Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, the most senior tenured member of the 60-seat House, speaks Jan. 9, 2023, in the House chamber of the Oregon Capitol in Salem. He is the executive director of the Columbia Development Authority. 

SALEM — Republican Rep. Greg Smith of Heppner said the opening of the 2023 legislative session signals a generational change in Oregon politics.

The longest-serving Senate president, Democrat Peter Courtney, Salem, is retired, and the longest-serving House speaker, Democrat Tina Kotek, now is the governor of Oregon. Smith said this opens the doors to opportunities for lawmakers to try to work together and advance positive agendas.

To that end, Smith said he made a motion Monday, Jan. 9, on the first day of the session that the House has not voted on since 2005.

“Today we actually passed a vote of acclamation,” he said. “All 60 members voted for it.”

Smith said he moved for a vote of acclamation for the new House speaker, Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, as well as the speaker pro tempore Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene.

“I hope it sends a message to Oregonians that the Legislature wants to work together for the betterment of both rural and urban Oregon. This is just a small gesture as we kick off the session that we have faith that we can work together.

As the longest-serving member of the House, it fell to Smith to give opening remarks. He said his message boiled down to “lift where you stand.”

“If we can lift where we stand,” he said, “we can do some pretty heavy things.”

Smith said he is going to keep his focus on the budget, as usual, and that also is where he navigates policy because so much comes down to the Joint Committee on Ways & Means, which Smith serves on as a co-vice chair.

Smith also is the co-chair of the Ways & Means Subcommittee on General Government. He said that may not be the most high profile committee, but when all the policy committees are winding down at the end of May, the general government committee is working because it oversees budgets for the governor’s office, the House and the Senate.

At the end of the session, then, he said, he’s working at the “big kids table.”

Smith proposes use for the kicker

Smith also mentioned a few bills he is submitting for consideration, including seeking more money for state fairs.

“I really believe county fairs are a part of our history, part of our heritage, so I’m working to ensure adequate, long-term funding for our county fairs,” he said.

He has nine drafts of proposals. The House began reading the titles of the more than 2,000 pieces of legislation that were prefiled to be formally introduced.

Smith said he worked on a proposal with the Oregon Department of Corrections and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the union that represents a chunk of corrections employees, regarding hiring or promotional preference to veterans.

Several state prisons operate in Eastern Oregon, including Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla and Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario. Smith said those employees in the National Guard leave to serve the country but are left out of promotional opportunities when they come back. His bill would have their time away serving in the military count toward consideration of promotions.

“This kind of levels that playing field,” Smith said, and would make a difference for “a couple thousand folks in our area.”

He also said there will be work to modify Measure 114, Oregon’s new gun control measure that opponents are looking to block in state and federal court actions.

“I’m a staunch conservative when it comes to the 2nd Amendment,” Smith said, “but I do want to see what the judge comes out with in their final comments, and then formulate a plan from there.”

Smith also said he is going to start a conversation about something that could get him kicked — requiring money from the state’s corporate income and excise tax kicker to fund school construction projects and infrastructure improvements. That would mean changing the Oregon Constitution. Smith said those dollars, though, would be a boon to capital improvements in local schools.

“I know it’s going to be controversial,” Smith said. “But at the end of the day, I do believe we have to have a conversation about whether our kids have appropriate and adequate space for their education. Let’s have the conversation.”

And he said the Legislature is going to be looking hard at enterprise zones, which abate local property tax for a number of years as an incentive to new business investments. The law is about to sunset, Smith said, and he has a proposal that would allow any combination of cities, counties and ports to designate enterprise zones together.

“Enterprise zones are not mandatory,” Smith said, “and if local officials don’t want to participate in it, they don’t have to.”

Sticking it out

This session also is operating under Measure 113, the law Oregonian passed in November that penalizes walkouts, a move Republicans have used in recent sessions to deny passage of some key bills that Democrats pushed.

“For a portion of the constituency, they want me to walk out at times,” Smith said. “At the same time, Oregonians had the chance to vote on that issue and said ‘You need to stay and work.’ That’s what they said they want us to do, so that’s what I intend to do.”

Voters in every county except Sherman and Lake counties passed the measure, according to Oregon’s official election results. Umatilla County supported it 13,249-11,201 and Morrow County passed it 2,272 1,725.

Smith said for him, there are a couple of issues significant enough to consider walking away over — the 2nd Amendment and abortion; Smith is in the anti-abortion camp.

But the voters are clear, he said, that lawmakers need to stay and work out differences.