Action taken on housing, Measure 110 and campaign finance, but not wildfire funding during just-ended legislative short session
By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news
Housing, state investments that respond to addiction and public safety crises and the Oregon Drug Intervention Plan — as well as rare agreement on campaign finance and the failure of wildfire funding during the just-ended legislative short session — are all on tap for discussion at a town hall hosted by state Rep. Pam Marsh on Saturday, March 16.
While Marsh is excited about the topics addressed in the short session, she told Ashland.news she’s disappointed by the lack of wildfire funding from the 32-day session, which ended Thursday in Salem. Those interested in learning more about the short session should attend the public meeting at 10 a.m. in the Rogue Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship hall at 87 Fourth St., Ashland.
The town hall is the first for House District 5 this year, though Marsh often speaks at public and/or civic events in Southern Oregon, including an affordable housing forum at the Ashland Public Library in early January and homelessness summit at Ashland Hills Hotel in early February.
Marsh also shared that during the busy last day of the session, she anticipated the swearing in of State Rep. Julie Fahey (D-West Eugene, Veneta) as the new Speaker of the House.
Marsh noted that the agreement on campaign finance reform is “kind of a miracle,” and plans to say more at the townhall. She expects the topic of legislation regarding Measure 110 to be a big topic of interest.
“The really impressive part is that we have pretty good bipartisan paths on all three of those issues,” Marsh told Ashland.news by phone on Thursday, during a legislative floor break in Salem.
She also plans to speak about the statewide housing emergency and a bipartisan package designed to increase housing production, according to a news release.
“Our other bills just matter for how we live our lives,” Marsh said. “We passed $30 million for summer school so I’m hopeful our local districts will be able to have some programs around summer school.”
“It is phenomenal that we had three big topics that we did big work on, cause we’re only here for 32 days,” she added. “Short sessions were originally designed as a time of course correction and budget changes, tidying things up. And in recent years, it’s just become apparent that we just have too many big issues that can’t wait for a year.
Marsh noted that the Legislature made “hardly any progress at all” in terms of wildfire funding.
“We’ll talk about that as well and what the course forward might be,” she said. “We’ll also talk generally about wildfire recovery and how that’s going, not specific to the short session particularly, but because it’s a really important issue for our community.”
When asked why there wasn’t progress on wildfire funding, Marsh noted that the short session is just that — short. It can run up to 35 days long but ends this year at Day 32.
“We had other very big issues that were really hogging the limelight,” Marsh said. “There were a couple of big ideas out there for funding and frankly they were just too big of ideas for a short session. We do have a budget note that requires the Department of Forestry and the state fire marshal to look at issues around funding both mitigation and suppression, with the goal of making recommendations toward the end of the year that could be considered at a later date.
“That’s the hope for a path forward, but I would say that’s certainly the disappointment of the session,” Marsh said.
Senate Bill 1520, which ensures wildfire survivors do not need to pay state income tax on compensation and settlements from losses, passed the Legislature, with unanimous votes this week in the Senate and House, as reported by Oregon Capital Chronicle.
Marsh plans to discuss other legislative work, including bills that address clean energy and broadband internet.
Attendees will have an opportunity to share concerns and ask questions.
In other news, Marsh shared support for Sen. Jeff Golden (D-Ashland) choosing to remain in the state Senate instead of filing for state treasurer, calling it “good news” for his constituents.
“I’m one of those (constituents),” Marsh said. “He does an excellent job representing us in the state Senate …. He’s also done really great work in particular on wildfire (legislation), which is kind of his specialty.”
Reach Ashland.news staff reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].
