Democrats 1 for 2 on budget-balancing bills
Appeared in print: Saturday, Jun 20, 2009 | BY DAVID STEVES | The Register Guard
SALEM—Legislative Democrats struggled with mixed results over two major, controversial budget-balancing bills on Friday, approving a $6 billion schools spending plan that faces a veto from the governor but failing to pass a governor-endorsed plan to suspend the voter-approved Measure 57 criminal sentencing law.
Legislators have given themselves until June 30 to adjourn the session.
The House fell two votes shy Friday of the two-thirds majority needed to suspend the Measure 57 drug- and property-crimes law and to make other changes in criminal justice policy to save a combined $87 million in the biennum that starts July 1. Democratic leaders want to suspend the law in order to curb state corrections expenditures.
The vote signaled a rare defeat for Democrats and prompted them to warn that with time running out this session, the only viable cost-cutting alternative was to reduce other public-safety programs, including the Oregon State Police and the Oregon Youth Authority, which incarcerates juvenile offenders.
“The only way to keep our public safety system is this package (with Measure 57 suspension),” said Rep. Chip Shields, a Portland Democrat and one of four lawmakers who worked with the Kulongoski administration to fashion the bill. “It’s either this or the cuts.”
Those cuts, Democratic lawmakers said, would reduce the number of state highway troopers and fish and wildlife enforcement, and reduce forensic labs and Oregon Youth Authority juvenile lockups.
While 35 of the chamber’s 36 Democrats supported the Measure 57 bill, Republicans were nearly as united in their opposition: 20 of the 23 present voted against the bill initially, before one member, Rep. Dennis Richardson of Central Point, switched to “no” when it was clear the bill would fail.
“This bill breaks the promise to the voters, and it will only increase the crime rate by letting out more bad guys, increasing the number of property offenders,” said Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, noting that the bill would suspend nearly all the provisions in Measure 57, seven months after it won statewide approval in last November’s election.
Rep. Tim Freeman, R-Roseburg, said Democrats were wrong to present only two options: roll back Measure 57 or cut public safety programs.
“We’re being asked to make a false choice,” he said. “What I cannot do and will not do is to be forced into this box.”
The vote was as much a showdown between legislative leadership and the state’s anti-crime movement as it was an inter-party conflict. District attorneys, Crime Victims United and the Oregon Anti-Crime Alliance had all lined up against the bill, saying they oppose changes in criminal justice policies in the name of solving a fiscal shortfall.
Besides suspending Measure 57 for most of the drug and property crimes committed before 2013, the bill would let prisoners shave 30 percent off their sentences — up from the current 20 percent — through good behavior. It also would reduce from 180 days to 60 days the jail time most lawbreakers would serve for violating terms of a felony probation.
The anti-crime coalition has been pushing an alternative, in which 2,000 state inmates who are serving sentences for nonviolent crimes would be released six months early.
After the vote, Rep. Jeff Barker, an Aloha Democrat who helped draft the failed proposal, said he’d like to see negotiations over a way to convince a couple of those who voted no to change their minds, or to rework the bill so it can pass.
“If the leadership does some horse trading, maybe something will happen, but I’m not optimistic,” Barker said.
The same afternoon, the Senate easily mustered 21 votes to pass a $6 billion schools budget, with only six votes in opposition. That proposal is expected to pass on Monday in the House — before being shot down by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who has vowed to veto it. By the same 21-6 margin, the Senate also passed legislation drawing down the state’s education stability fund by $225 million to help fund that $6 billion price tag, leaving the education stability fund with $113 million in reserve.
The sticking point between the governor and the Legislature is how much money within the K-12 education budget should be held back in case the economy and state budget picture worsens.
Kulongoski warned Wednesday he would veto the bill because it appropriates $5.8 billion to Oregon’s 198 school districts and leaves $200 million in reserve, to be tapped only if the economy and state revenue are deemed capable of supporting the additional spending. That represents a change from the Legislature’s earlier plan, endorsed by Kulongoski, which would have spent $5.6 billion and left $400 million in reserve.
If the governor gets the bill by Monday, as planned, he will have five more working days to veto it. That would leave the Legislature with a day to override before the planned adjournment. Meeting the two-thirds override majority requires 40 votes in the House and 20 in the Senate. Legislative leaders have said they’re confident they can meet that requirement.
