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2005-03-17 Alert
HB 2484
It's official: the House Land Use Committee has scheduled a work session (not a hearing) on HB 2484 to amend ORS-195 to require "double majority" approval for 195 annexations. Some of you have known about this for several days, but we decided to wait for a general communication until we saw it on the official schedule. The session is scheduled for 1:30 PM on March 23 in room 50 of the Capitol. You can attend, but further testimony will not be taken.
We understand there have been a number of amendments to the bill, but haven't been able to get copies.
We appreciate Speaker Minnis' honoring her commitment that the bill had not been killed or shelved with her decision to pull it from the committee. Having been down this road before, I believe your many contacts have been instrumental in keeping the bill alive up to this point.
Keep in mind that there have been hearings and work sessions scheduled for 2484 in the past and later cancelled. There could easily be a repeat of that this time - but let's hope not. And let's also hope the opponents haven't been able to "gut & stuff" the bill to render it meaningless. They will stop at nothing to kill any chance of meaningful reform - because they do not want the public to have any more input and control over the annexation process. As you know, they have lobbyists - sadly funded with public money - who can be at the capitol full time if need be to cut deals to sabotage us. We common citizens aren't so fortunate.
We'll continue to try to find out what the amendments are and advise you when we know more. If the bill does make it out of committee without being overly "gutted and stuffed," then we'll need to mount an all-out effort to get it to the floor and convince at least 31 representatives to support it.
Jerry Ritter
Secretary, OCVA
This page last modified on 2005-11-16 08:29.
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