7 Things to Watch for in the 2013 Legislature

Oregon lawmakers are trekking to Salem for the start of the 2013 legislative session next week, which will feature heavy-duty issues such as education funding, higher education restructuring, health care transformation, prison sentencing, PERS reform, gun control and funding for a new I-5 bridge over the Columbia River.

Here are seven things to look for as the new session unfolds:

1. Leadership – New versus old 

The three key leaders in the House — Speaker-Elect Tina Kotek, Majority Leader Val Hoyle and Minority Leader Mike McLane — are all new to their posts. They worked together during the historic 2011-2012 power-sharing sessions, but how they relate to each other in this new environment with Democrats in control will be worth watching — and may very well determine whether some big issues will move or stall.

Across the building, Senator Peter Courtney will be sworn in for a historic 6th term as Senate President. Joined by Majority Leader Diane Rosenbaum and Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, this team has worked together and knows how to negotiate in the tight corners of narrow Democratic control. 

2. Pace of the Session 

The budget has always set the pace of legislative sessions in Oregon. With one of the most experienced Joint Ways and Means co-chair teams in decades, the budget-writing committee possesses the know-how to make early decisions and move the session along quickly.

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Governor Rolls Out "Education Budget"

Governor Kitzhaber unveiled a budget proposal today that he called "first and foremost an education budget."  He said his budget "creates space for front-end investments in education and early learning by cutting back-end spending on health care and corrections." 

His 2013-15 budget, which was previewed by The Oregonian and Salem Statesman Journal today, puts controversial changes to the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) squarely in the center of an effort to carve out more money for schools. And that could bump into political resistance from the newly Democratically controlled House.

Despite that, the atmosphere in the state Capitol was markedly different than in Washington, DC, where partisan wrangling continues over how to avoid plunging over the so-called fiscal cliff. While there is no looming fiscal cliff here, the governor's budget will only serve as the framework for the 2013 legislature to hash out a final budget with Democrats at the controls in both the House and Senate.

Senator Richard Devlin, D-Tualatin, already named to be Senate co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, was charitable toward the governor, as quoted in the Salem Statesman-Journal.  "I appreciate the governor's candor about the specific challenges we face in funding education and the Oregon Health Plan in the next biennium," Devlin said.  "With his recommended budget, Governor Kitzhaber has provided a good starting point for the budget negotiations ahead of us."

New House Republican Leader Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte, praised Kitzhaber for addressing PERS, but questioned the rosiness of revenue projections and the lack of any fund reserves to cushion the budget in case the economy falters in the next two years.

The governor's plan for more money for K-12 schools rests on the premise that the legislature will accept his recommendations to reform PERS in two ways:

• By limiting cost-of-living increases to the first $24,000 in retirement income; and

• By closing a benefit loophole for out-of-state retirees. 

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Stuck in Low Gear

The latest quarterly revenue forecast drew a sigh of relief from lawmakers who won't face the prospect of immediate spending cuts. But the accompanying economic forecast confirmed what people feel — Oregon's economic recovery is stuck in low gear.

If nothing else, the forecast served as the opening act of the 2013 legislative session.

New House Republican Leader Mike McLane seized the moment to underscore that 160,000 Oregonians are out of work and may have slim prospects if the state economy continues to limp toward recovery. "Without stronger private-sector job growth," he said, "the next legislature will have difficulty funding education and other services at the levels Democrats promised to voters in the recent election."

"As 2012 winds down," said State Economist Mike McMullen, "Oregon's economic expansion persists, but remains stuck in low gear. Growth continues to come in fits and starts — a strong quarter or two followed by a weak quarter or two, with the underlying trend remaining slow and steady." 

The forecast, which Senate President Peter Courtney said shows "signs are positive," means lawmakers won't have to break out their budget axes. But the weak recovery is certain to fuel a more intense debate in the 2013 legislative session about stimulating the economy and restraining spending.

A focal point of that debate will be changes that Governor Kitzhaber seems prepared to advance to the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), which is projected to soak up a sizable percentage of tax revenue growth in the next biennium.

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