SALEM, Ore. (AP) – One of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber's top environmental and economic priorities will get its first hearing in the Legislature on Monday.

The House Education Committee will take a first look at Kitzhaber's plan to put people to work by retrofitting schools and other public buildings with modern energy-efficient technology. Supporters of his plan hope to protect the environment while helping schools save money on their energy costs.

House Bill 2888 would authorize the state to sell bonds that would pay for loans and matching grants for school districts that want money to improve their facilities. The bill leaves many details to be decided, including the cost. The sponsor, Rep. Jefferson Smith, D-Portland, cautioned that the measure is merely a "placeholder bill" intended to begin work on the concept.

The long-term goal, Smith said, is to retrofit every public school in Oregon along with other government buildings, but this year's bill would not reach that far.

"We spend a lot of dough on energy costs in Oregon," Smith said. "If we can save a little of that dough … that seems really smart."

Smith said the weatherization concept is about more than just creating jobs or saving on energy costs. He said the bill would bring cleaner air and more light into schools, creating a healthier learning environment for students and workplace for teachers.

Rep. John Huffman, a Republican from The Dalles and member of the Education Committee, said he's an advocate of weatherization who has done it at his own properties. He said he'll be looking for a proposal that produces enough savings to justify the expensive upfront cost of weatherizing a school.

"I'm not an advocate of just throwing money at a project just to get some people to work," Huffman said. "But if we can make fiscal sense of this … I'll go for it."

Kitzhaber last month directed the Department of Energy to use $2 million of leftover federal stimulus dollars to conduct energy audits on 500 schools. He said then that the money would create 20 new jobs and lay the foundation for his plan by determining what schools needed.

Kitzhaber spokesman Tim Raphael said the governor wants lawmakers to come up with a plan in time for construction crews to work during the schools' summer vacations.

"We are excited to see the Legislature take this up so quickly and look forward to working with them on the best school retrofit bill possible," Raphael said.

Oregon's unemployment rate was 10.6 percent in December, an improvement from the Great Recession's bottom of 11.6 percent in May and June of 2009, but still 1.2 points worse than the national unemployment rate.

Joblessness has been particularly acute in central and southern Oregon, where many rural communities have struggled with unemployment since the decline of the once-mighty timber industry.

The committee will also consider a bill Monday that would require all new school construction and remodel projects to meet environmental standards equivalent to the LEED Silver designation from standards developed by Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

WATCH THE VIDEO FROM KTVZ:

http://www.ktvz.com/news/26487194/detail.html

SALEM, Ore. — Oregon House members say it's going to be an interesting legislative session, a time when lawmakers are going to have to trust each other.

As representatives were sworn in this week, some were likely questioning how the House members will get along with each other, as the House is split between 30 Democrats and 30 Republicans.

With the split comes another historic first: co-speakers of the House.

"I promise to work with each and every one of you, and with Co-Speaker Bruce Hanna, to help create a better Oregon," said Rep. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay.

Roblan will share speaker of the House duties with Rep. Bruce Hanna, R-Roseburg. Each House committee will have co-chairs of each party, as well.

Rep. John Huffman, R-The Dalles, knows what getting along requires.

"I think we are necessarily going to have to negotiate and compromise," Huffman said.

When Democrats were in the majority during the 2009 session, Huffman still successfully passed 10 bills through the House.

"I think it's going to be the same this session," Huffman said. "I've been placed on committees that have a great need, and I think I was placed there because I get along with people."

Rep. Gene Whisnant, R-Sunriver, entering his fifth term, has seen a Democratic House, a Republican House and now a split House, leading Whisnant to wonder how things will play out.

"It's going to be a lot of trust factors, and it's going to be harder for my caucus," Whisnant said. "The Republican Party still has to pass things, because we don't control the Senate and we don't control the executive branch."

Gov. John Kitzhaber says compromise will be key for the state to move forward.

"Let us disagree, let us debate, but let us never question each other's motives or patriotism or love of Oregon," Kitzhaber said in Monday's inaugural address.

Huffman wins GOP primary

By staff report / The Bulletin

Published: May 19. 2010 4:00AM PST

 more photos

State representative

John Huffman faces Democrat Will Boettner in November.

• 59th District
Republican primary
John Huffman – 4,177 votes 92.7%
Britt Storkson – 314 votes 7%

Democratic primary
Will Boettner – 2669 votes 97.1%

State Rep. John Huffman appeared to have won the Republican nomination for Oregon House District 59 Tuesday night, coasting to an easy victory over challenger Britt Storkson.

As of 10:40 p.m., Huffman was leading with 93 percent of the vote to Storkson's 7 percent.

Huffman, 53, of The Dalles, was appointed to the seat in 2007 when former Rep. John Dallum moved out of the district. A former radio station owner who now works as a property developer/manager, Huffman defeated Democratic candidate Mike Ahern of Madras in 2008.

Storkson, 55, from The Dalles, ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Wasco Electric Co-op 10 times before challenging Huffman.

“I did what I would usually do, I ran a good race,” Huffman said. “I didn't take his candidacy with a grain of salt, I took it seriously.”

District 59 includes all or part of nine counties, and covers the center of the state from northern Deschutes County to the Columbia River.

Democratic candidate Will Boettner, 59, of Fossil, will face Huffman in the November election. Boettner ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination.

Huffman said he likes his chances in the general election.

“I've got a lot of plans, but we basically have to wait and see what happens in November — what the makeup of the Legislature is, who gets the governor's seat,” he said.

John Huffman of The Dalles has represented the sprawling 59th District in the Oregon House of Representatives for just over three years and wants to return to Salem next spring. Republicans should give him the chance to do so.
Huffman was appointed to replace John Dallum, who left office at the end of the 2007 regular legislative session. Huffman ran two years ago and has served in one regular and two special sessions. He's done well by his district, which includes all or part of Jefferson, Wasco, Gilliam, Sherman, Wheeler, Grant and Clackamas counties. By his estimate, he's brought home some $55 million in funds. He's done so, he says, without having to violate his own principles or make political trades with which he's uncomfortable.

For some reason, Huffman's car — a Prius — irks his opponent, Britt Storkson. But whether Huffman drives a Prius, a Mack truck or a lunar rover, he's done a creditable job as a lawmaker, even as a member of the minority party.
Yet it's what he hopes for the future that will make him most valuable in the years ahead. He'd like to see the state take a good, hard look at the services it offers, decide which fit its core mission, then eliminate or dramatically cut the rest. Oregon, he says, “has really found its way to the credit card” where spending is concerned, and it cannot continue. That done, he says, it should also take a serious look at restructuring its revenue stream — taxes — to help smooth out the highs and lows that seem perennially to create problems.

Storkson shares many of Huffman's fiscally conservative leanings. However, he acknowledged that he hasn't studied Huffman's voting record. Without knowing what Huffman's done during his tenure in the Legislature, Storkson simply can't make a credible case that he's performed badly. Storkson is, in essence, a protest candidate who isn't likely to serve constructively as a lawmaker.
That's not true of Huffman, who knows that as a member of the minority his chance of accomplishing much of anything relies on his ability to reach across the isle for support from at least some Democrats. He's willing to do the reaching, and in so doing he'll benefit his constituents in District 59.
——
From bendbulletin.com – published daily in Bend, Oregon, by Western Communications, Inc. Copyright 2005.

Associated Press
May 5, 2009

KTVZ.com

May 5, 2009

Weren’t the old median barriers ‘perfectly good?’

By Rodger Nichols
of The Dalles Chronicle

     State legislators are in the busiest of times in Salem these days as major pieces of legislation start to move through the system.
     That doesn’t mean legislators aren’t paying attention to the folks back home.
Take the case of Rep. John Huffman whose sprawling House District 59 covers all or part of nine counties, including Wasco and Sherman.
     “We got a call from a constituent in Mosier,” said Huffman. “They wanted to know why road crews were replacing perfectly good median barriers on Interstate 84.”
Huffman, who serves on the House Ways and Means Subcommittee On Transportation and Economic Development, asked that same question of Oregon Department of Transportation representatives as the large transportation bill moves through the committee process.
     The short answer he got was that the old 32-inch-tall tongue-and-groove median barriers on that section of the highway are not “perfectly good” any longer. They do not meet current federal highway standards, particularly in accidents involving the much heavier trucks prowling today’s highways.
     They have been replaced elsewhere on the Interstate with 42-inch-tall pin-and-loop barriers. The greater height and heavier weight do a better job of what the median is designed to do in case of an accident — push the vehicle back into its own lane, rather than allow it to cross into oncoming traffic.
     That’s the short answer.
     The long answer is more complicated and interesting.
     Recently, project and operations engineer Brad DeHart of ODOT in The Dalles, and Peter Murphy of ODOT Region 4 in Bend gave The Chronicle a tour of the project, which involves replacing the median between milepost 64.81, just east of Hood River, to Milepost 70.1 near Mosier.
     They said that this stretch of median was originally scheduled for replacement in 2004, when the freeway was being repaved in that area. It would have been replaced at that time with the 42-inch pin-and-loop barriers.
     But in 2004 the Columbia River Gorge Commission was involved with a review of the Gorge Management Plan, the document that must be adhered to for any new construction in the gorge, including Interstate 84.
     “We had rules in the gorge management plan for all development, but they really weren’t specific to transportation projects,” said Brian Litt, the commission’s planning manager.
     That led to the formation of a group of stakeholders that included the gorge commission, the Forest Service, Counties, ODOT and the Federal Highway Administration.
     The goal was to create design guidelines for highway features and projects on I-84 that would be consistent with the Scenic Area Act and the Gorge Management Plan.
     “It was a year and half process that included nearly 400 participants throughout the gorge,” said Kristin Stallman, National Scenic Area coordinator for ODOT.
     While that was under way, ODOT removed the median replacement portion from the 2004 work plan.
     That was a good move. The I-84 Corridor Strategy design guidelines weren’t finished until the end of 2005.
     Those requirements resulted in a new median barrier design that is seven inches shorter (35 inches instead of the now-standard 42), is cast in place instead of being assembled in sections, and painted a brown earth tone.
     The shorter height allows for better visibility of the views in the gorge, the earth-toned paint is less noticeable than concrete gray, and the cast-in-place design is safer, because it’s less likely to be pushed out of the way in an accident involving a heavy truck.
     Both the old tongue-and-groove design and the newer 45-inch pin-and-loop design being replaced were precast in 12.5 foot sections that were hooked together, but not specifically anchored to the pavement.
     In accident situations, the tongue-and-groove design tended to be broken up by impact, while the heavier 42-inch sections tended to remain intact.
     “You sometimes see them shifted over,” after an accident, said Brad DeHart. “We go back and pull them into place.”
     The new 35-inch design, being shorter, is lighter in weight, but that’s offset by being anchored to the pavement.
     The current project, known as Bundle 225, includes other improvements along the Hood River to Mosier stretch, including grading, drainage and paving.
     It’s also the first project to use the new gorge-compatible cast-in-place design.
Brian Litt of the gorge commission said the idea is not to just tear down existing barriers to put up some new ones because they’ll be painted earth tones.
     “The idea is, when you do need to replace those barriers, you replace them with this type, consistent with the overall design guidelines,” he said. “Neither the gorge commission nor the Forest Service nor ODOT wants to spend money unnecessarily or do anything that compromises safety”
     Kristin Stallman agrees: “That median needed to be replaced for safety reasons,” she said. “We weren’t just doing it for the scenic.”
     The “plan” is that all median barrier will someday be replaced, but it won’t happen quickly .The 42-inch barriers now installed on most of the freeway won’t be replaced until they are no longer safe
     “We’re doing another project between Multnomah Falls and Cascade locks, and the median barrier there was fine and of the proper kind, so it didn’t need to be replaced,” said Stallman. “On that project we’re replacing the guardrail with core ten weathering steel which is the new guardrail standard. Whenever we need to replace guardrail, we’ll replace it with the new standard.”
     Real life conditions have caused one change in the implementation of the new design: the addition of scuppers. Those are the channels at the base of the median which allow accumulating rainwater to flow to the other side of the median to reach drains.
     “There was a general feeling by the engineers that there was sufficient grade, that whatever water would be there would drain into the installed drains and into the drainage system,” said ODOT’s Peter Murphy.
     “We did think about it, but we thought wrong,” he said. “Now we have gone back in with scuppers that and being poured in place and retrofitted. People listened. It’s a good example of what can work.”
     The nice thing for taxpayers is that the new design is actually cheaper than the 42-inch standard design.
     The most recent bids for 42 inch tall median barrier in Oregon were last year, said Murphy. The average contract price was $66.07 per foot on a total of 32,544 feet that were installed on various projects all over the state.
     This year, the Hood River-to Mosier contract for the 35-inch cast-in-place barrier was for 29,250 feet $44.75 per foot, just about a third less than last year’s statewide average for the 42 inch style.
     “Remember, that’s a bid on a job, and different bids on different jobs have different numbers.” said Murphy. “But that’s what the bid is on this job.”
     Murphy, who came to ODOT following a long career as a broadcaster said, “What I have found as a layman coming in, is the engineers actually give quite a bit of thought to what it is they are doing. People can find fault in what they get, but they don’t just pull this stuff out of the air; they spend more time than you and I would care to think.”
Brad DeHart agreed. “As an engineer, I lie awake at night thinking about these things.”
     And the inquiry that started it all?
     “I’ve been encouraging state agencies to do a better job at getting the word out early,” said Rep. John Huffman
     “If ODOT had just sat down with The Chronicle and told them ‘You’re going to be seeing the barricades being redone through here, and here’s why,’ That would go a long way on helping people’s perception.
     “An ounce of information in advance can save you a ton of grief down the road.”

KUOW News
www.kuow.org

04/13/2009

In a year of budget cuts, nothing is sacred. The Oregon School for the Blind has weathered many financial storms in the past. But this year could be different. With every dollar under scrutiny, Oregon lawmakers today (Friday) gave initial approval to a plan to shut the Oregon School for the Blind down in a matter of months. The money would serve blind students elsewhere.

June Kramer is legally blind and uses a cane to get around. She came to the Oregon School for the Blind because she wanted to learn something more than her local high school could provide.

Kramer: "Budgeting, banking, basically daily living skills like doing your own laundry."

And learning how to cook. That’s what she’s doing now behind the counter of the school’s coffeeshop.

Kramer: "Order up! Burrito!"

The work is part of the school’s life skills curriculum. Does your local high school have a talking cash register?

Cash Register: "One–Five–Zero. Department One."

Kramer is 20 years old, so regardless of what happens in the Legislature, she’ll soon be leaving the Oregon School for the Blind.

Kramer: "I hope to be in my own apartment, getting a job somewhere like in a music store or whatever and basically be a successful woman in life, if possible."

Even though she’s moving on, Kramer says she’s worried that other visually impaired students in Oregon won’t have the same opportunities she did. And she’s not alone in her concerns.

Members of the blind community have been protesting at the Oregon capitol. They’re here lobbying against a bill that would close down the School for the Blind. Joe Carter attended the school for three years as a teenager. He says it was a life–changing experience:

Carter: "For the first time I actually knew other blind people. For the first time, I had friends. For the first time, somebody actually suggested that I could do stuff. I could go places on my own."

Advocates for the blind say those are the kinds of things that will be lost if visually impaired students are dispersed back into their local school districts. On the other hand, the vast majority of blind students in Oregon are already educated by local public schools. Fewer than three dozen still attend the Salem campus. That’s one reason the cost per–student to operate the School for the Blind exceeds $125,000. Democratic Representative Sara Gelser says it’s money that could be better spent elsewhere:

Gelser: "So what we have is a program that is much loved by the people that are there, but we are spending an extraordinary resource for 31 students, and at the same time not giving them access to K–12 curriculum, and they are not learning in an accredited environment."

In other words, students at the School for the Blind learn life skills, but they won’t get a diploma there. Gelser says she acknowledges the sense of loss that students and their families are facing. But she says the goal is that they’ll be better served in the end:

Gelser: "This plan does not save a dime. What it does instead is directs these resources, redeploys them for the benefit of 840 children who are blind and visually impaired. And I can go to my colleagues and say ‘In a time of budget cuts, let’s make a positive policy decision that’s focused on how do we make the best use of resources that we already have."

Gelser chairs the House Education committee, which has now approved the plan to close the school. Republican Representative John Huffman supported the proposal, but he says he’s worried that blind students won’t get the services they need when they return to their home districts:

Huffman: "I will be quite angry if I hear of those situations of kids being brought into the school district and stuffed into a closet, out of sight out of mind. I don’t want to hear about that."

Committee chair Gelser says she’ll hold hearings later this year to investigate claims by blind students of mistreatment by teachers and administrators in the mainstream school system. The bill to close the School for the Blind still has to clear several Legislative hurdles before it would take effect. I’m Chris Lehman in Salem.

© Copyright 2009, OPB

By Nick Budnick / The Bulletin Published: April 04. 2009 4:00AM PST

Tentative figures for 2009-11

$17.1B
General fund budget to maintain existing services

$4.4B
Legislature’s prediction for general fund shortfall

$2.58B
Budget shortfall if all reserve funds are used

A few possible cuts

100 State troopers laid off

3 Days per week courts would close

20% Length cut from school year

At the root of the new development is the worsening economic situation and a projected decline in personal and corporate income taxes.

A formal announcement won’t come until later this month, but the tentative estimate is that the state’s next general fund budget will total $12.7 billion, about $4.4 billion less than what’s necessary to pay for existing state services.

On Friday, the heads of the Joint Ways and Means Committee posted cuts on a new Web site to show what 30 percent cuts to agencies could look like and announced that a series of hearings would be held around the state, including in Bend on April 29.

Sen. Margaret Carter, D-Portland, said the potential cuts serve “as a reality check, the reality that Oregon is facing a great challenge. … It’s going to be very, very important that the people of Oregon help us to prioritize.”

The possible cuts include:

•Reduction and elimination of services for the poor, elderly, disabled and mentally ill.

•Layoffs of 100 state troopers.

•Closing courts as much as three days a week.

•Cutting the school year by 20 percent, or nearly two months.

•Repeal of last year’s Measure 57 tough-sentencing law.

•Closing 10 prisons, including Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras.

Carter’s co-chairman on the committee, Rep. Peter Buckley, D-Ashland, said that overall, the average cut to state agencies would likely be closer to 15 to 18 percent range, thanks to $911 million in federal stimulus dollars and other reserves, including the state’s rainy day fund.

But some agencies would likely be spared the worst of it, meaning deeper cuts would have to be made to others, he said, saying closing schools early “scares the hell out of me.”

That said, he and Carter acknowledged that the budget deficit could grow even larger than the current $4.4 billion estimate.

Besides making cuts, lawmakers are considering raising revenue using new fees, increased cigarette, beer and corporate taxes along with a temporary income-tax surcharge on top-earning Oregonians.

Local officials are bracing themselves for potential reductions in state funding filtering down to counties and schools.

Bend-La Pine Superintendent Ron Wilkinson said that in “the best-case scenario we’re working with, we’ve got to cut quite a bit of money next year.”

In a worst-case scenario, “If you’re cutting one third of the budget, that could represent 20 percent or a quarter of the school year,” he said. “It would be devastating.”

Hillary Saraceno, the executive director of the Deschutes County Commission on Children and Families, receives more than $1 million to distribute to programs for parenting skills, runaway and homeless youth, and children at risk of abuse and neglect. At the upper level of possible cuts, “some programs would probably go away,” she said.

Ron Paradis, a spokesman for Central Oregon Community College, said that at a 30 percent level of cuts, “We’re likely talking $10 to $15 per year per credit tuition increases or cutting as much as 10 percent of courses each year,” he said.

As for the potential effect on plans to expand Deer Ridge, the Department of Corrections listed delaying adding new inmates to the prison as among its first options to be considered, saving about $23 million.

Complete closure of the prison would save another $42 million. However, that option was listed as a last resort, only to be considered if 30 percent cuts were made to the department’s budget.

“We’re like the other nine institutions, waiting to see what the Legislature has to say about how deep they have to go with their cuts,” said Parrish Van Wert, the community development coordinator for Deer Ridge.

Local lawmakers say the release of the potential cuts is an effort to make the best of a bad situation.

“It’s pretty drastic stuff,” said Rep. Judy Stiegler, D-Bend. “I think this is the kind of thing that people need to look at and mull and think, ‘Gee, is this the way we’re going to go?’”

Rep. John Huffman, R-The Dalles, said that while he approves of the way Democrats are publicizing the decisions to be made, he thinks the state needs to do more to trim salaries and payrolls: “As of yet, I haven’t seen anything out of leadership that gets into removing certain departments and programs. I think that’s the level that we need to get to.”

The final schedule of budget meetings, times and locations is expected to be posted next week.

For more details on the potential cuts, see www.leg.state.or.us/budget/.

Bulletin reporters Sheila G. Miller , Hillary Borrud and Lauren Dake contributed to this story.

Nick Budnick can be reached at 503-566-2839 or at nbudnick@bendbulletin.com.

SALEM — The Oregon House approved an anti-bullying bill Wednesday after legislators argued over whether schools could handle the problem on their own.

The final vote on House Bill 2599 was 50-9, with all the no votes from minority Republicans. The bill now moves to the Senate.

The proposal would require school districts to establish clear, uniform policies to combat bullying and to appoint specific individuals to investigate incidents.

Rep. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, said testimony from bullied schoolchildren "broke my heart" and that her own children have been taunted. But she objected to language in the bill defining "harassment, intimidation or bullying" to include any act that interferes with the "psychological well-being" of a student or any act that stems from the student’s "protected class status."

Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem, agreed that the overly broad language would pave the way to "endless lawsuits." Local school boards, said Rep. Sal Esquivel, R-Medford, should decide the best way to deal with this age-old matter.

"We’ve had bullying ever since we’ve had more than two children in the world," he said.

But not all schools take the issue seriously enough and need a nudge from the state, said Rep. John Huffman, R-The Dalles. He carried the proposal.

One legislator grew emotional in her floor speech, much to her surprise. "I, too, know what it’s like to be bullied and picked on," said Rep. Suzanne VanOrman, D-Hood River.

She explained later that she had polio as a child, giving her a noticeable limp.

"It’s hard to know why kids pick on kids," she said.

A recent survey by the Oregon Students of Color Coalition showed 41 percent of eighth-graders in Oregon reported being subjected to name-calling, bullying or other harassment at school, with the highest rates among students of color, girls and gays.

Basic Rights Oregon, a gay rights organization, applauded the bill’s passage and urged the Senate to do the same.