Legislature ought never forget `The People'.Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Jerry Ritter rit·ter n. pl. ritter A knight. [German, from Middle High German riter, from Middle Dutch ridder, from r For The Register-Guard Every two years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time Oregon Legislature convenes to conduct `The People's' business. At least that's the stated purpose of every bill that is introduced: All legislation begins with the words, `Be It Enacted By The People Of The State Of Oregon ...' With that profound statement, the sponsors of a bill profess to speak for `The People' of this great state. In a typical session, several thousand bills are introduced. Anyone who reviews every bill - a daunting daunt tr.v. daunt·ed, daunt·ing, daunts To abate the courage of; discourage. See Synonyms at dismay. [Middle English daunten, from Old French danter, from Latin task - will find plenty of examples where `The People' would likely agree with the sponsors. Thankfully, many legislators go to Salem intending first and foremost to represent their constituents. They understand, correctly, that it was for this purpose that they were elected. But there are also numerous cases where `The People,' if they had their way, would consign consign v. 1) to deliver goods to a merchant to sell on behalf of the party delivering the items, as distinguished from transferring to a retailer at a wholesale price for re-sale. Example: leaving one's auto at a dealer to sell and split the profit. a bill to the recycling bin. These are bills typically born of powerful special interest lobbying or legislators putting their own agendas ahead of `The People's' business. The number of bills in the 2005 session is smaller than usual so far. But the mixture is typical in that it includes the good, the bad and the downright silly. Many good bills have been introduced. Among them are about a dozen to crack down on Oregon's methamphetamine epidemic (e.g., Senate Bills 375 through 379). There is an anti-spyware bill (House Bill 2302) and several measures (such as HB 2365) to undo the nonsensical school zone speed law from the 2003 session. SB 295, aimed at the Coburg speed (revenue) trap, and SB 624, to prohibit insurers from using credit history as part of rate determination, are part of the `good' mix. So are bills such as our own HB 2484 to give citizens a greater voice in public processes. These are only some of the current bills that most Oregonians would likely agree are `The People's' business. They are responsible measures aimed at addressing real issues. However, many other bills would almost certainly never be enacted by `The People.' Arguably heading the bad category is SB 769 which would authorize in-state college tuition The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. College tuition for illegal aliens. Close behind is HB 2331 to revoke the annual minimum wage adjustment - a direct violation of a voter mandate. These and other similarly irresponsible bills should never even have been introduced. Every session has its downright silly bills. Leading the 2005 list are HB 2344 and HB 2503 to require schools to provide martial arts This is a list of martial arts, broken down by region and style. African martial arts Eritrea
v. t. 1. To give a new name to. Verb 1. rename - assign a new name to; "Many streets in the former East Germany were renamed in 1990" the Historic Columbia River Highway The Columbia River Highway is a highway built in the U.S. state of Oregon along the Columbia River between 1913 and 1922. When the Multnomah County portion was first paved in 1916, it was the first major paved highway in the Pacific Northwest. in honor of Ronald Reagan. Such measures do nothing but waste the Legislature's time, and these aren't the only examples. In addition to the foregoing categories are more than 100 bills to raise or impose new taxes, fees or both, to create new commissions, offices, task forces and penalties and to make more work for government agencies. How many of these would `The People' enact? Measure 30 gave us a clue. The prime directive  The novelty of research or terms used in this article is disputed.2. In order to make good laws, it is necessary to understand those which are in force; the legislator ought therefore, to be thoroughly imbued with a knowledge of the laws of his country, their advantages and defects; to is to represent `The People of the State of Oregon.' Before introducing or supporting any bill, he or she should feel reasonably confident that `The People' would support the measure in a general election. Fortunately, many legislators do ask themselves that question. That is why most bad bills don't become law. But as the 2003 session's HB 2152, which spawned Measure 30, demonstrated, such is not always the case. Gov. Ted Kulongoski Theodore R. "Ted" Kulongoski (born November 5 1940, in rural Missouri[1]) is an American Democratic politician. Since 2003, he has served as the Governor of Oregon. He was re-elected in 2006. has stressed the need to restore trust in state government. The Legislature can best accomplish this by never losing sight of its prime directive: It is elected to conduct `The People's'' business - not to give people `the business.' Jerry Ritter of Springfield is the secretary and legislative affairs coordinator of Oregon Communities for a Voice in Annexations. |
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