Bowing out
By Larry Meyer — Argus Observer
Tuesday, August 7, 2007 9:56 AM PDT
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| Rep. Tom Butler talks with Danny Moore (right) at the Ontario Chamber of Commerce forum Monday. Butler announced his intent to not seek reelection to the Oregon House of Representatives. |
ONTARIO — State Rep. Tom Butler, R-Ontario, announced Monday he will not seek reelection to his Oregon House of Representatives District 60 seat at the end of his fifth term.
Butler made the announcement at the end of his speech to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce during its regular weekly forum.
Butler said he plans to pursue church service work with his wife, Darlene, but he left the door open for the possibility seeking public office in the future.
Butler said if The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints accepts their application to serve Church Area Audit Service missions in Latin America before his term is up, he will resign his seat.
Tom Butler is a certified public accountant while Darlene Butler is a retired CPA and both could serve abroad as church missionaries for up to three years.
“It has been a singular honor for Mrs. Butler and me to serve the people of Oregon’s largest and most rural House district,” Butler said. District 60 covers all of Malheur, Harney and Baker counties and the southeast corner of Grant County.
Should Butler leave his seat before the end of his term, he said his replacement would be chosen by commissioners of each county in the district, with Malheur County having the greater voice.
“It is a weighted vote,” he said.
Butler said he and his wife plan to return to the Ontario area when their church service is completed.
“We then intend to seek further opportunities to use our time, talents and resources to continue to serve in the communities where we’ve worked, raised our families.” Butler said.
Prior to serving in the House, Butler served as a Malheur County commissioner.
Butler is a three-time member of the House budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee, serving as chair of the General Government Subcommittee in 1999 and 2003. He also chaired the Transportation and Economic Development Subcommittee in 2001.
He served as chair of the House Revenue Committee in 2005 and, as member of the minority party in the House, served as vice-chair of the committee during the 2007 legislative session.
“It’s a very much different assembly than we have had in the last 16,” Butler said, of the 2007 Legislative session.
According to the results of a poll published in July, Butler said the Legislature’s approval rating has continued to move down notch after notch.
There was at least 50 new tax increases proposed during the legislative session, Butler said.
“I started voting no from the time I got there,” he said of the last session.
Instead of spending less and setting aside money for a “rainy day fund,” the Democrats proposed to take the corporate tax kicker back from companies and create the fund from that, Butler said.
Butler also took aim at the alternative to Ballot Measure 37, a proposal that voters will be asked to approve in the future. He said the measure will actually take away property rights.
“They are taking away our rights and saying this is good,” he said.
Whether people are prepared for it or not, change is going to occur, he said.
“If you do not prepare for change, and control it, it will control us,” he said.
Examples of those possible changes include a proposal to have all water use in new wells in Oregon monitored, eventually requiring people to buy back their water from the state.
“I pay honor to those who have come before me in this position, particularly state Rep. D.E. “Denny” Jones,” Butler said, crediting Jones with a strong grasp of the state budget.
“Mrs. Butler and I both share warmth in our hearts for good and dedicated leaders and the ‘citizen legislators’ in both legislative chambers and on both side of the political aisle,” he said.
What Tha wrote on Oct 22, 2009 8:20 PM:
Idaho Public Utilities Commission, in opposition to the proposed rate increase of 44% to farmers and
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Idaho PUC? "