Scandal, Walk-Outs, Ancient Law Consume State Capitol

Meanwhile, NFIB helps win compromise on workers’ compensation settlement agreements

State Director Anthony Smith reports from Salem on the small-business agenda

Friday, May 5, was Day 109 of the 160-day, 2023 Oregon Legislative Session and the date marks yet another legislative deadline. By the end of the day, all bills that have passed in their chamber of origin and have been assigned to policy committees in the second chamber must be posted for a work session. Those work sessions must occur no later than Friday, May 19, to stay alive.

Unfortunately, all the anti-small-business policy bills included in NFIB’s Legislative Agenda for Remainder of 2023 Oregon Legislative Session have already been scheduled, so we’ll be watching them closely and working to amend and/or defeat them, which has already happened with HB 3471, a bill relating to workers’ compensation settlement agreements you may remember from the last update. After NFIB and our allies testified in opposition, the Senate Committee on Labor and Business adopted a compromise amendment that was agreed to by all the involved stakeholders. This is how the legislative process should work – let’s hope it does for other bills, like HB 2057 (contractor wage liability) and SB 592 (OSHA penalties).

On May 17, the Legislature will receive its next and final Revenue Forecast on which the Legislature will base its 2023-2025 biennial budget, which means the Joint Committee on Ways and Means (budget committee) and the Joint Committee on Tax Expenditures will be meeting regularly to balance the state budget.

One thing to note: All of the pro-small-business tax measures we’re supporting are still alive – and once the Revenue Forecast comes out, we should have a better idea where we stand on Estate Tax Reform and Corporate Activity Tax (CAT) relief.

For the past week, however, legislative work in Salem has been overshadowed by a major political scandal, an obscure 40-year-old law, and an improbable legislative walk-out.

Secretary of State Shemia Fagan Resigns

On Thursday, April 27, Willamette Week broke a story about Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan’s ties to a cannabis company whose owner has made several large donations in recent years to Democrats, including Fagan.

Fagan was hired by the company earlier this year as a consultant and paid $10,000 per month – much more than her monthly salary of $6,416.67 as Oregon’s top elections official and overseer of state audits, among other job duties of the Secretary of State.

It just so happens that the secretary of state’s office was in the process of auditing the state’s cannabis industry when she was hired by Veriede Holding LLC, an affiliate of La Mota, a major cannabis retailer.

On Monday, May 1, Sec. Fagan held a virtual press conference where she apologized and cited her $77,000 per year salary as insufficient to make ends meet for her family. The following day, she submitted her resignation, effective Monday, May 9.

Gov. Tina Kotek is now responsible for naming a replacement. That person must be a member of the same party as the outgoing Secretary, i.e., a Democrat. The new secretary of state will serve out the last year-and-a-half of Fagan’s four-year term, but her successor will not be eligible to take over as governor in the event that Gov. Kotek is unable to continue serving. That duty currently resides with the state’s next-in-line executive office holder, State Treasurer Tobias Read, until Oregon elects a new secretary of state in 2024.

This story has been widely covered by multiple news organizations in the last week, but if you’re looking a comprehensive recap of all the events, check out this story from Oregon Capital Chronicle.

Controversy Over “Readability”

For much of this year’s legislative session, Republicans have been using parliamentary procedures to slow down the legislative process, hoping that Democrats would moderate some of their most divisive priorities. Senate Republicans have been forcing bills to be read in their entirely before final passage. House Republicans have been speaking (a lot) on non-controversial bills that typically wouldn’t see much floor debate.

Then, earlier this week, Republicans made an unexpected move. Apparently, a staff member from the Senate Republican Office found a reference to a 44-year-old law that requires official bill summaries to have an eighth or ninth grade reading level, as measured by a score of at least 60 on the Flesch readability test. As it turns out, nearly every bill introduced this session – and in most sessions in recent memory – fails this test.

Republicans in both chambers challenged the “readability” of bills that came up for a final vote. The House Speaker and the Senate President made rulings that dismissed these challenges – and in both chambers, members voted to uphold the rulings of their presiding officers, each time on a party line vote.

Republicans quickly petitioned a Marion County Court – only to have that petition denied by the judge. It’s unclear, at least at this point, how things will play out, but in the meantime, Senate Republicans have resorted to another tactic, this time with some major potential consequences.

Read the coverage from the Associated Press here.

Senate Republicans Deny Quorum

After legislative Democrats were undeterred by the invocation of the 1979 “readability” law by Republicans, things looked like they would be moving forward at their regular, albeit slow, pace for the remaining eight weeks of session.

But all that changed on Wednesday, May 3, after several Senate Republicans were marked absent when their names were called on the floor. Seven senators had already received permission to be excused for that day’s floor session, but five were marked absent. As such, there were only 18 senators present. The Oregon Constitution requires two-thirds of the chamber to be present, which means without 20 senators, there is no quorum – and the Senate cannot conduct its business.

By Friday, May 5, the walk-out reached its third day. When it was clear the missing senators were not in the building on Friday, Senate President Rob Wagner (D-Lake Oswego) pleaded with absent senators to return – and committed to scheduling floor sessions every day, including weekends, until they do so. This keeps the clock ticking on those absent senators in light of the passage of Ballot Measure 113 last November.

Ballot Measure 113 was passed with 68% of Oregonians voting in favor of the constitutional change which “disqualifies legislators with ten unexcused absences from legislative floor sessions from holding office as legislator for term following current term of office.”

The proponents of the measure were hopeful that its passage would effectively end the practice of walk-outs. But it doesn’t seem to be working out that way, at least presently. Click here for more information from Oregon Capital Insider.