Apparently, Oregon spends the largest percentage of its budget on prisons of any state. LINK
 
Before we get into the inevitable attacks on Measure 11, we might want to look at a few factors.  First, Oregon has a low overall budget for a state of its size because, well, Oregonians are cheap when it comes to funding state government.  Second, Oregon doesn’t have some of the economies of scale of larger states, so having any prison system at all is going to eat up a bunch of money.  Third, Oregon’s per capita incarceration rate is actually below the national average. Fourth, the prison budget also includes spending on county jail incarceration, something not paid out of prison budgets in other states.  Also, it includes some community corrections payments, another item not generally included in prison budgets in other states.

You would expect Kevin Mannix to defend incarceration, but perhaps not in this way.  He said that the reason we pay so much is because we have well-compensated corrections officers.  He admitted that this is a good thing, saying, “You get what you pay for,” and stating that the high compensation was one of the reasons we don’t have as many problems with drugs in our prisons as other states. 

There are some changes on the horizon.  Mannix’s mandatory minimums measure would mandate a huge increase in prison spending.  If it passes, it seems like we would have to take a look at what “prison” means, moving away from politically popular, but ineffective, large, secure, and expensive prisons in Eastern Oregon for a cheaper, more effective, community-based minimum security model.
 
If, instead, SB 1087 passes, that would actually fund treatment programs.  The hope is that this would boost Oregon’s abysmal spending on rehab programs and offset the increased incarceration that it mandates for repeat offenders.

So, if the bad news is that we spend a lot on prisons, perhaps it’s not that we have too many people in prison, but rather that we spend a lot on prisons.  It’s heartening to see that there’s some consensus that we shouldn’t be cutting corrections officer salaries to make it cheaper, although maybe we should be looking at the system to figure out how to make it less expensive and more effective.  However, you needn’t look farther that the current debate over community supervision for the mentally ill to see how popular these sorts of community placements are.  Everyone agrees that they’re a good idea, but no one wants one in their town.

That’s right, local TV personality and recent City Club President Rick Dancer may seek the Republican nomination for Oregon Secretary of State. The Register Guard reports:

Willamette Week, a Portland alternative news­paper, reported this week that Dancer’s name was floating around as a possible GOP candidate for secretary of state. Oregon Republican Party spokeswoman Brianne Hyder declined to comment on the report’s veracity.

Dancer, a longtime presence on KEZI-TV, didn’t return three calls to the station. A newsroom employee said questions were to be handled by News Director Gary Darigol, who declined to discuss the possible candidacy.

“Any questions regarding Rick Dancer will be answered this Wednesday at 6:30 by Rick Dancer on KEZI news,” he said.

Gee, I bet the ad price for the 6:30-7pm slot on KEZI skyrocketed (all the way to $25 a minute)!

Really, this is shameless — this had better just be a publicity stunt, because if he announces his candidacy on the air, taking advantage of his position in the media and pumping up the event using his own news program, well.

Exciting times for health care reform in Oregon — at least, we hope so!

With the passage of SB 329 in 2007, the Oregon Health Fund Board began developing their plan to insure Oregonians through a system of “accountable health plans” who were obligated to serve Oregonians holding an “Oregon Health Card”. The bill itself sets a goal to provide essential health services (as defined by the governing boards) to ALL Oregon residents. While this sounds very exciting, we also know the Federal government does not support universal health care, and with the AARP’s position that seniors should be able to access similar benefits from Medicare nationwide, some aspects of this bill are not currently feasible practically or politically.

The most important work going on now is the implementation, which the Oregon Health Fund Board will develop through their committee work. One interesting aspect is that the committees are assuming a certain package of supporting health related bills must go through the legislature (as soon as 2009). One such policy would require all Oregonians to maintain health insurance (an aspect of Massachusetts’ health care reform package).

I’m particularly happy to see that the Northwest Health Foundation has undertaken health policy advocacy work, as demonstrated by their new blog about health care reform. Now so far there is just one post, inviting others to comment, and a few have stopped in to post their excitement for the possibilities. Rumor has it that NW Health Foundation is changing their grantmaking focus to support health policy reform work (after several years of funding community based action research, a grassroots approach to making change).

Let’s continue to generate some chatter from down here in Lane County! Comment here and on the health reform blog about what YOU think Oregon needs to change about our health care system.

If you haven’t seen this video yet and you care about the environment, take a 20 minute break and do it!

For more info check out the site…The Story of Stuff. There is a cleaner looking video there, but takes FOREVER to load. The corporations took all the bandwidth and we couldn’t afford that version!

Again, the second CNN gets their hands on a picture of the mass murderer, they plaster it on their website for the next to see how easy celebrity is to achieve. Like my two posts after the last CNN-reported mass murders, the next shooter is watching.

There has been another mass shooting. CNN’s headline currently is “Gunman opens fire at Illinois university.” And their second sub-heading underneath? “Are you there? Send text, video, photos”. Though their exclamation point is only implicit.

If you are there and do send photos and video, you will make their day. And Charlton Heston’s day too. Because as he knows, the only way to stop gun violence is for everyone to have more guns. Because if everyone has guns, conflict resolution is just a click away.

The fundamental conflict in Oregon politics isn’t between Republicans
and Democrats.  It’s between Progressives and Conservative Populists.
(For a great development of this thesis, buy the book …)
 Put another way, Oregon politics is the endless internal struggle of
voters who love progressive ideals, but hate paying taxes to support
them.  Historically, this means we chronically underfund education and
law enforcement.

Our schools do well for what we give them, but we don’t give them
much.  One influential ranking of the top 100 high schools in the US
listed 5 from a single Maryland county with one of the highest per
capita student spending, while listing none in Oregon.  On the law
enforcement side, we can’t keep troopers on the highways 24/7, and,
despite the howls of many good old fashioned liberals about the
“draconian” Measure 11, rapists, robbers and burglars do less time in
prison here than in almost anywhere else in the country.  By and
large, we’d love to educate our kids and to lock criminals up, but
we’re just too damn cheap.

The November election presents the classic “rob Peter to pay Paul”
scenario.  Kevin Mannix has gathered enough signatures to qualify his
tough-on-crime Measure 40 for the ballot.  The Oregon District
Attorney’s Association introduced a competing bill, SB 1057, to refer
a different approach to the ballot.  I won’t belabor the details,
which are available at The Statesman Journal.
 However, briefly, the main differences are - 1) Measure 40 has
mandatory prison time for some first time felony offenders, while SB
1087 only does so for repeat offenders; 2) SB 1087 significantly
increases funding for drug treatment programs, while Measure 40
provides none; and 3) Measure 40 will cost $250-$400 million per two
year budget cycle, while SB 1087 would only cost $140 million.  If
both pass, as seems probable, the one with more votes will take
effect.  Without additional revenue, both will significantly siphon
off the funds available for education.

So, what’s a good law-and-order, progressive Democrat to do?  Fixing
the criminal justice system to either put crooks in prison or finally
fund some rehab programs sounds great, but gutting the education
system to do so seems, well, “self-perpetuating” seems like a good way
to put it.  Estimates of the cost to provide full day kindergarten for
every child in Oregon come in well below either of these price tags.
Ah, to be back in the days of Guv Kitz, who would have just said that
he’d push new taxes through if either passed.  The great benefit of
having a doctor as governor was that the loss of the government
paycheck by losing an election actually would have meant a pay
increase.

Instead, we’re left with damage control.  In the grand scheme of
things, SB 1087 concedes the popularity of anti-crime measures and
seeks to limit the fiscal damage that Measure 40 would cause.  It
reinforces Oregon’s rehabilitative philosophy, popular among
progressives for its emphasis on second chances and among conservative
populists for it low price tag, makes it more honest by actually
funding rehab, and puts some steel in the spine by providing prison
time for more repeat offenders.  In my 10 years of experience, this is
pretty reasonable approach.  Most of the crimes in question have at
least a 75% correlation with drug abuse.  In the case of identity
theft, I have yet to see a single case that did not have an aspect of
drug abuse.  So, rehab seems reasonable.  However, the opportunity for
rehab means very little without some consequence for failing to follow
through.  The increased penalties for repeat offenders provide that
level of accountability.  The lack of a funding mechanism is
troubling, but what do you expect out of a low paid, part-time
Legislature - the political courage to pay as they go without gutting
education?  No, that would be too much to ask, wouldn’t it?

I am at a complete loss for an interesting local story to blog about, other than “Local Bus Project Volunteer Loses ‘Eugene’s Most Eligible’ Contest” (but notice I did wear my Bus button on stage!)

Instead I wanted to share a documentary recommended by a friend.  Since 9/11 it has been pretty easy to watch as the government has used fear based tactics to influence the will of the people.  Before seeing this, I had no idea how long and to what lengths this has gone on for decades. 

Take a look at http://thepowerofnightmares.com/. It is a fascinating history lesson about the rise of Islam, Neo-conservatism and the common threads to both.  If you have a spare 180 minutes and find this to be an interesting topic, I don’t think you will be disappointed.  It gives a great outside perspective from the BBC that you wouldn’t be able to get from the U.S. media.  How would they ever find time to air it when they have to keep tabs on what Britney is up to!?

I went to the Marche Migrante event this morning to meet members of the Border Angels, a group that assists immigrants who are in danger while attempting illegal border crossings. They rescue stranded, dehydrated people — apparently about 10,000 people have died recently attempting to cross the US/Mexico border.

They advocated for humane and comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship or legal residence for the 12 million people currently living without documentation in the US, as well as humane immigration policies that prevent needless deaths due to desperation to immigrate. They did not endorse a specific presidential candidate, but allowed that both Obama and Clinton have policies that are close to each other and “have some good parts, some not so good”.

Also, Guadalupe Quinn from CAUSA asked us to call our legislators to ask them to oppose SB 1080 (initially proposed by Bruce Starr , R-Hillsboro) and a similar bill in the house that requires the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles to verify social security numbers and proof of Oregon residence before issuing Driver’s licenses. These provisions force the DMV to assume a role never intended for a this state agency — immigration enforcement.

The point of issuing driver’s licenses is to improve road safety (which is a vital part of the infrastructure that supports commerce, business, transportation, etc.). The point is to keep unsafe driver’s off the road, ensure legal drivers have insurance, car registration, know the rules of the road (i.e the written test) and can drive safely (driving test). Nothing about immigration status affects driver safety.

Of the local legislators, Nancy Nathanson was the only one mentioned and she vote (rightly) against the measures. however, the senate version has made it into Ways and Means and is likely to pass unless we stop it.

This legislation is a step toward implementing Bush’s controversial REAL ID act, which some of us heard about at Rebooting Democracy’s Policy Battle Royale.

I just asked a lobbyist who works on other issues about the DMV legislation and why some dems were supporting a Republican policy objective. He said the word is that progressives in the leg fear a more draconian and oppressive ballot referendum (from the Republicans) or initiative (from anti-immigrant groups, Sizemore, the usual suspects) requiring even stricter documentation of citizenship and residency than SB 1080.

I’m pretty sure that CAUSA and the Border Angels do not agree with this decision. I think it’s important for progressives to listen to their allies, and in this case I don’t think we’re making the right choice.