Peter Courtney Really, Really Wants The February Session To Work

Senate President Peter Courtney thinks much is riding on the success of next month's session of the Oregon legislature. At a preview today sponsored by the Associated Press for the state's media, Courtney told the assembled reporters and editors that he's deeply concerned that the session go well, especially from a sheer logistical standpoint. Once the opening gavel falls on February 1st, lawmakers will have no time to waste as a new deadline will crop up every few days. (See page 2 of this pdf for the hurry-up schedule.)

The session is historic since it's the first Constitutionally mandated session in what would normally have been an off-year. Voters in November of 2010 overwhelmingly approved removing Oregon from the small list of states where legislatures meet just once every two years. That vote, said Courtney, means the bar is extremely high for Oregon lawmakers next month:

While lawmakers had called themselves into special sessions in February of 2008 and 2010, those were "exhibitions" compared to this, said Courtney. The 68-year-old Democrat says a successful February session will send an important message to the rest of the country that government in Oregon is not disfunctional:



While lawmakers have up to 35 days to complete business (before running into the voter-approved Constitutional deadline), the goal at this point is to finish up in 29 days; that is, by the end of February.

No, Elmer Fudd Was Not An Oregon Politician

Here's a fun diversion: The Salem-Keizer School District is holding two public forums this month to decide on names for a pair of new elementary schools. Earlier, the district solicited suggestions from the community about what to name the new schools. From this list of suggested names, how many current or former Oregon politicians can you spot? There are at least five former governors (though poor Robert Holmes' name was misspelled by his nominator) and at least two Supreme Court chief justices. And there are several others' whose names appeared on an Oregon ballot but aren't from Oregon, per se. Of course, it's possible that district officials may decide to name the schools after Brandon Roy, Steve Jobs, or Elmer Fudd...just a few of the more colorful suggestions.

And Heekin Makes Three

Katherine Heekin, the Portland attorney who announced today that's she's running for Oregon Attorney General, has actually raised more money so far than her two competitors for the Democratic nomination, according to campaign finance disclosures. Former U.S. Attorney for Oregon, Dwight Holton, kicked off his campaign yesterday and so far hasn't reported any campaign contributions. Former judge Ellen Rosenblum announced her candidacy last week, and in the space of just over a week, raised a nifty $15,000. But Heekin, who actually started fundraising last November, tops them both. She's pulled in more than $17,000 so far. [UPDATE: Heekin's campaign manager, Jayme Rabenberg, tells me that several recent contributions have not been reported yet to the state's campaign finance database, meaning that Heekin's total is actually closer to $20,000. It's worth pointing out that the other candidates may have as-yet reported contributions as well.]

So far no Republicans have announced their intention to run. The last time the GOP fielded a candidate for Oregon Attorney General was in 2004, when Paul Connolly managed just 40% of the vote against incumbent Hardy Myers. The Attorney General's race is wide-open this year since John Kroger announced last fall that he wouldn't seek a second term, citing unspecified health issues.

A Tale Of Two (Or Three) Sessions

Oregon's brief 2012 legislative session won't get underway until February 1st. But lawmakers to our north in Olympia kicked things off today for a 60-day session that could have its share of drama. My colleague Austin Jenkins reports that Washington state lawmakers could be taking on some thorny policy matters.  In Oregon, on the other hand, the conventional wisdom is that the 35-day session that's on tap this year will be too short to take on anything beyond budget matters (which could be tricky enough as it is.)

Of course, during the last "off-year" session in Oregon, lawmakers duked it out over the non-fiscal issue of banning the chemical BPA in children's beverage containers. That effort fell short, but came back with force in the 2011 regular session...before falling short once again. But it just goes to show that anytime lawmakers come to Salem, all bets are off.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Idaho also came back to town today. Our public radio friends in Boise have put together the "Ultimate Guide on the Economy for Idaho's 2012 Legislative Session."

Second Tax Credit Auction Draws Few Bidders

You may recall that last month the state tried to raise some cash by auctioning off 1,500 tax credits worth $1,000 each. If all of the credits had been purchased for the minimum bid amount of $950 apiece, that would have brought in more than $1.4 million, which was earmarked for renewable energy grants. But lawmakers, who authorized the tax credit auction, severely overestimated the appetite for these credits. Just 408 of the credits sold, bringing in less than a third of the potential revenue.

So, the Department of Revenue and the Department of Energy--the two agencies in charge of running the tax credit auction--decided to go for round two. Well, the results are in...and not too many Oregonians will be getting tax credits in their stocking this year, apparently. The Department of Revenue reports that just nine people submitted bids for a total of 55 tax credits purchased.

Our Oregon Files Slate of Occupy-ish Initiatives

Over the past month, the union-backed group Our Oregon has filed more than a dozen initiative petitions for the 2012 Oregon ballot. Many of them carry subject lines that would sound right at home at an Occupy rally. The group dubbed one petition "Tax the 1%".  Another is called "Millionaires Should Pay Their Fair Share."  Those are among several that would create a new tax bracket for the wealthiest Oregonians. Some of the other petitions take aim at another target of the Occupy movement. This one is entitled "Large Corporations Should Pay Their Fair Share."

It's no coincidence that these petitions have Occupy-inspired terminology. Our Oregon spokesman Scott Moore says "The themes that have been brought to the fore by the Occupy movement are what we've been talking about as an organization for 6 years, so it shouldn't surprise anybody that we share in the same goals." Why so many petitions? Moore says the goal at this point is "to get the conversation started about the need for funding for our schools and our basic services."

Getting a petition on the ballot is a lengthy and expensive process, and it will be at least a month--and likely longer--until Our Oregon gets the go-ahead to actually start collecting signatures on any of these petitions. You can be sure they won't actually try to get all 13 on the ballot, especially the ones that are virtually redundant. Moore says Our Oregon will consider the "political viability" of the petitions as well as how much revenue their analysts predict the proposals would actually bring in.

Salem's Rotunda Is Occupied...With Holiday Music

A choir performs at the state capitol in Salem.

You just can't help but marvel at the contrast between Salem and Olympia this week. My colleague Austin Jenkins has been chronicling the unfolding drama as protests and arrests have marked the tense opening days of a high-stakes special session in Olympia. In Salem, meanwhile, the rotunda was filled with holiday music and an abundance of felicity. Even Occupy Salem, which had staked out the west end of the capitol grounds since early October, packed up and left peacefully this week--but not before holding a cleaning party. (Indeed, in advance of today's deadline to leave, issued by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, it's nearly impossible to tell that anyone was camping out on the capitol grounds over the past two months.)

Of course, there are some holiday activities planned in Olympia, where Christmas has at times been a bit of a touchy subject. And Salem won't make it through the winter without its own dose of politics: Lawmakers will return to the capitol in February for a month-long session, in the face of an ever-bleaker revenue outlook.

Tax Credit Auction, Take 2!

After coming up well short of expectations earlier this fall in an effort to auction off $1.5 million in tax credits, the Oregon Departments of Revenue and Energy will re-open the bidding tomorrow for a second tax credit auction. The first attempt drew few bidders and raised less than one-third of projections.

Like the first go-round, the new auction will accept opening bids of $950 for the chance to win a $1,000 tax credit. (That is, for $950 you would get a $1,000 tax credit on your next Oregon income tax return, making it a $50 profit in your favor.) Bidding opens at 9 a.m. tomorrow and runs through December 9.

Kitzhaber Halts Haugen Execution

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber made a stunning announcement today:  He's halting the execution of Gary Haugen. The two-time murderer was scheduled to die by lethal injection on December 6 at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. But Kitzhaber is using his executive power to keep Haugen alive, at least for now. The governor is not commuting Haugen's sentence. Instead, Kitzhaber says he's putting a temporary halt to executions for the remainder of his time as governor.

The decision marks a change in direction for Kitzhaber. The Democrat allowed two executions to proceed during his first two terms in office. In each case, like Haugen, the convicted killers had dropped their appeals. But Kitzhaber says he's concluded since then that Oregon's capital punishment system "fails to meet the basic standards of justice." The governor says he favors "replacing the death penalty with life in prison without the possibility of parole." In a statement, the governor called upon the legislature to "bring potential reforms before the 2013 legislative session." 

A Narrated Tour Of Oregon's Execution Chamber

On Friday, I was part of a media tour of Oregon's seldom-used execution room. Officials at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem are preparing for the upcoming execution of Gary Haugen. It's scheduled for December 6, but since Haugen is "volunteering" for the execution by way of dropping all remaining legal appears, he has the power to stop it (for now) by simply changing his mind. (The governor can also call it off, and there's a pending legal request before the Oregon Supreme Court to halt the execution, filed by an anti-death penalty group.)

The Department of Corrections did not permit reporters to bring video or audio reporters, but the agency did distribute "B-roll" of the death chamber. So using that footage, we created a narrated tour of the execution room: