We're outta here -- the Legislature adjourns for 2009
Dana Haynes can be reached at: dana.haynes@pcc.edu
The purpose of this blog is to provide accurate information about Portland Community College's lobbying effort during the 2009 legislature.
Dana Haynes, spokesman for PCC, joined the college in June 2007 after 20 years spent in Oregon newspaper newsrooms.
Boom. Gonesville.
The 2009 Legislature adjourned sine die last night at 9:45 p.m. "Sine die" is Latin for "without a day."
Basically, at the end of every floor session, the Speaker of the House or the Senate President (or their various stand-ins) would adjourn "until tomorrow" or "until Monday." But on the last day of the session, you adjourn without a day of return. Sine die.
It was an incredibly difficult session, thanks to the recession. Tough choices were required in both chambers. Community colleges walk away with a budget cut of about 10 percent, and we're counting ourselves lucky: We were facing much deeper cuts a month ago.
There are some new taxes on corporations and the well-to-do. Will those get referred to voters? Quite likely. If voters overturn the new taxes, then we're back at Square 1, regarding everyone's budgets. Ours as well.
Thanks for those of you who checked out this blog from day to day. I hope it wasn't as wonky and insider-baseball as I feared. I will update it from time to time, but not daily as I did during session (this is, I should point out, blog number 113).
Good luck this summer.
dana
Release: leg 113
Posted: June 30, 2009