REP. GREG SMITH

[March 9th, 2005] This week's rogue, Rep. Greg Smith (R-Heppner) made news a couple of years ago for allegedly claiming "legislative immunity" when a Salem cop dinged him for speeding.

While Smith denied that stunt (unconvincingly), he's less coy about his most recent roguishness. Aside from legislating, Smith runs a company that provides contract services to a Small Business Development Center run through Eastern Oregon University in LaGrande. Like 19 similar operations around the state, the funding comes from the feds and the Oregon Department of Economic and Community Development.

That's all OK. The problem is that Smith chairs the very body-the transportation and economic-development subcommittee of Ways and Means Committee-that is considering how much of the state's budget goes toward those very small-business incubators.

Last biennium, the state provided the centers with $2.2 million in funding. The governor's current budget includes the same amount.

But in a committee hearing two weeks ago, Smith grilled economic-development staffer Patricia Scruggs about whether demands on SBDCs wouldn't require significant staffing increases. "I may have a conflict of interest here," he noted, then advanced an argument that would require more funding.

Pat Hearn of the Oregon Government Standards and Practices Commission says Smith may have a conflict of interest, which should be disclosed, but that legislators cannot recuse themselves from committee deliberations.

Smith says he's tried to be transparent and has posted a vague acknowledgment of a conflict on his website, although it does not specify what the conflict is. He argues that other legislators have similar conflicts. Bottom line: He's not changing track.

"I truly believe there should be more money for SBDCs," he says.