HOUSE REPUBLICAN OFFICE
STATE GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
Timber Towers or Clean Air? Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s Big Priorities Don’t Go Together
Willamette Week
“Promotion of cross-laminated timber by the state was intended to help rural Oregon businesses, employees and communities,” says Mark Johnson, CEO of Oregon Business & Industry. “Sadly, state overreach will cause more harm to rural Oregon by putting cross-laminated timber and other manufacturing at risk.”
Democrats will pick Oregon’s next Republican lawmaker
The Oregonian
With so much on the line — a supermajority for Democrats, and a superminority for Republicans — politics is inevitably in play. Johnson and Preston Mann, executive director of the House Republican Caucus campaign arm, complained Tuesday about second-hand reports they’d received that House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, and public employee union officials attempted to influence commissioners’ vote.
Forecast: Oregon’s growing tax revenues could help next budget
The Oregonian
Oregon’s tax revenues continue to outpace expectations, state economists told lawmakers in Salem on Wednesday. The latest state revenue forecast calls for an additional $47.4 million in general fund and lottery revenue above the last estimate in August.
Gov. Brown, Google team up to urge students to study computer coding
Portland Tribune
Governor Kate Brown lent her star power to a Google event at Parkrose Middle School Tuesday, a gathering designed to get kids excited about careers in coding. “We are struggling, frankly, to diversify the workforce in the designing and coding arena,” said Brown, noting the class had a mix of races and genders. “And so, if we can get kids interested in middle school, we capture them for life.”
Capitol roundup: PERS, Christmas and more
Bend Bulletin
Rep. Gene Whisnant, R-Sunriver, will re-introduce legislation to curtail one type of pension spiking by public employees. A similar bill died without a hearing during the 2017 session, but Whisnant is going to give it the old college try.
Val Hoyle all but locks up Oregon labor commissioner race
The Oregonian
Former Democratic House Majority Leader Val Hoyle has positioned herself as all but certain to win one of Oregon’s top political offices half a year before the election is held.”I’m not taking anything for granted,” she said. “It’s an open seat and I don’t have the expectation that it’s my seat.”
EDUCATION
New housing developments could prove challenging for Medford schools
Mail Tribune
Housing developments approved in the Medford area spell potentially significant increases in students entering the school district’s already overcrowded elementary schools. Data and maps compiled by the city of Medford and combined with district information project how many students may relocate to or move within the district in the next few years. The numbers give a clearer picture of the growth the district needs to account for as it considers the long-term readiness of its facilities to house students.
Proposed Home For ACCESS Academy Would Move Students With Special Needs
Oregon Public Broadcasting
After months of uncertainty, Portland’s alternative school for talented and gifted students may have found a new home. In a proposal shared with parents and school staff Tuesday, Portland Public Schools Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero floated moving ACCESS Academy to a two-building campus in Southeast Portland.
OTHER NEWS
The state of the press: fewer reporters, bigger government
Portland Tribune
Information about government increasingly comes from well-paid government employees – what does that mean for the reporters who are left and the democracy we all live in?
OPINION
Editorial: The fine for Kitzhaber’s ethics violations should sting
The Oregonian
In the December 2014 email, Kitzhaber wrote about the ethics commission: “We will convey that we are willing to take this all the way and have a strong case for prevailing. But the end game is not actually to have the complaints dismissed but rather to negotiate a stipulated settlement agreement in which we might acknowledge some minor mistakes we may have made and have the matter resolved at the March meeting. Do I have that right?” Thankfully for Oregonians, the current commission made sure he did not.
Editorial: Treat Sisters homeowners fairly on vacation rentals
Bend Bulletin
Facing growing interest in vacation rental permits, the city of Sisters is trying to find the right mix of regulation to head off problems other communities have faced. It needs to do so in a way that treats all homeowners fairly.
Guest: County must unite behind legislative decisions
Court Boice, Curry County Commissioner
If governed by responsible commissioners, it simply allows our county the potential for sound business options. It is not “Boice’s plan.” It is, however, a precise new and helpful law sponsored by state Rep. David Brock Smith. I worked with him to design it for Curry County. During the 2017 legislative session, his HB 3435 passed both the Oregon House and Senate with unanimous and strong bipartisan support, then was quickly signed by the governor.
Guest:Second Amendment doesn’t preclude laws for gun safety
Dale Lugenbehl is a faculty member in the Social Sciences Department at Lane Community College and the author of research articles on the subject of critical thinking.
In general, it will also be helpful to mentally reframe the issue more accurately as one of gun safety, rather than gun control. Doing so will help to keep gun owners and gun rights advocates in the discussion, and finally begin moving us toward effective nonpartisan solutions to gun violence.