Governor Brown has called a Special Session starting June 24. The first thing you need to know is everything in a special session is considered and emergency. If it isn’t, then the Governor isn’t being accountable to taxpayers. They have scheduled 23 bills, so far, for a two-day session and three do not have any emergency clause. The other 20, the public has no recourse once passed. But, the fact that there is an emergency clause doesn’t necessarily make it an emergency.

The emergency clause has been misused as an overreach of government authority since the day it was passed, but by 2016 parties were conjuring up fake reasons to use the emergency clause to prevent voters from challenging controversial bills. Because the Republicans walked out of the regular session this year, only a handful of bills were passed. Had the emergency clause not been misused to prevent voters from challenging cap and trade bills causing the walkout, we would actually be in worse financial condition. I’m guessing there were 400-600 bills left on the table, and most of them had a cost to them. Stopping bills with emergency clauses by walking out isn’t the best way to conduct the people’s business. Early petitions for 2022 include an initiative on No Fake Emergencies, which will begin gathering signatures in July. We can stop this abuse.

In looking over the bills for the special session I am hard pressed to find a bill with a true emergency. The exceptions might be school funding distribution and reevaluating finances, but the other 20 are all knee-jerk emotional responses that should be carefully thought out. Even strategies to protect Oregonians from the effects of COVID-19 is past its prime and the news is reporting the virus is mutating and getting weaker in countries that never locked down.

What is immediately apparent is the use of the special session to make quick work to strip local control and build the Democrat central empire. For example, HB 4201 and HB 4207, two of the six bills on police reform, centralize police conduct. HB 4207 establishes a centralized data base of police discipline records including the number of founded and unfounded complaints against an officer. HB 4201 transfers police violations of law enforcement to the Attorney General. This bill transfers planning authority on issues of use of deadly physical force, resolving issues of potential criminal responsibility, develop training, and the conduct of investigation into physical force cases. This transfer of power and centralization removes local enforcement authority and exposes every complaint making it more difficult for officers to do their jobs. It also raises the question whether it is constitutional to usurp county enforcement in this way.

What I don’t see on the list is how to kick-start the economy. If anything is an emergency, it should be our right to make a living. After all, we have to make money before we can pay taxes unless you’re subject to the gross receipts tax – this tax doesn’t care if you’re losing money, pay anyway. I guess the rest of us didn’t destroy enough property or march enough to make our point with the Governor. Elections are in four months.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2020-06-24 16:13:53

Last Update: 2020-06-24 16:14:01