SALEM- The Oregon Legislature announced last week the naming of the Joint Legislative Argument Committees on Ballot Measures 70, 71, and 72.

The committees, recently named by Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, and House Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Clackamas, were created for the purposes of drafting arguments in support of the ballot measures proposed by the Legislature.

SALEM- As expected, the Legislative Emergency Board voted to restore $17.1 million in state funding to the Oregon Department of Human Services on Thursday.

In a press release sent out Thursday afternoon, Senate President Courtney, D-Salem, said, “We know it is absolutely the right thing to do to keep serving those who need help the most-especially our senior citizens and children with disabilities.

FOREST GROVE- State Senators Rick Metsger, D-Hood River, and Bruce Starr, R-Hillsboro, met at the Forest Grove Town Hall to discuss business development in Oregon and what the State is doing to better the economy.

Both Metsger and Starr, who were leaders on the Senate Economic Development and Transportation Committee last session, stressed the importance of transportation on business development in Oregon.

SALEM- Senate President Peter Courtney, D- Salem, and House Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Clackamas County, announced on Tuesday their intentions to use the week’s Emergency Board meeting to prevent cuts to senior in-home care and services for those people with disabilities.

During the Legislative Emergency Board meeting scheduled for Thursday morning, Hunt and Courtney expect to restore $17 million of the $158 million that the Oregon Department of Human Services was required to cut as part of the governor’s allotment process.

SALEM- As of July 1, many employers no longer will be able to perform a credit history check of potential employees as part of their hiring process.

This is a result of the Job Applicant Fairness Act, Senate Bill 1045, which was passed in the most recent February session, spearheaded by Sen. Diane Rosenbaum and Rep. Tina Kotek. Oregon is the third state to enact such legislation, following Washington and Hawaii.

SALEM- The Committee on Performance Excellence hopes to help the Oregon government do more with less. The committee was created by Senate Bill 1099, which passed with strong support from both sides of the aisle.

“We’re looking at the new normal, and the new normal is we expect to have less, certainly not more, revenue in the future,” said Sen. Frank Morse, R-Albany.

SALEM- Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s final approval over agency budget cuts has reverted Oregon’s General Fund spending to approximately 2007 levels. Oregon’s General Fund budget accounts for about 22 percent of the entire Oregon state budget.

Despite cuts to the General Fund, the state’s total budget has increased by over $11 billion since the last biennium.

Strategy was the focus of the latest Full-Day Kindergarten Implementation Committee meeting Monday.

“There’s been a push in the state for quite a long time to get full day kindergarten implemented and paid for everybody,” said Karen Twain, Chair of the committee. “This is something that’s widely believed and researched to be a good practice.”

SALEM- A Department of Environmental Quality report addressing issues with water pollutants arrived at the State Legislature last week.

“Many Oregonians are concerned about the health of Oregon’s waters and the people who use them,” said the DEQ in its report to the Legislature.

SALEM- The progress of Oregon’s government transparency website was the focus of the Transparency Oregon Advisory Commission’s latest meeting Thursday.

The bipartisan commission consists of one Democrat and one Republican senator and representative, as well as five non-legislative members.