Butler frustrated with legislature
By Larry Meyer - Argus Observer
Sunday, March 18, 2007 1:07 AM PDT
ONTARIO - Oregon state Rep. Tom Butler, R-Ontario, said he is ready for the legislature to adjourn.
“Things get worse and worse,” Butler said Friday morning during the legislative hotline session with local officials and interested residents held in the board room in the Ontario School District office.
Butler’s apparent frustration stems from a series of legislative events last week in Salem. Events, Butler said, that indicated Senate Republicans were “caving in” on the “taking,” or hold back, of the corporate tax kicker connected to debate on the state’s rainy day fund.
The Senate Republicans did not hold the line on House Bill No. 2707, which took away the corporate kicker for one year and created on rainy day fund, or House Bill No. 2031 which will give smaller corporations, those with $5 million in sales or less, a reduced or mini-kicker, Butler said.
“They caved in yesterday,” he said.
House Republicans had proposed only holding back the tax kicker for the larger corporations, protecting the smaller ones and then proposed leaving the entire tax kicker in place and creating the rainy day fund from the general fund. Also, the Republicans had proposed doubling the death tax exemption to match the federal level.
However, that tax exemption increase was dropped out of the legislation, which made the outcome of the bill harder to swallow for the opposition Republicans.
All the controversy regarding the rainy day fund, though, essentially evaporated late Thursday when the Oregon Senate voted to earmark nearly $300 million from corporate tax credits to protect key state services during an economic downturn. The rainy day fund bill passed after two GOP lawmakers sided with the majority of Democrats to send the measure to Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski sign into law.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed the bill Friday.
Butler said the passage of Senate Bill No. 426 — which calls for the creation of a mandatory statewide pool for health insurance for employees of public schools, community colleges and education service districts — is bad news for school districts.
Ontario school officials have estimated it will mean an additional cost of more than $1 million for the district. The new program is set to start in July of 2008.
“We tried to get a study bill (on the proposal),” Butler said. Studies by the other states had found similar proposals to be not feasible, he said, and in a state where a program had been adopted, another study outlined the fact the program could not be financially sustained. Butler also provided a list of 40 lawmakers who received contributions from the Oregon Education Association, which was one of main backers of the bill.
The Associated Press also contributed to this report.
