Brian Boquist is a state senator from Dallas. He’s also a retired career Army officer and something of an idealist. He thinks there must be a way to reduce the costs and complexities of state government. After all, with fewer than 5 million people in Oregon, do we really need almost 80,000 state employees? When […]
A single member’s vote in the Oregon Senate may save Oregonians from having to pay even more for fuel than we’ll have to pay anyway in coming years. Betsy Johnson, a Democrat from Scappoose, voted with the 14 Republicans on July 6 to force a tie vote, 15-15, on Senate Bill 488, which would extend […]
The Oregon Senate on Monday failed to approve a record increase in the state school fund. The opponents, all 14 Republicans plus Democrat Chris Edwards of Eugene, said it wasn’t enough and the state could do better. The bill, Senate Bill 5519, proposed to set the school fund at $6.55 billion for the next two […]
It was on April 18 that the state Senate Judiciary Committee passed four heavily watered-down bills directed at gun owners. So far, as of May 1, none of them has seen — or been scheduled for —Â action on the Senate floor. What’s going on here? It could be that the bills don’t have enough support […]
When this session of the Oregon legislature began, some of its members had grand ideas for amendments to the state constitution. So far, though, a little more than midway through the session, none of them looks like it’s headed for the ballot. The deadline for committee action in the originating chamber of each proposed constitutional […]
Our Oregon legislature is filled with earnest legislators who like nothing better than to make new laws. So it won’t be a complete surprise for you to learn that they intend to tighten their control of, among many other things, the amount of water you flush down the toilet. On April 12, according to the […]
Kitzhaber wants a tax hike
Governor Kitzhaber is pushing for a special session of the legislature that would raise taxes in order to restore teaching days and jobs in Oregon school districts. His statement confirms that where state government is concerned, enough is never enough. It always wants more — always for a good cause, of course. On Sept. 4 […]
Tags: Kitzhaber, Oregon legislature, special session