With the books closed on the February session it is not too early to begin working on priorities for the 2011 regular legislative session.
After ten years in the legislature, I’ve learned that successful legislation doesn’t happen by accident. It happens after months of preliminary work, feedback from constituents, more work, more feedback and finally to a consensus product that has bipartisan support.
I have four priorities in 2011:
1. Job creation: There’s just no government program that helps families better than a good job. We always talk about Oregon’s vaunted high quality of life. But to a lot of people, quality of life begins with a job.
2. Reforming our outdated tax code: Oregon’s current tax code brings in too much in the good times and not enough in the bad times. During the good times, we sent back rebates to taxpayers, and during the bad times Oregon has a train wreck. In 2011, with a new Governor in place, I’m hopeful we can establish a strong Rainy Day fund and put more stability into our income-tax dominated tax code.
3. Full day Kindergarten: I’m an advisor to a special task force studying the capacity and funding issues associated with making full day kindergarten a reality. The task force will complete its work late this year in time for the session in 2011.
4. Plastic Bags: The last time Oregon’s litter problem was this bad, the state responded with the Bottle Bill in 1973. I will continue working with grocers, environmental groups, business leaders and consumers about the best way to reduce the millions of bags that end up on our beaches, our roadways and in our rivers.
I chair the Senate Education Committee and am a member of the Revenue Committee and Environment and Natural Resources Committee. All of the above issues will be front and center during monthly meetings between now and next January.In addition, I am holding regular town halls and “Eggs and Issues” breakfasts in our Senate district to elicit feedback. This may sound like something a politician always says. But believe me, some of the best ideas for legislation come from constituents.
For example, thanks to a new law that went into effect in January, Oregon is the first state in the country to require Automated External Defibrillators (AED) in large commercial and public buildings. This is the third and most sweeping AED bill I have sponsored- all because of the tragic loss of a 12-year-old Beaverton boy in 2000 who died at a swimming pool when an AED could have saved him.
And Oregon now has stronger elder abuse laws after lawyers in Beaverton told me about how a caregiver emptied the bank accounts of an 88-year-old man from Garden Home. With the help of these constituents involved in the case, we wrote legislation so that unscrupulous businesses, caregivers or relatives will face grave consequences for stealing from Oregon’s vulnerable seniors. Since this bill passed in2005, senior services advocates say it has dramatically cut the rate of elder abuse.
So, I am blessed as a state senator to have some of the most thoughtful constituents in Oregon. Thank you. You make my job more rewarding.
I’m easy to find. If you have an idea or want to help with some of these issues, please email me at this address.
Sincerely,
Sen. Hass and his son, Sam, sample tomatoes at the Beaverton Farmer's Market. The market is the single largest all-agricultural open air market in Oregon.
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