A ‘tax’ or ‘jobs’ session?
Some see success, others failure, in recent session
By RYAN KOST and BRAD CAIN
Associated Press
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 10:02 AM PDT
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| Senator Jackie Dingfelder motions to Senate President Peter Courtney as the senators go through business on the final day of the legislative session on Monday, in Salem. |
SALEM — The 2009 Oregon Legislature adjourned Monday night, ending a session shaped almost entirely by the recession.
As the session concluded, Democrats labeled the past six months as a ‘‘jobs’’ session, while Republicans derided it as a ‘‘taxes’’ session.
Democrats used their commanding majorities to raise license and registration fees, levy taxes on health insurers and raise taxes on corporations and high-income earners to fund landmark transportation and health care legislation.
The session, which began in January, was one of the briefest in decades, despite the considerable time lawmakers had to spend in closing a $4 billion deficit.
In the end, they did so through a combination of new tax revenue, state reserves, federal assistance and nearly $2 billion in cuts to various state programs.
Senate President Peter Courtney said lawmakers did the best they could to expand health care and patch together a state budget, in view of the miserable shape of the economy.
‘‘I do think it showed we didn’t just sit on our hands, or throw up our hands,’’ the Salem Democrat said.
Lawmakers cleared away one of the last major issues of the session earlier Monday when they voted to phase out most field burning by Willamette Valley grass seed farmers. Grass seed growers set the fires to burn the harvest stubble and kill weeds and pests and to sanitize their fields before the next planting to help produce the purest seed possible.
The grass seed industry argues the practice has helped Oregon become the world’s largest producer of grass seed. Oregon supplies nearly 50 percent of the seed used to grow grass on soccer fields, golf courses and lawns around the globe.
However, the industry lost out to health concerns.
Critics of field burning say the smoke created each summer is bad for people’s health — especially those suffering from asthma.
The measure would phase out field burning by 2010, meaning this summer will be the last in which grass seed farmers will be allowed to burn their fields. The measure would allow limited burning to continue on up to 15,000 acres of steep terrain that produce varieties of seed that do not do well unless the fields are burned. Legislators heard testimony earlier this year from who people live downwind from the field burns who said the smoke makes it tough to breath and causes health problems.
‘‘Oregonians have suffered every summer due to field burning smoke,’’ said Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, chief sponsor the bill. ‘‘The health risks posed by field burning are well known, and this bill is a step toward reducing those risks.’’
House Republicans argued that the bill’s proponents hadn’t produced scientific data to show that people are being made ill by field burning. They also said the legislation is sending a bad message to the $500 million-a-year grass seed industry and to agriculture in general.
‘‘The priority should be to do something for Oregon agriculture,’’ said Rep. Vic Gilliam, R-Silverton.
The debate over field burning intensified after a 1988 chain-reaction traffic wreck near Albany that claimed seven lives after a field burn blazed out of control, enveloping Interstate 5 with dense smoke.
The public furor over the accident prompted the 1991 Legislature to approve a phased reduction of burnable acreage. Since the law was fully implemented, the number of acres burned each year has been limited to 65,000, from a high of 320,000 acres in 1972.
Proponents of the field burning phaseout legislation say other field-cleansing methods, including more frequent soil tilling, are available.
‘‘Experts have concluded that most grass seed species do not need to be burned,’’ Holvey said. ‘‘Oregon will continue to be the grass seed capital but with improved protection of public health.’’
