2006-2007 Legislative Agenda for State House/State Senate/Governor Races

Children, Families and Communities

1. CREATE Statute prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or identity.

2. REPEAL Oregon Constitutional Amendment XV 5.A. which dictates that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or legally recognized.

3. ORS 106.060 AMEND Statute defining marriage; expand Statute to allow same sex marriages.

Education

1. Create legislation which will strengthen and support services to Oregon's Talented and Gifted students.

2. Create legislation which will create and fund a thorough study of Oregon's educational assessment system and make any changes recommended by the committee.

3. Create legislation which will create a long-term stable funding base for schools at the levels recommended by the Quality Education Commission. Includes SB 841 and SJR 2 of 2005 Legislative Session.

4. Create a budget line item that would fund Head Start to the level requested by the Oregon Department of Education.

5. Create legislation setting minimum nutrition standards for food and drink served in schools, and
providing funds to school districts to meet those standards. Genetically modified organisms shall not be
allowed in school nutrition programs. Includes SB 560 and SB 662 of the 2005 legislative session.

6. Create legislation authorizing school districts to impose impact fees on new residential development to pay for new construction or capital improvements to educational facilities. Includes SB 743 of the 2005 legislative session.

7. Create legislation directing the Oregon Department of Education to prepare a personal finance education program and to allow local school districts to implement this personal finance education program. SB 748 of the 2005 legislative session.

8. Create legislation that provides adequate financial support for the mentoring, counseling, materials and supplies for students presently identified as under-achieving through the use of tests and evaluation devices developed and authorized by the Department of Education.

9. Create legislation to mandate that active consent, not passive consent, be required for mental health testing in Oregon public schools.

10. Repeal 20USC7908, the Armed Forces recruiter access to students and student recruiting information. HR 551 of 2005 Legislative Session.

Energy

1. Create legislation to implement the New Apollo Project.

2. Create incentives for Oregonians to use motorcycles as fuel-efficient, less-polluting alternative transportation.

Environment & Natural Resources

1. ORS 197.296 Repeal the requirement that urban growth boundaries be expanded.

2. Create legislation delineating marine reserves in the ocean off of Oregon's coast that protect and enhance biodiversity, achieve sustainable fisheries, and promote healthy coastal economies.

3. Amend laws which currently allow polluters to dump toxic chemicals at toxic concentrations into Oregon's rivers, and provide full funding to DEQ to fully monitor and enforce these pollution laws. SB 555 of 2005 Legislative Session.

4. Create legislation requiring Director of Department of Consumer and Business Services to amend the state building code to prohibit use of wood coated with substances containing arsenic in framing or sheathing roof of residential structure. SB 727 of the 2005 Legislative Session.

5. Repeal Measure 37 of 2004. Relates to ORS 197.

Government & Election Reform

1. Create legislation requiring the majority of voters who reside in territories proposed to be annexed into a city or district to approve the annexation plan.

2. Create a statute prohibiting the use of personal employment contracts for government entity executives, requiring executives to be "at will” employees, and requiring that they be paid according to a predetermined compensation schedule. Includes SB 766 of the 2005 legislative session.

3. Create legislation establishing ID requirements for voting that meet but do not exceed the current requirements of the Help America Vote Act. Voters in Oregon, when registering by mail and for the first time, must present one of a number of acceptable forms of ID, which includes their name and current address, when initially registering to vote, but may not be asked for ID thereafter.

4. Create legislation raising the Vote by Mail Handbook from an administrative rule to statute.

5. Create legislation allowing counties and cities to adopt instant runoff voting systems or other ranked choice voting methods for nomination or election of candidates to county or city office. HB 2638 of the 2005 legislative session.

6. Create legislation directing the Secretary of State to develop, use and maintain public ownership of Open Source Software in all aspects of elections, including election management, creation of ballot definition files and vote tallying.

7. Create legislation directing the Oregon Secretary of State to require a mandatory, scientifically sampled, hand-counted, election results accuracy test of actual paper ballots cast before certification of the election results for all federal and state wide races for office. If statistically significant discrepancies exist between the tabulated election results and the hand-counted sample, more comprehensive hand counts will be required.

8. Create legislation directing the local government entities to allow neighborhood associations sufficient amount of time to comment on issuance or renewal of liquor licenses.

Health Care

1. Create a tax on alcoholic beverages that would support the Oregon Health Plan.

2. Create legislation reinstating the ten cent per pack cigarette tax to support the Oregon Health Plan.

3. Amend ORS 414.312 to expand the prescription drug purchasing pool such that it includes all Oregonians. Includes SB 329 of the 2005 Legislative Session.

4. Create legislation establishing consumer advisors in the Office of Mental Health and Addiction Services of the Department of Human Services. SB 771 of the 2005 legislative session.

5. Create legislation to further cultural competence in the health care professions in Oregon.

6. Amend all statutes relating to state health care programs to integrate mental health, dental, vision, and hearing care in Oregon.

7. Create legislation requiring health insurance pay for all reproductive health care costs. SB 756 and 849 of the 2005 Legislative Session.

8. Amend the Oregon Constitution to guarantee the right of every Oregon resident to health care.

9. Create a budget line item fully funding the Technical and Financial assistance to rural isolated rural clinics. ORS 442.470 in the amount of $1 million per year.

10. Create a budget line item fully funding Rural Emergency Medical Systems. ORS 442.507, in the amount of $450,000 per year.

11. Create legislation establishing a single-payer universal health care system, where the fund is dedicated for Health Care services, and is created and managed by the State government.

Human Rights, Civil Liberties & Justice

1. Create legislation defining state-sanctioned marriage as a civil contract, subject to constitutional protections for equal privileges and immunities.

2. Create legislation to mandate collection of demographic data regarding justice system decision points, e.g. stops, arrests, charges, arraignments, adjudication, sentencing, and parole.

3. Create State ordinances that will abide by Chapter IX Articles 55 & 56 of the UN Charter, providing the means to make the required reports of violations to civil and human rights to the UN Commission on Human Rights

Labor and Economic Opportunity

1. Create procurement policies prohibiting contractors and subcontractors who provide goods to the governmental body or its agencies from maintaining sweatshop conditions by violating labor and employment, health and safety, or environmental laws or standards, and requiring compliance with minimum wage and other employment and labor standards.

2. Create legislation instructing the Attorneys General to prosecute employers who hire illegal workers.

3. ORS 471.030 Amend statute to insure OLCC retains control of liquor sales.

4. ORS 082.010 Create legislation stating a maximum amount of interest that can be charged in a contract. SB 545 of 2005 legislative session.

5. ORS 325.700 Create legislation prohibiting the delivery of unsolicited credit applications.

6. Create legislation to encourage growth and development of minority businesses through business incubator programs and public works contracting, including set-asides.

Public Safety

1. ORS 107.085 Create legislation requiring Circuit Courts to attempt to notify both parties in a divorce of date, time and location of hearing.

2. ORS 107.700 Create legislation requiring due process in the granting of a restraining order.

3. ORS 107.710 Amend statute to limit the statutory period for obtaining a restraining order to 180 days.

4. ORS 107.718(b) Amend statute to prohibit courts from giving control of real or personal property to persons who have no financial interest in the property.

5. ORS 107.718(d) Amend statute to require a hearing to protest a restraining order to a few days. Change the listing of property the accused is allowed to remove from the property to include cash, information allowing access to cash, and all business assets, demonstrably belonging to the party who is leaving and not to the other party.

6. ORS 107.719 Amend the statute to note the amount of time allowed to remove property.

7. ORS 132.320 Create legislation allowing the presentation of a defense in a Grand Jury hearing.

8. ORS 133.440 Create legislation allowing arrested individuals to address custodianship of real and personal property to prevent non statutory loss.

9. ORS 136.310-340 Create legislation to require jury members to receive written copies of statutes before trial.

10. ORS 137.700 Repeal mandatory sentences.

11. ORS 146 Create legislation prohibiting law enforcement agencies from using "Runaway Reports" instead of "Missing Persons Reports".

12. ORS 162.315 Amend statute to note that resisting a false arrest is not a crime.

13. ORS 169.151 Repeal this requirement that incarcerated individuals pay rent.

14. Create a statute to require civilian review boards to oversee police training and activities. Define these boards to have the power to compel testimony and subpoena records regarding complaints and use of force.

15. Create a statute to require judges, prosecuting attorneys and law enforcement agency employees to be tested for use of controlled substances annually and randomly and require the individual pay for their own test.

16. Create legislation requiring police training to include education regarding the kind of police behavior that most likely will produce citizen cooperation. HB 2037 2005 session.

17. Create legislation requiring the State Attorney General to act as the District Attorney for cases regarding homicides committed by police in the line of duty. HB 2040 2005 session

18. Create legislation codifying the US Supreme Court decision stating law enforcement agencies cannot be sued for failing to enforce restraining orders.

Revenue

1. ORS 093 Create legislation requiring the reporting of sales of real property not the owner's personal residence to Oregon Department of Revenue.

2. ORS 291.349 Repeal the "kicker".

3. ORS 305.155 Create a 10 year period for collection of amounts being collected by Oregon Department of Revenue.

4. ORS 305.810-815 Amend statute to change verification of tax returns from "false swearing" to "perjury".

5. ORS 305.850 Repeal authority to use private companies to enforce tax law.

6. ORS 305.990(3) Criminal Penalties. Amend to change the penalty for failure to enforce tax law to $100,000.

7. ORS 305.990/305.992/314.075 Create the crime of tax fraud.

8. ORS 312.010 Amend the time allowed to be delinquent in property tax payment from 3 years to 1.

9. ORS 314.075 Tax evasion. Amend to include all types of taxpaying entities, such as limited liability companies and sole proprietorships, in this and related statutes requiring certain information be reported by officers and principals.

10. ORS 314.739 Repeal the requirement that Sub Chapter S Corporations pay a minimum income tax.

11. Create statutory authority to allow Oregon Department of Revenue to make transferee and nominee assessments.

12. Create a statute replacing existing corporate excise or income tax with tax imposed on income reported to shareholders under federal securities law. HB 2039 2005 session.

13. Create a statute to require the Oregon Department of Revenue to publish a report listing amounts Oregon corporations pay in state income taxes and which corporations pay the minimum tax.

14. Amend the Oregon Constitution to remove the words of double majority of both chamber's for repealing/removing tax expenditures.

15. Repeal Measures 5, 47, & 50.

16. Create legislation such that Oregon tax rates give no preference to unearned income. All income shall be taxed equally and progressively regardless of whether it is earned or unearned.

17. Create legislation strengthening penalties for abusive tax shelters, and providing periods of amnesty to encourage immediate compliance. SB 480 of the 2005 Legislative Session.

18. Create legislation requiring investor-owned utilities to pay the taxes for which they bill their customers. SB 408 of the 2005 Legislative Session.

19. Repeal the requirement of a double majority for property tax elections. SJR 14 of the 2005 Legislative Session.

20. Create legislation requiring the Oregon Department of Revenue to provide certain tax documents in the Spanish language.

Transportation

1. Create legislation which provides incentives for the use and development of alternative fuels for transportation including natural gas, bio-diesel, solar and hybrid technology.

2. Amend ORS 814.269 to allow persons age 21 or older freedom of choice in use of safety apparel when using transportation.

3. Create legislation adopting, for the state of Oregon, the California air quality and auto emissions standards.

4. Create legislation requiring that registration fees for hybrid or alternatively-fueled vehicles never exceed fees for other vehicles, and encouraging government entities to choose hybrid, fuel efficient, and alternative fuel motor vehicles for their fleets.

5. Create statute outlawing photographic devices as the sole means of issuing citations.