Legislative Session
2021 Legislative Session Halfway Point: Advocacy Tools to Raise Your Voice
Here at the mid-point of the 2021 Oregon Legislative Session, we take the chance to reflect on this unusual year of virtual hearings and Zoom meetings, and the progress we have made thus far. Many of the nearly 2,500 bills introduced this session have died, meaning that they will not move forward this session to become law. The work of creating and approving the state budget for the next two years, a major item on the session to-do list, is moving into high gear. There is still a lot of advocacy left to do to share your perspective and priorities with legislators as they make decisions about how to spend money over the coming biennium. Let’s talk about what is...
Read MoreThe COVID-19 Impact on Oregon’s Budget
We are all tired. Tired from worrying about how we’ll meet our needs without work or support. Tired from caring for our families and keeping them well and safe. Tired from adjusting, constantly, to our changing world. And the last thing we all want to talk about right now are budget reductions. That is true for our government officials, our state agency leadership, and each and every person attached to social services in Oregon. But, this is where we are–the Office of Developmental Disabilities, at the request of the Governor’s Office, has released a proposal of reduction options this week. So, let’s set our tired aside for a moment, and review the facts, and what to...
Read More2019 Legislative Session Ends
The 2019 Oregon Legislative formally adjourned yesterday, in what is called Sine Die. As many have probably followed in the news, the Republican Senators who walked out of session for several days in June returned to work this weekend. Though the environment was rife with unresolved conflict, both chambers put their heads down and passed the agency budget bills and a select few others. SB 274, which would have opened case management services through a Brokerage as an option for people age 14-17, was not on the “select few” list. SB 274 received unanimous support from the policy committee it worked through, and broad support from the Ways and Means committees to which it...
Read More2019 Legislative Session Budget Outlook
Every two years, Oregon’s legislature passes a state budget to cover costs for the coming biennium. The legislative session is five months long, but budgetary decisions are some of the most complex and difficult that the legislature must make, and they generally don’t get settled until the tail end of session. The 2019 session is no different; budget decisions, including those for human services, are currently being weighed and deliberated. The Oregon Support Services Association is a member of the Oregon Developmental Disabilities Coalition. The Oregon DD Coalition is a collection of people and organizations from all over the Oregon DD community who come...
Read MoreReduction List: Case Management Matters
The second half of June has arrived, and with it, the legislative session’s crunch time. Budget negotiations turn to budget deals, and our elected officials make hard decisions. As you will recall, Oregon’s Joint Ways and Means Committee Co-Chairs released a Targeted Reduction List at the end of April, which outlined a more detailed proposal for reducing costs to the 2017-2019 budget. Our legislative leaders have been warning us for months now that, without new sources of revenue, there will be cuts. The Targeted Reduction List proposes to reduce funding to case management for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. To understand why that...
Read MoreCo-Chairs Release a Targeted Reduction List–What’s On It?
Oregon’s economy is healthy and growing, but so are its costs. In fact, the costs of current services and budgeted obligations have outpaced the amount of money coming into the state to pay for them. Our legislative leaders have been warning us for months now that, without new sources of revenue, there will be cuts. Now, for the first time, we are getting a clearer picture of what those cuts might look like, as the Joint Ways and Means Committee Co-Chairs, Senator Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin) and Representative Nancy Nathanson (D-Eugene) have released their 2017-19 Target Reduction Lists. For the IDD service system, the cuts are spread over several areas, as...
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