Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hello, Oregonians, and welcome to Life and Legislation with Lucetta. If you've ever wanted to get to know your politicians personally or understand what it is they are actually doing, then you're in the right place. I'm your podcast host, Jessica Campbell.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: I'm your state representative for House District 24, Lucetta Elmer.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: This podcast is a place for you to get to know Representative Elmer both personally and professionally.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: We want Oregonians to feel connected with and educated politics. So we're so glad you've joined us on a fresh new podcast adventure as we cover all things about life and legislation.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Hi, Oregonians, and thank you for tuning in to this episode of Life and Legislation with Lucetta. And this is another great example of why we call this Life and Legislation with Lucetta, because I'm sitting here in the nursery with Representative Elmer, AKA Gigi and one of the grandkids. So we have our special guest with us again today to discuss all things life and legislation.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: So welcome.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Tate. Thank you for joining us. When you start talking, I'm sure you'll have lots of opinions about all that's going on in the state of Oregon.
And we do have big updates because all kinds of things have been happening over the past week with a special session and conversations around O, dot and so forth. So we'll get to all of that. I don't know, more heavy stuff, I suppose, in a moment. But let's, let's start fun.
You've had a busy chunk of time. You've had a birthday. You had your adoption day. You had also an anniversary. And now it's your husband's birthday, right?
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Yes, yes. So busy. Yeah. The end of August, beginning of September is always a whirlwind because for 12 days, I am two years older than Denny. And during those 12 days is when we chose to get married. So he loves to throw that in my face when we're celebrating our anniversary. He's so much younger, but today he's caught back up.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: I love it. Did you do anything fun for your anniversary?
[00:02:07] Speaker B: We were in the middle of a special session, so we stuck close and there were a lot of phone calls. He was a trooper. I mean, every single. We had a weekend plan just to kind of do some day activities and we had an anniversary dinner that we went to. But during everything that we had planned, at one point I stepped out to grab a caucus call or someone was calling me to go over strategy. So, you know, it is what it is.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: But we had a nice time.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: Well, I know you're a good example of how you've made your marriage stay strong during all of the life adventures you've had, all the different chapters, all the different seasons, from raising four kids to doing different business ventures now to having politics be part of your life. And yeah, all of the things.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Yes. You know, Denny is really interested, has always been very interested in the political climate in Oregon and, and it's just always been a part of his day listening to podcasts or listening to the radio. What you know.
So it is something that I feel like we just share more. I mean, we shared it before, but now we share it more. And I appreciate that because I know that if it wasn't something he was interested in at all, that would be challenging, especially with the way in which, you know, the legislature is set up. You have, you have seasons where it's just so much more intense and you're just living, eating, drinking your job. So I do appreciate that he, he's interested and, and definitely a great sounding board and someone to. Good to talk to about all of the issues that are happening.
[00:03:43] Speaker A: Well, I know we have all kinds of a big, big ODOT updates, but I was thinking just on the, I guess on the topic of transportation, on a fun question.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Your most favorite road trip.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah, we love road trips. We're actually getting ready to take one. We're doing a road trip here. We leave next week and it's for work again. But we've, we've combined it. So there's a conference that I have, Jackson, Wyoming. You know, obviously I was able to fly to it, but I said let's, let's do a road trip instead and we can take our puppy, who, as you saw today, isn't so little, but he's not even 1 years old yet, so he is technically still a puppy. So we are going to road trip and it's. I'm really excited. We, we spent a lot of time planning it, making sure we had all the stops that were puppy friendly. But we're going to hit southeastern Oregon, which is forgotten a lot of times. But there's some cool spots that I'm excited to, to experience. And then go down through Nevada and Utah and then into Wyoming, and then we'll come back the opposite. We'll go through Yellowstone, up into Montana, Idaho and back home.
[00:04:52] Speaker A: That's amazing. You got to do a little bit of that kind of road trip. Going through Oregon, Idaho and then down into Wyoming. Yeah, just. It's amazing. It's fun to just drive right through the country and. Oh my goodness. Finn is going to, like you said Pepe. Who weighs how much now?
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, he's. I don't know. He has to be close to 100. I would think he's ginormous.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Smart dog.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: He has no idea. He's like. Even yesterday, last night, he got up into my lap because he thinks he's.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: He's a puppy. And a reminder, for anyone who didn't hear, you know, the introduction of Finn earlier in the podcast, what is his breed?
[00:05:32] Speaker B: He's a Rottweiler.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: So who thinks he's a lap dog?
[00:05:35] Speaker B: Who thinks he's a lap dog. Yeah.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: Be a children's book.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:39] Speaker A: Oh, well, speaking of children's books, Tate's really enjoying this little book here. And we're going to tell a story. We're going to tell the story of ODOT right now. But let's start actually with a little context, because I know people who might listen to this are going to come at this topic from all different, I guess, not only viewpoints, but just how much information they have, too. Some that maybe don't even know what ODOT stands for and others who have been following this story across every newspaper and every channel and so forth. So let's give a kind of a brief update of context. What is ODOT and what is the issue at hand? And then we'll jump into talking about why there was a special session, how a special session works, happened in that, and go from there.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: Okay, sounds good. So ODOT is the acronym for Oregon Department of Transportation.
We finished our long session this year in June. And going into this long session, when we started in January, January, one of the biggest topics was transportation, knowing that there was going to be an anticipated shortfall in the budget, and we needed to come up with a transportation package that we could pass to serve Oregonians. And, you know, with everything in that building, there's different sides. So the Republican solution was we don't need to raise taxes. We will reallocate funds, we'll restructure the budget, we'll cut where we can cut, and we'll put a.
On making sure that, you know, the potholes are fixed and snowplows stay on the road and. And make sure that the important things are at the top and do it efficiently without raising taxes. The Democrat solution was a $15 billion tax raise. Tax and fee raise. That would have been new, so it would have been on top of what Oregonians are already paying out in taxes. I mean, that. Then that was B. Billion B. Yeah. So it was so much that even within the Democratic Party, they couldn't get enough people to support that idea.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: And just for. I mean, for context, we say this like a tax act. Where would that show up for the. I don't know. Yeah, Everyday person.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it would have been a giant increase on how much you pay in gas tax and then lots of different fees as far as, like, think vehicle registration fees, other fees you pay at dmv, weight, mile tax.
So. So it's all kind of connected to transportation.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: It's like a random, right?
[00:08:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Payroll tax that's not necessarily connected to transportation. And that was another one that is connected in this package.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: So when you get your paycheck, there'd be something else taken out of it that's going to go correct. And ultimately it's going towards fixing road.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: No, no, no. Not that portion was going towards the transit. So public transportation, which, you know, the majority of that is in the Portland metro area.
So my district is more rural and we do have a bus. We have a little bit. Most people in rural Oregon are not using public transit because we don't have it built out to be something that we're using.
So that would have been a tax that goes to everyone, but primarily benefiting those living in the Portland metro area. So that. That was a conversation.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So that that package didn't pass, and they tried to massage it, bring it down a little. Ultimately, we ended the session and it didn't pass. And so the governor's response was, well, I'm going to have to cut jobs within the Department of Transportation. And so I think her first messaging out was there were 400 and some jobs that would be cut. To just be transparent, half of those jobs had never been filled. They were newly created jobs that were on the books, but half would have been jobs that she was looking at cutting because this didn't get passed. I would say, you know, that is obviously a choice that she has, but I think there were other solutions in order to maintain our roads without doing those cuts. So there was continued pushback on that. She called us into a special session, and, you know, me and this podcast has always been something where I. I try to see all the sides, but I mean, I'm just factually speaking, the governor has the right to call us in to a special session. She can do that anytime she wants, and she can choose any day she wants. She chose Friday of Labor Day weekend. And I just think that was not without an intent, I guess.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: And if. If she calls a special session, can it Then just go as long as it needs. Like, so a special session could be one day, or it could be six months. I mean, yeah, just legally that would be allow.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: So we were told the reason why she called it then was because that was the time when she could get all of the lawmakers into the building. And the majority party is who needed to be there. They are the supermajority, meaning they have enough people to pass a tax vote. In Oregon, you need not just a simple majority. You need two thirds of the body. And a super majority means they have enough Democratic representatives to do that all on their own. They don't even need a Republican to pass a tax.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: So theoretically, in. In this special session, she could have said, everyone show up. And if every Democrat showed up, but none of the Republicans showed up, if they all vote yes, it's done.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: They have enough votes for it, but they don't have enough for quorum. They need 40 out of the 60 for quorum. So she said she, the governor told the Republicans, I need four of you to show up.
That's all.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Just as a reminder for anybody, quorum just means you have a certain.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Yeah, you have a certain amount. So then you can legally, constitutionally gavel in. You can start your session because you have enough members present to legally begin your session. Without quorum, you cannot pass a law.
So you need quorum. And then from quorum, you need 36 yes votes, which if they all show up, they have.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: So we.
[00:11:55] Speaker B: We said we would provide quorum. We showed up with our four. They did not have their 36. And day one went on and on and on and on and on.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: Because you can't start.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: You cannot start.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: So you just sit there.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
And we didn't feel that it was.
Since we were opposing this tax hike anyways, and we were told by the governor, I only need your four. We did our constitutional duty to provide quorum. We did not think that we needed to bring more people in to facilitate the agenda that we disagreed with.
So we did not give more than four for the majority of the day.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: And so, I mean, maybe this is a silly question, but why didn't all 36 Democrats show up?
[00:12:39] Speaker B: I don't know. Okay.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: Are some of them not fully in agreement?
[00:12:43] Speaker B: No, I don't think that was the case. I think it was Labor Day weekend.
I think they had plans, and the governor didn't show up either. So, you know, there was some feelings of frustration.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: So everyone else is just sitting there for like, eight hours waiting.
[00:12:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Not just the legislators, but the staff, you know, everyone that it takes to run a session, you know, you have all of the people. And that's a lot of money that Oregonians were paying on a weekend. And then it went into Monday, which is a holiday.
So that was so costly to choose. That specific time frame, in my opinion, was wasteful. You know, we could have done it on a Tuesday.
Yeah. So lots and lots of frustration. Yeah. So Friday was a very long day for staff, for people. You know, there's a lot of people, nonpartisan people that work in the Capitol to make a session flow, and then the legislators staff that were there. Then at the end of the day, we did. Went into the evening, we finally provided two more people to give quorum just so they could convene as a body. There was no vote that day, but convene and then move to the next day. But we did get something for that. We were able to change a couple things in the bill that we thought were pretty significant that would make it better for Oregonians, and one of those was to put a sunset on that payroll tax.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: And what. What does that mean to put a sunset on it?
[00:14:08] Speaker B: I'm sorry. So. Meaning that there's. There's a cap. So in 2027, that payroll tax would go back to what, the rate that it is now. It wouldn't stay at the elevated rate that this bill is going to push it to. Yes. Tatum, what do you think of.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Think about this great opinion. It's so insightful.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Okay. About this book.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: So you're all.
All day. You finally have enough people to have a conversation, make a couple tweaks to the bill, and then do go back the next day. Yep.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: And Saturday was day two. Actually, we. On Saturday, we didn't convene in as a body because then what needed to happen was a lot of paperwork. But remember, all that staff we're talking about, they are working Saturday and they are adding in the amendments. Is a good word. So they're doing all of the necessary paperwork. And there's a lot of talk going back and forth between leadership and continued conversations, caucus meetings, which. That's the time when for my caucus, the Republicans all get together and have conversations so that we know what we agree on to do moving forward or hold back on. Same thing happening, I'm assuming, with the Democrats.
So a workday, but not one that happened on the floor. That is where the public can tune in and watch. There was a public hearing. So that's when you go and you listen to the bill and there's a committee.
We had three Republicans on that committee.
And that was what the public can go in and testify on in person and say if they're for or against it, or they could remote in and give their opinion or they could write in and submit it on ola. So different ways for the public to be involved. Just like in a normal session when you're hearing a bill. Sunday was the day that the vote happened and that ended up passing. It did pass. The House with 36 votes, was 35 Democrats, one Republican and one Democrat voted no.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Interesting. That was one Republican that voted yes and one Democrat that voted no.
[00:16:22] Speaker B: Right.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: And you just need the 36.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: So I imagine there's all kinds of maybe news stories and conversations going on about why the two kind of quote unquote, flipped sides for this particular vote.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Yeah. There was an article that I wanted to address in the News Register, my local paper. It's on the front page and it was an article that Representative Cyrus Javity had written. He's a Republican and he was the one Republican who voted in favor of this package.
And the News Register didn't reach out to me to hear my thoughts on it. But I would say, you know, I just, I disagree. His reasoning for why was that one. He thought that we would lose federal dollars, federal matching dollars if we didn't pass this bill. And I, I disagree with that. I don't think that raising or not raising taxes is going to make us lose out on federal matching. I. Grants. There are some. A lot of times when you get federal dollars, there are things that you have to make sure that you're doing in order to receive those. That is true. But raising the gas tax is not a requirement to receive that.
So I, I still would say, no, we didn't need to do that. We are also lawmakers. If there are certain buckets of money within a government agency that maybe we cannot access for things. So, for example, in odot, you have money that goes to fixing the potholes. You also have money that goes to capital construction projects like the Dundee Overpass. You know, like a bigger project that's happening is from a different bucket of money than the bucket of money that is maintenance, road maintenance. If we find that for some reason the way in which the tax dollars are filtered out into all these buckets, we're not getting enough to do a certain thing. As lawmakers, we can go in and rewrite the law or change a law or make sure that it's flowing in the way that makes the most sense.
That is our job. That is good governance, in my opinion. So to say that we were restricted in how the money was flowing or we simply couldn't access enough, I disagree with. Then the only solution is we need to go raise taxes.
That's not the only solution.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: And to explain the solutions that the Republicans brought forward, you had kind of mentioned that at the beginning. What was, you know, I guess in a nutshell, what was the alternative plan?
[00:18:58] Speaker B: There are a lot of things within this agency, this budget, so much so that this might not be exact, but I think it's around 7% of the total ODOT budget actually goes for road maintenance.
7%. 93% is going for other things.
So that is where, if I were in charge of the whole entire world, I would say we need to redo the priorities in this budget. We say time and time again, there's not a revenue problem, there's not a money problem, There's a priority problem.
So if we have failing infrastructure, if we have roads that really need our attention, hi, buddy, let's give the bucket that's for road maintenance, more than 7%.
So right there, there's a reallocation I think could happen. I think there's. The Republicans have said over and over this year, you know, there's trimming that could happen, there's special projects, there's dei, and that's a hot topic.
And we want to make sure that we are a fair and just society and that we are offering the same freedoms and liberties to every single American, 100%.
But when we're looking at large amounts of money to the tune of over $300,000 for an annual salary of a government DEI position, I think that there's ways in which we can look at that without the word itself or the acronym itself causing everyone in the room to fight and lay our swords down and say, okay, here's a priority. It's important that we make sure everyone is treated fairly. But do we have to go so far over the top that we are allowing the potholes to grow bigger in our roads?
There's a way we can balance it.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: So now, after a long Labor Day weekend, this bill passed.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: It passed the House.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: Oh, it passed. Okay.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: Now it goes to the Senate. So Monday on Labor Day, it went to the Senate, the Senate majority party, which is also the Democrats, who also have a super majority, meaning that they have enough votes to pass it on their own, but they need a couple Republicans to show up to offer quorum. Remember, they have half the amount of legislators. Senate has 30 House has 60.
We provided the Senate Republicans provided the quorum they needed, the people they needed. If all of the Democrats would have shown up and they had a senator who didn't, who had some health issues, so waited and waited and waited. And today we have heard that his health issues are going to be a little longer.
And so the governor has pushed the special session vote to the 17th of this month.
[00:21:45] Speaker A: Could she technically have just asked for another Republican to show up to meet corn?
[00:21:48] Speaker B: We don't have to do that.
I think they did. The Senate did ask for a Republican yes vote and they weren't promised that.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: Now, theoretically could, I mean, in this case it's the Republicans, but either party, if there's something they really disagree with, could they just not show up and then not provide quorum? For sure.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: But because of the measure that was passed a few years ago by the voters we have, we can only get 10 absences that are not excused and then we no longer can run for office. And that's what happened in 23. During the long session, the senators did a walkout over the abortion bill that passed and the it was abortion and allowing children, minors to go in for sex changes without their parents consent. Senate walked out over that and they stayed out for more than 10 days. And none of those senators can run for office again.
So in essence, we can be starved out. So that's why a lot of times people will tell us, they'll write, we get hundreds of emails and they'll demand us to deny quorum, stay away, do a walkout. And to a certain extent we can use that tool in our toolbox, but it's not an end that we'll ever win with.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: So at this point, it still hasn't fully passed.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: It has not fully passed. It's costing Oregonians a lot of money to be in session.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: And so how do, how does an Oregonian feel that money like to have for this session? Like suddenly is more going to come out of our paycheck?
[00:23:23] Speaker B: Because no, it's not that money comes out of your paycheck today. But you know, there's a, there's a certain amount of tax dollars that the state collects and then it's divided out. And if we have a special session, you know, we have money set aside, whether it's, you know, through our emergency funds or through our rainy day funds or through general funds. But I mean, there is a cap on that. And so there could be a day in which then, you know, the government comes back and says we need to raise taxes over in this department because we didn't have enough money to fund them.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: I mean, for all the stuff, all.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: The stuff, you know, in your own personal budget, it, you know, you have a certain amount for groceries, a certain amount for gas, a certain amount for childcare, a certain amount for housing. If an emergency happens, and now you're stuck with, you know, a $10,000 doctor bill that you didn't see coming.
Well, you have to pay it, but that squeezes every other part of your budget. So it's the same. It's not today that you're going to feel it, but if we're not managing it correctly, then down the road there will be an ask.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: So on the 17th, right. Next big day.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: And then assuming it passes the Senate, it's going to go on to the.
[00:24:39] Speaker B: Next step and the governor will sign it becomes law.
[00:24:43] Speaker A: And then Oregonians would see the gas taxes going up and then the fees, the DMV and so forth going up.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Payroll tax, tax.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: The payroll tax. And. But there's a sunset now on that. So that would be for a couple of years. Yep. And I remember in a conversation from a previous episode, there was this possibility where it could end up on a ballot.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: Yeah. The referendum. So we will, we are trying and we will definitely be doing that, trying to take this to the voters. So before it goes into effect, there is constitutionally, Oregon has the right to collect enough signatures that it could be put on the ballot and we would have to vote on it. So that is something that we will try to do because again, our polling shows US that over 80% of Oregonians say the number one issue right now in living in a state is cost of living.
It's just so expensive.
So do they want this?
Do they want to see their gas tax go up and their payroll tax go up and their DMV fees go up? Is that, is that what the majority of Oregon wants?
So that will definitely happen. The other thing I think that is noteworthy is, you know, the governor had said she was going to lay off those 400 and some positions. Well, because she called the special session. She pushed the layoff date to September 15th.
Now that special session has been extended. She did announce yesterday that she's pushed those layoffs to October 15th.
So if, you know, giving time for the legislature to try and pass this so that the layoffs wouldn't happen.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: So many moving pieces.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Yes. Tatum has a lot to say.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: You do? I appreciate your thoughts on this, Tatum.
So many interesting points, huh? That's what I thought.
Well, as always, listeners, if you have questions, comments, thoughts, Representative Elmer would love to hear from you. That is her job is to represent you, the people.
And knowing all of your, you know, needs or concerns or questions is important in that process. So you can reach out to her with the links in the episode notes. And we welcome your comments. It's a good conversation. It affects everybody.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: So sure does.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I definitely welcome the comments. So does Tatum.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: Well, I don't envy your job.
It's not easy. I can't imagine trying to always figure this out. I mean, I think so many of us who aren't in the legislative world, yeah, we have all the things we want. I mean, I think everybody would say, well, we want great roads, but we don't want new taxes and we want this and we don't want that. And, and then you all have the job to try and make everything work and try and make everybody as happy and functional as possible. Right?
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: So thank you.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:27:38] Speaker A: And thanks for the update and the explanation during your Gigi time. We really appreciate it. Tatum, thank you for sharing Gigi with us.
Yeah, she's, she's working hard, doing all the things.
And Oregonians, thanks for tuning in to this episode. Hopefully you got some more information and are following along and understanding what's going on in the state of Oregon better. And you will come back and join us next time for Life and Legislation with Lucetta.
