OREGON AFSCME
e-lert
#5 ¥ Feb. 13, 2009
Edited by Don Loving, Council 75 Public Affairs
Director
As mentioned last week, this
week's edition of the e-lert is
going to be very succinct. That's because the Salem office is moving.
Officially tomorrow is move day, but there are people hovering around me
wanting to yank my computer out of the wall — as I write this, mine is
literally the only computer and telephone still plugged in the building here.
More on the office move next week, and likely a "beefier" e-lert next week as well.
With that, let's get moving ...
* * *
HEALTH CARE PROVIDER TAX — Preliminary, tentative numbers are in for the
proposed health care provider tax bill, and the news is good for the two
largest AFSCME-represented facilities that would be impacted.
Council 75 Political
Coordinator Joe Baessler says a
hospital-by-hospital breakdown has been established for examining the tax's
impact. The bill, HB 2009, would
levy a 4 percent tax on hospitals and insurance providers that would help fund
low-income patients, particularly children. While the measure would provide
about $600 million within the state, there would be federal Medicaid
reimbursement totaling $1 billion in return.
"Good Shepherd Hospital in
Hermiston isn't big enough to be taxed, so it comes out really well with the
reimbursement piece," said Baessler. "The news is also good for OHSU. The
hospital there treats a disproportionate number of Medicaid-eligible patients
in the Portland area; that's been an issue for many years. It loses money on
those patients under the current system. Under HB 2009, the worst case scenario
is that OHSU would at least lose less money — and that's if the
reimbursement rate stays exactly the same. But conservative estimates have the
reimbursement rate increasing, and if that happens, OHSU has so many Medicaid
patients that it will actually make a 'profit,' so to speak, on such patients
under the new reimbursement rate."
Action Alert! Baessler encourages all AFSCME members to contact
their state legislators and urge them to pass HB 2009 — and quickly.
There is a timing issue with some new federal reimbursement rules that make it
imperative for HB 2009 to pass no later than the end of April.
Phone numbers and e-mail
addresses are provided for each state legislator on the Council 75 website's Oregon
Legislature page. There is also a link there that will identify your state
representative and state senator if you don't know who they are.
* * *
SAVING MONEY AT THE DOC — A pair of AFSCME-represented Corrections
Counselors, both members of Local 2376 (Corrections Security Plus) spent
Wednesday and Thursday at the capitol presenting ideas to legislators on how the
DOC can save money in the current biennium as the agency struggles to meet the
required 5 percent rebalance cutback.
Rob Hillmick works at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in
Pendleton; Jon Hansen works at
Coffee Creek Correctional facility in Wilsonville. Hillmick and Hansen
testified before the Joint Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 11 with a 15-point
list of ways to save money within their agency. In addition, they met —
along with veteran Oregon AFSCME lobbyist Mary Botkin and Council 75 staff rep and Corrections Coordinator Tim
Woolery — with several key
legislators on the same topic.
Hillmick and Hansen's ideas
range from ceasing to serve free soda pop to inmates (which costs at least
$600,000 per year, perhaps as much as $1 million) to eliminating a slough of
middle managers that the department used to do without. They also suggested
making inmates who qualify for TVs in their cells to pay for their own cable
(they currently get cable TV for free), ceasing to return "violated mail" back
to inmates' families at DOC expense (at least $200,000 per year) and requiring
DOC executives to drive personal cars rather than state cars.
"It's a start," said Hillmick
of their efforts. "Maybe it won't solve the whole problem, but it all adds up.
If we can keep even one person off the unemployment line, any money we save
will be worth it."
Botkin added that she is
readying for a host of public safety budgets in the next few days, including
those for the Department of Justice, Corrections, Oregon Youth Authority,
Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, Oregon State Police and
public defenders.
"We'll have several members
coming over to testify on various budgets," said Botkin. "Committees are
currently working on the required rebalance for this biennium, then the 'hard
work' will start on the next biennium. It's not going to be pretty unless the
economy perks up quickly."
* * *
TORT CAP ADJUSTMENT — It looks as though a compromise on SB 311 will set the stage for a new tort cap law in Oregon,
an issue particularly important to the Oregon Health & Science University,
where AFSCME Local 328 represents over 4,000 members.
The compromise is a
two-tiered system that will allow people to recover more money when they're
injured by government negligence, but give governmental agencies better insight
on how much insurance they need.
You may recall that lawmakers
tried to increase the tort cap late in the 2007 session, but trial lawyers and
OHSU officials couldn't reach a compromise. In 2007, the Oregon Supreme Court
ruled — based on a case stemming from OHSU — that the state's old
cap of $200,000 per incident was outdated and far too low.
The compromise creates a
two-tiered system with higher limits for an institution like OHSU — which
faces possible medical malpractice lawsuits that are always super-expensive
— and lower limits for local governments and school districts, which do
not routinely face the possibility of multi-million dollar suits. Setting
definite caps in place should save Oregon some $18.5 million on insurance for
its state agencies. OHSU should also save an undetermined amount simply because
there will now be a cap in place — without a cap, OHSU was in the
precarious position of having to unsure for virtually infinite damages.
The new caps for the upper
tier are $1.5 to $3 million effective immediately and increases to $2 to $4
million after five years. The caps for the lower tier, which includes local
governments, would start at $500,000 per claim and $1 million per incident. For
the lower tier, these caps would be indexed to inflation and increase
accordingly after five years.
* * *
'ANTI-SIZEMORE' BILLS — OK, officially there is no such thing as an
anti-Sizemore bill. But there are a pair of bills waiting for either hearings
or possible merger that would prohibit anyone who has ever been convicted of a
criminal or civil "fraud" violation from being the chief petitioner of a ballot
measure. Among the people who would be disqualified if such a measure becomes
law: Bill Sizemore. More details
on this in a later e-lert.
Baessler says he is awaiting
a draft next week of the omnibus elections reform bill, which is coming out
under the auspices of Secretary of State Kate Brown. We have detailed that legislation in previous e-lerts and will take another look at it once it becomes
official.
* * *
THIS & THAT FROM RALPH — Oregon AFSCME Political Coordinator Ralph
Groener says three of his current
issues ended up in essential holding patterns this week:
á
A big hearing on the
proposed beer tax increase, which would fund all drug and alcohol programs in
the state, including those in the prisons, and add money directly to the state General Fund, has
been put off a week, to Feb. 23. AFSCME will present testimony on that bill.
á
The "cap and trade"
emissions bill, which involves Local 3336 members at DEQ, is awaiting
amendments from labor — AFSCME, the Building Trades and the Oregon
AFL-CIO — that will incorporate more worker protections into the
legislation.
á
Groener and state Rep. Jean
Cowan (D-Newport) are working to get
all of the "players" involved in funding senior services to work together on
this important issue. Senior and general health services are going to be a
prime target for cuts if the Feb. 20 revenue forecast comes in next week as bad
as expected. Current "guesses" in the capitol hallways have the forecast down
anywhere from between $300 and $650 million.
* * *
31 DEGREES AND FROSTY IN
HADES — No, hell hasn't quite
frozen over, but Groener does now have an e-mail address of sorts. Thanks to
his granddaughter, you can now actually e-mail Ralph at sharalph@gmail.com. That is a home e-mail
so Ralph won't see it until he gets home each evening, and he still doesn't
have a Council computer, but hey, it's a start!
* * *
IMPENDING NUPTIALS — We end this relatively brief e-lert with the good news that Baessler recently proposed to
his longtime girlfriend, Sarah Masterson — and she said "Yes."
They are working on an exact
date, expected to be later this year. Sarah works for U.S. Rep. Earl
Blumenauer (D-Ore.) in his home
Portland office, covering labor and transportation issues. Congratulations to
both!
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