SALEM, Ore. — The new Speaker of the Oregon House, Rep. Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis), said he would give the recently completed 2022 short legislative session an A-minus grade, because there's always room for improvement. Republican House leaders would agree there's room for improvement — a lot of it. They said they would grade the session a D.
House Republican Leader Rep. Vikki Breese Iverson (R-Prineville) and Deputy Republican Leader Rep. Kim Wallan (R-Medford) were guests on this week's episode of "Straight Talk."
During its 31 day session, lawmakers passed more than130 bills and spent $2.5 billion. Breese Iverson said that's not what the short session was originally intended to do.
"The intention of short session was to create a time for legislators to come back to the Capitol to do budgetary fixes, technical fixes, and agency oversight. And if we look at what we're doing in this last short session and really in recent years, we aren't doing what the intention of short session was about," she said.
Oregon House Republicans say Democrats overreached on spending
Rep. Wallan and Rep. Breese Iverson think the unexpected surge in revenues in state coffers should have been returned to taxpayers.
"A lot of that money was federal money. It wasn't just that we weathered the downturn. We are borrowing that against future generations. We are going to be paying that back in inflation as we're seeing now," Rep. Wallan said.
On Straight Talk recently, Speaker Rayfield stood by the legislature's spending. He said the state met Oregonians' pressing needs as they try to recover from the pandemic, and saved a record amount of money.
"We had a historic ending fund balance of $760 million. That's more than when Republicans were in control — that's more in prior cycles when Democrats were in control. On top of that we also have reserve accounts. When you add it all we have around $2.7 billion in reserves. We are one of the best states in the nation to weather a significant economic downturn," he said.
Republican leader: Money should have been returned to taxpayers
Republican leader Breese-Iverson said that looks good on the surface, but she pointed to the source of those dollars.
"We got those dollars by taxing Oregonians. And I think as we look at what we are facing and potential downturn — we should look at how to give back some of that money to Oregonians who worked hard to earn it in the first place," she said.
The two Oregon Republicans also discussed the historic all women-leadership team for Republicans in the House, the relationship between Democrats and Republicans in the legislature, the upcoming election for governor, and how that could impact the next legislative session and the future of Oregon.
"Straight Talk" airs Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 6:30 p.m.