2001 Legislative Session Wraps Up
Note: This article first appeared in the Aug. 2001 issue of the employee publication OHSU Outlook
After working through the night the 71st Session of the Oregon Legislative Assembly finally adjourned a little after 5 a.m. Saturday morning, July 7. While the session was noted as one of the least contentious sessions in the past decade, the Legislature still struggled with several difficult budget issues, some affecting OHSU.
As an institution, OHSU had several successes this session. Some of the biggest are reflected in passage of the following senate bills.
Senate Bill 832, The Oregon Opportunity, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support from the Governor and the Legislature. The Oregon Opportunity will allow OHSU to use state-backed bonds to build out necessary research infrastructure and recruit additional scientists to help create a biotechnology industry in Oregon. The Oregon Opportunity provides OHSU with a fixed amount of debt financing for the purposes of securing a bond.
While some newspapers erroneously reported that the bond measure attached to The Oregon Opportunity will seek voter approval of the bonds, The Oregon Opportunity is in fact funded regardless of the outcome of the ballot measure. The ballot referral in question (House Joint Resolution 19) simply will ask the voters to allow OHSU to use so-called general obligation (GO) bonds instead of the more expensive revenue bonds. If the ballot measure passes, we will be able to use the funds set aside to secure GO bonds in the amount of $200 million. If the ballot measure fails, the funds will be used to secure revenue bonds at a much higher interest rate, netting only $165 million. By approving the use of GO bonds, Oregonians will be able to get more mileage out of the funds already dedicated to The Oregon Opportunity.
Senate Bill 511, which also passed overwhelmingly and with broad bipartisan support, helped pave the way for the OGI/OHSU merger. The bill made a number of "housekeeping" revisions to Oregon statute, including changing the name of OHSU to Oregon Health & Science University, to acknowledge the addition of the OGI School of Science and Engineering, and expanding the OHSU Board of Directors by three additional seats.
Senate Bill 114, which mandates civil penalties for misuse of DNA, maintains Oregon's status as a leader in the protection of genetic privacy. The bill also requires that patients sign a release before any type of DNA sample can be taken in a doctor's office for any kind of research.
While the university achieved several victories, we also had a significant setback during the last days of the session.
OHSU's base biennial budget, Senate Bill 5536, took a significant cut. The base budget is the state appropriation used to partially subsidize the costs of OHSU's education and community service programs, and the care it provides low-income patients. The Ways and Means Committee followed the Governor's recommendation and cut $10 million from the OHSU request. While several 11th-hour attempts were made to find additional dollars to bolster the OHSU budget, each such attempt was unsuccessful.
During the next couple of months the OHSU Board of Directors will review the budget shortfall and make decisions for managing the impact of the cuts.
