funding bill.

...In the end, Republicans secured through their extended absence the death of House Bill 3063, which would have removed the non-medical vaccine exemption for schoolchildren, and Senate Bill 978, the session's omnibus gun control legislation.

Lawmakers pushing both proposals expressed frustration that their legislation wouldn't be moving forward this session.

...Despite negotiations for most of last week, Senate Democratic leadership gave credit to Gov. Brown for jumping in on Sunday and providing the framework for the deal that brought Republicans back into the building.

This victory of sorts caught the eye of House Republicans embroiled in a slow-down of their own, and raised the possibility of a similar walkout in the lower chamber.

The House of Representatives clerk has been reading bills in full for a week and a half — ever since the education funding bill came up for a vote and eventually passed.

"My caucus doesn’t tend to want to walk. They’re very comfortable with reading the bills and slowing it up. Yet, on the other hand, I’m sure they’re tantalized in seeing what walking can do," House Republican Leader Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass, said.

"Any time you see something like that, it’s instructive," he said. "It makes it more likely to be considered."

Sure, why not walk out, House Republicans?

The Democrats will give in without getting anything in return, because we have a Governor and legislative leadership who seem to have forgotten that Oregon voters gave Dems a supermajority in both the House and Senate so they could act like Democrats -- not like frightened little mice who screeched eek! when Senate Republicans dared Dems to call their walkout bluff.

I'm beyond disappointed.

Until now I've had the fantasy that while Republicans control most of Washington, D.C., allowing Trump to carry out his authoritarian agenda, here in Oregon we have a reassuring island of progressivism -- since the Governor's office plus both the state House and Senate are in the hands of Democrats.

Sadly, Oregon Democrats don't know what to do with power once they have it. What happened today was that the Dems surrendered their power to Republicans without a fight. 

Tomorrow, or some day after that, the Oregon GOP is going to push Democrats into another corner, even though it should be the Democrats doing the pushing. 

Usually I hate it when Republicans gloat about a victory over Democrats. But you're entitled to not just a little gloating, Oregon Republicans, you're entitled to a lot. You kicked Democratic asses with your Senate walkout stunt. I bet you never believed it would be as successful as it was.

I didn't either.

I had confidence that Gov. Brown, Courtney, Kotek, and other Dem leaders would stand up to the Republicans. I was wrong. And now I feel like shit, because Oregon isn't a refuge from Republican attempts to subvert democracy.

Instead, Oregon Democrats are happy to cooperate in that subversion.

Breakfast on Bikes blog concerned about HB 2974 being a Third Bridge workaround

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post, "Help stop HB 2974, a Third Bridge taxing scheme." Here's part of what I said about this bill  proposed by state Representative Paul Evans.

A bill in the Oregon legislature seems like a backdoor way to get a Third Bridge built in Salem. At least, that's how I and quite a few others view HB 2974.

HB 2974 is sponsored by Rep. Paul Evans, who I usually agree with. But after I read the following email message from a group opposed to the bill, I became convinced that HB 2974 is a bad idea. 

[Note: proposed amendments to HB 2974 add Benton County to the counties comprising the bridge district, remove the ODOT representative, and sunset the district in 2024 if a bridge district hasn't been formed by then.]

Now I've got some blogging company, since a post on the Salem Breakfast on Bikes blog notes that HB 2974 is being looked at by the City Council's legislative committee. Here's what the post said:

On the Rep. Evans Bridge District idea, one item especially in the analysis might give us pause. It seems to suggest that it's not at all out of the question that the District might try to site a bridge in Salem again. 

It had seemed like the District was an attempt to gather support for something more like a bridge at Wheatland Ferry.But this note makes it look more like it might be a bad-faith end-run around City Council's decision on the SRC.

Between the problems of property tax compression, the fact that any new bridge will induce traffic and add to greenhouse gas emissions, and adding another layer of regional government or governmental entity - all these together suggest the Bridge District idea should be approached very cautiously and critically.

I've heard that Rep. Evans didn't like that some opponents of HB 2974 were worried that this was a backdoor way to get around the Salem City Council's decision to kill the Salem River Crossing project. 

But I agree with the Breakfast on Bikes blogger: it sure looks like a Third Bridge at the same location as that project proposed could be brought back to life by the Special Bridge District.

Hopefully HB 2974 won't move forward in the Oregon legislature. Most of those who testified at HB 2974's first, and so far only, hearing were opposed to the bill according to a Salem Reporter story. Excerpt:

The prospect of a new governing body empowered to build bridges drew more opposition than support at a public hearing on Monday.

House Bill 2974 would allow voters in Marion, Polk, Yamhill and Benton counties to create a special district to oversee bridge planning, maintenance and funding. Board members would be elected and any taxes would go before voters.

Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, pitched the idea mere days after Salem City Council in February effectively ended the Salem River Crossing, a long-proposed bridge across the Willamette River, by a 6-to-3 vote.

During an hour-long public hearing at the House Rules Committee, witnesses mostly opposed the idea over economic, environmental and logistical concerns.

Sid Friedman, a Yamhill County resident, said the district would only offer one solution when more are needed.

“We do have transportation issues, I think we all recognize that, but this bridge district would only be looking at one solution — a new bridge, or bridges — instead of taking a more comprehensive look and saying ‘Here’s what we truly need to address our transportation issues,’” he said.

Bob Cortright, a West Salem resident, said the proposal would add another transportation body to an area with no shortage of governing bodies, like the Salem-Keizer Area Transportation Study, the Oregon Department of Transportation and the Mid-Willamette Valley Area Commission on Transportation.