Budget bills emerge, signal the end is nigh for Oregon lawmakers

SALEM -- The Oregon Legislature continued its end-of-session blitz Friday, with key committees taking up the final budget bills before adjourning for the weekend.

Senate leaders had hoped to press through the July Fourth holiday, approve the last few bills and end the 2015 session sometime Saturday or Sunday. But the House -- anxious at the thought of missing parades in their districts -- threw a wrench in that particular plan when they gaveled out just before 4 p.m. and went home.

The decision left senators with little to do but finish the days work and wait.

"The House has decided it doesn't want to work Saturday and Sunday," Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, told the Senate chamber. "I'm going to adjourn the Senate -- very regrettably -- until 9 a.m. Monday." He changed the time to 10 a.m., the same time the House is set to meet, after some members grumbled about the early hour.

Still, the Legislature lurched closer to its endgame on the state's budget Friday when a special budget subcommittee unveiled several bills full of bonus allocations closely watched by lawmakers and lobbyists.

The intensely negotiated contents of the bills offer a look at state policy priorities and are a way for leaders to reward or punish groups and lawmakers. The bills have yet to be approved by the full House and Senate.

The bills lay out more than $1 billion worth of borrowing, largely matching a list first reported Wednesday by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The list includes $40 million for affordable-housing units, short of the $100 million requested by Gov. Kate Brown. But that will be augmented by $22.5 million to pay for mental health housing units and the preservation of existing affordable units.

That list does not include funding to start work on a $300 million-plus retrofit and remodeling of the Oregon Capitol, something sorely wanted by the Senate president. Courtney fought the decision Friday by introducing a $163 million proposal to start the project, only to watch colleagues definitively vote it down.

"It's a devastating loss," a clearly heartbroken Courtney said before the amendment failed 5-3. "It's a loss for science. It's a loss for a decadelong public process. It's a loss for the state Legislature. It's a loss for Oregon and her people and her children."

(Read Courtney's full statement here.)

Courtney had gone back and forth with House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, for weeks on the project's fate. Kotek, explaining her vote against the project Friday, mentioned hundreds of millions of dollars in seismic work proposed for schools -- another priority for Courtney. The bonding list includes $300 million in bonding for schools, with $175 million marked for seismic work.

It's been clear for most of the session that lawmakers are uncertain about the Capitol project, worried about campaign attacks accusing them of favoring their own offices over schools. Kotek and House Majority Leader Val Hoyle, D-Eugene, both said lawmakers had to measure public support for the Capitol before asking to borrow money, perhaps as soon as February.

"We're making choices," Kotek said, "but that doesn't preclude future conversations about this building."

The bonding list also includes $80 million for transportation projects, including $17 million for improvements on outer SE Powell in Portland.

Lawmakers also revealed what's commonly known as each session's "Christmas tree" bill, a roster of decisions -- sometimes pet projects for lawmakers' districts -- on how to spend surplus money and other unallocated operating funds.

As planned, given higher-than-forecast revenues, the state school fund will receive $118 million more.

Other notable allocations include $1.8 million to help habitats of endangered sage grouse; $5 million more for counties charged with running anti-recidivism programs meant to keep down prison populations; $21 million for water projects in the Umatilla Basin; $1.3 million for the governor's Regional Solutions programs; $1 million for fish and wildlife enforcement; and $3.7 million for Department of Human Services programs on foster care, hunger and seniors.

-- Denis C. Theriault and Ian K. Kullgren

503-221-8430

@TheriaultPDX

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