Salem's Lot
THE GOLDEN PIONEER WANTS YOU!

pay to play

Westsider Chris Coughlin is a frustrated mother.

"Beaverton could build a new school every year," says the mother of three. "Our growth is somewhere between 800 and 1,000 new students every year."

Yet there isn't enough money to pay for building new schools. The solution, say Coughlin and other school activists, is that developers should pay for schools in the same way they do sewers and roads: with a system-development charge (SDC) aimed at covering the public costs associated with new subdivisions.

Under current law, schools are exempted from the list of services that are partially paid for by SDCs. But Democratic Reps. Kurt Schrader (Canby) and Charlie Ringo (Beaverton) have teamed up to change the law.

The Oregon homebuilders, of course, think using SDCs to pay for schools is a pretty dumb idea. In a stalling economy, it would make houses more expensive, and, if the housing market heats up, developers could end up eating the charges. It also isn't fair, they claim, to ding childless home buyers for a service they aren't using.

"The premise that every new house has a kid in it is B.S.," says homebuilders lobbyist Jon Chandler. "To apply an SDC to Belmont Dairy for schools makes no goddamn sense."

To head off the SDCs, Chandler has floated an idea that's been about as popular with the school-funding crowd as eliminating English classes would be: allowing high-growth districts to keep their property taxes home instead of sending them to the state's general school budget.

Schrader, for his part, is passionate about pushing the SDC bills through the Legislature, despite the powerful development lobby.

"The question is," he says, "who's in control down here, citizens or special interest?"

--Patty Wentz

gossip

An insidious new lobbying technique has hit Oregon. Call it quick-dial coercion. The issue is the governor's plan to reduce prescription drug prices for Medicaid patients. Someone (pharmaceutical companies, perhaps?) has been calling voters, telling them it will take away consumer control and urging them to complain to lawmakers. When the voters agree, they're transferred to the Capitol, as quick as a touch-tone.

* In Salem, laws can be killed by a sudden blow or through slow starvation. Last session,
a pesticide-tracking bill squeezed through the Capitol, thanks to the threat of a ballot measure. This session, the law may wither away for lack of funding. Green activists are crying foul after the Oregon Department of Agriculture alloted about one-third of the money necessary to run the program.

* The island of Oregonsurvivor.com is starting to lean a little left. Six Republicans were booted this week. Gone are Sens. Charles Starr and Bill Fisher and Reps. Bruce Starr, Bill Witt, Karen Minnis and Jeff Kruse.

what are you working on?

Jason Atkinson may live in Jacksonville, but he keeps a close eye on Portland's riverway. The Republican state senator has proposed a resolution to ask the federal government to equally enforce environmental rules. Portland, Atkinson charges, is allowed to stink up the valley with sewage overflow, while a cow in a rural stream can bring the feds' wrath. His charges of favoritism come despite the fact that Portland is operating under a negotiated agreement with the state Department of Environmental Quality to reduce its combined sewer overflows and is about halfway to meeting the 94 percent reduction goal by the 2011 deadline. WW caught up with the senator Monday afternoon.

Willamette Week: Why is your resolution necessary?

Jason Atkinson: We're trying to make a point that we would like to see equity. My thought is that with the new administration we'll have a friendlier reception to a joint memorial.

But the city of Portland was ordered to reduce the sewage overflow 10 years ago and has begun the process of doing so. Isn't this changing the rules midgame?

I wouldn't say that at all. I think if you go to the timeline that was negotiated, we're almost sitting at 10 years now between the time of the agreement and getting going on this. As I understand it, they have until 2011 to get the sewage problem fixed. I'd like to get going.

But they are going. They've begun building the pipes, they're reducing the sewage.

But the window is still open for them.

Yeah, but...

2011 is a long way from now.

quotable

"Before session you called me the most powerful woman in Salem. It's becoming increasingly clear it isn't me; it's Karen Minnis."

--Senate Minority Leader Kate Brown, talking about the House majority leader

give a damn

* Campaign finance: Unconvinced that lawmakers will purge big money from politics, activist Lloyd Marbet has filed a ballot initiative that goes further than the campaign-finance bill backed by Rep. Mark Hass. Marbet's initiative would not only limit the dollar amounts of individuals, but would also prohibit corporations from donating at all. The measure has just been granted an official ballot title and, if there are no legal challenges, will soon hit the streets.

* Abortion: HB3284, which would allow pharmacies to distribute emergency contraception without a doctor's prescription, is dying. According to sponsor Rep. Kathy Lowe, Jeff Kruse, chairman of the Health and Public Advocacy Committee, isn't interested in giving a hearing to the bill, which she says could prevent thousands of abortions. You can contact Kruse at (503) 986-1445 or kruse.rep@
state.or.us.

* Medical marijuana: A biopharmaceutical company wants to join this burgeoning grassroots movement. On behalf of Spokane-based Biomedix, Rep. Jeff Kropf has sponsored a bill that would establish a state-licensed, state-supervised medical marijuana production facility. The bill stands no chance of passing but could foreshadow future battles as states continue to pass medical-marijuana laws and the drug companies gnash their teeth at the idea of profits lost to home-grown medicine.