Chemical Guide

Date: January 2011 Price: US $0 Pages: 0

Republicans in the Oregon House may balk at a proposal to ban plastic grocery sacks even if it gets through the Senate.

Republican leaders said in a meeting with newspaper editors at the Capitol Monday none of the members of their Caucus was clamoring for the plastic ban.

In the House, split 30-30, nothing can pass without at least one member of the other party.

Nobody in the GOP caucus has called for the plastic-bag ban, said Rep. Kevin Cameron of Salem, the House Republican leader. “It’s not at the top of my radar screen.”

“Does it create jobs?” asked Rep. Bruce Hanna of Roseburg, the Republican so-speaker of the House.

On the Senate side, though, President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, said the backers of the plastic ban were hot on the issue.

The proposal, by Sens. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, and Jason Atkinson, R-Central Point, is to ban plastic grocery sacks and to require grocers to charge a nickel for paper sacks.

The plastic ban was a side issue in Monday’s series of sessions between Oregon newspaper editors with Gov. John Kitzhaber and legislative leaders. Kitzhaber said his budget, which he’ll present Feb. 1, will be based on the current level of spending after the cuts made by Gov. Ted Kulongoski, without the customary ramping up. It will also account for an additional $1.2 billion in revenue growth expected next biennium.

Kitzhaber hopes to to reform the state health care program by regionalizing its administration and by integrating various forms of care starting July 1, 2012, though he wasn’t specific.

In the first year of the biennium, Kitzhaber said providers may get hit with a 40 percent reduction in fees, though he recognized this was a problem.

Both Courtney and Hanna said they thought the legislature might accomplish redistricting, rather than deadlocking on the issue and letting the job go to the secretary of state.

Hanna and Rep. Arnie Roblan of Coos Bay, the Democratic co-speaker, said they had already accomplished one big job together. They distributed to committees all 1,100 bills introduced at the start of the session.

The legislature convened Jan. 10 and got organized. It will begin legislative work Feb. 1.

Source: democratherald.com