--- From: Fred Heutte <phredat_private> To: <declanat_private> Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 04:25:33 -0700 Subject: Fw: Legislative E-Newsletter #2, Mid-May 2003 Phil was the sponsor of the Open Source bill here this year. fred ------ mail forwarded, original message follows ------ To: Barnhart.Repat_private From: Staff.Repphilbarnhartat_private <Staff RepPhilBarnhart> Subject: Legislative E-Newsletter #2, Mid-May 2003 Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 15:28:19 -0700 Phil's Welcome This is the second of what I hope will be many E-Newsletters to inform and enrage you about the state of affairs in Salem. I intend to write about the events involving Central Lane and Linn Counties (House District 11), the events at the Capitol, and issues involving State government and services in general. This legislature does not understand, nor does it seem to care about, the damage being done in Oregon to state funded services, including schools, colleges, universities, health care, public safety, economic development, or the protection of our environment. (This is identical to the sentence I wrote last week. It will be included until it is no longer true). I want this e-newsletter to be useful to you. Send me your comments, questions, and criticisms. I need your help to make our communication useful. Legislative Update ~~Oregon's Budget Crisis Deepens~ No healthy family would spend money on yachts or other frills while neglecting the education of its children or stiffing the family doctor. Oregon's low tax and low spend legislature is about to do exactly that. A Tremendous Shortfall: The state's revenue projection has fallen short once again, this time in spectacular fashion. On Thursday, I sat in the revenue committee and listened to the state economist tell the committee that in 2003-2005 biennium will have $650 million less in revenue than was predicted in March. This means that the already meager Co-Chairs' and Governor's Revised budgets are out of balance by another $650 million. That's $650 million less for our schools, our seniors, the disabled or sick, the police, prisons and courts, and our environment at a time when services for these areas have already been cut to the bone or eliminated. What Needs to Be Done: The days of shortchanging our kids' education must end. The shirking of our responsibility to Oregon's most vulnerable must stop. The time to raise revenue is now. In my last newsletter, I spoke at length about various ideas to raise revenue and close the shortfall. Yesterday's revenue forecast makes these ideas even more pertinent. We can save our schools and public services by utilizing any number of good, fiscally sensible ideas which have been proposed. The most important of these ideas is retaining a portion of the $6 billion the state gives away in income tax breaks annually. But there is no shortage of revenue concepts, which include reducing state lottery commissions to restaurants and taverns from video poker machines, increasing the Oregon's beer and wine tax -one of the lowest in the nation-, and increasing Oregon's incredibly low $10 corporate minimum tax. The doctor-representative from Ashland, Alan Bates, has come up with an innovative provider tax to keep the federal dollars flowing to Oregon's healthcare system, a billion dollars we cannot afford to lose. The Outlook: We are faced with a budget so lean that some school districts, health systems, and necessary public safety organizations will starve. These institutions are crucial to the well being of our kids, the sick, and all of us who may be victims of crime. To protect a system for an Oregon where any of us will want to live, we must have more state revenue. To promote the economy and the growth of good jobs we must have good schools and good services. That development requires that we have more state revenue. To date, the House Leadership has been unwilling to consider any substantive increase. A case in point, House Bill 3636, of which I am a co-sponsor appropriates $6 billion to Oregon's schools. The bill would guarantee a budget that would protect the programs our schools had two years ago. It would also force the legislature to consider more revenue. It has not budged from committee. There have been no hearings scheduled. Nothing... The Republican Speaker of the House continues to sit on her hands. I will continue fight to do everything I can through my seat on the House Revenue Committee to force a discussion on raising revenue. The odds are very bad, however, that the Republican Majority will allow a discussion of real, substantive revenue increases. Our sights should be set on two or three billion dollars, not the couple hundred million we may actually see. Elections: If you have friends in Multnomah County or Corvallis, I urge you to encourage them to vote "yes" on their local tax levies. Those levies may be the only chance they get to save the schools in their areas. The people of Oregon should not count on the Republican leadership in this chamber to do what has to be done. We will continue to work in hopes they will come to their senses... ~~HB 2892 - Open Source Software for Oregon~ Open Source. It sounds so simple, so inviting. My House Bill 2892, to allow the State to consider open source and open standards when making purchasing decisions for the State's vast computer systems, would save us millions of dollars. It mandates...nothing. It suggests giving us... a choice! School districts across the state are already reaping the benefits of a system that is more reliable, more secure and free, why not the State? Dare I suggest the presence of an 800 lb. gorilla (a.k.a. Microsoft) in the Speaker's office might have something to do with the very popular bill failing to emerge from House Government Committee? My colleagues on both sides of the aisle reported receiving volumes of mail supporting the sensible procurement process. Proprietary software costs us every time we upgrade; with 55,000 computers in the system, the licensing fees alone amount to about $8 million yearly. I have yet to hear a well-reasoned argument against saving the State money. The chair of the Committee stated in a work group that he "would have introduced this legislation had Barnhart not beat me to it." We made numerous concessions to the industry in the form of amendments. The Microsoft people simply had no desire to work out a compromise. The answer to my question of their lobbyist, "So, you just want this bill to go away?" was an unequivocal, "Yes." The answer to their question of me, "Have you given up on Open Source Software for Oregon?" is an unequivocal, "NO." I welcome your comments, thoughts and suggestions. Please feel free to contact my office if there is anything my staff or I can do for you. It is often a frustration but always an honor to serve you. Sincerely yours, Phil Barnhart State Representative Central Lane and Linn Counties ~~Contact Rep. Barnhart~ Capitol: 900 Court St NE, H-477, Salem, OR 97301 In-District: P.O. Box 71188, Eugene, OR 97401 (503) 986-1411 * rep.philbarnhartat_private <mailto:rep.philbarnhartat_private> * http://www.leg.state.or.us/barnhart/home.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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