County set to leave statewide lobbying effort

Jackson County commissioners have given notice they will drop out of a 105-year-old lobbying organization for Oregon counties because of a growing rift over legislative direction.

This is the only county in recent memory to have left the Association of Oregon Counties. Of the 36 counties in Oregon, Jackson will be the only one that won't be part of the association.

Commissioner C.W. Smith had resigned from the association's board of directors this summer because of radiation treatment for cancer and was in line to be selected president of the association's board of directors next year.

He said Jackson County wanted support from the association to back legislation that would help compensate county assessors offices throughout the state for taxes collected for other agencies.

"We did get at cross purposes over some legislation," Commissioner C.W. Smith said.

The county tried to get a letter sent out through the association in support of the legislation, but failed to get it in a timely manner, he said.

Smith said the general lack of support means the county will not renew its membership in January.

The county sent a letter Dec. 14 stating the association has forsaken the counties to maintain relationships with other groups such as the League of Oregon Cities and the Oregon School Boards Association.

Jackson County pays $31,000 annually in dues, representing about 5 percent of the total dues collected from all counties by the association.

Commissioner Jack Walker said the association has had a history of not helping counties in Southern Oregon.

In 1996, he remembers trying to get support on land-use issues. They weren't willing to help us at all," he said.

The county not only spends money for dues, but also incurs significant travel expenses going back and forth to Salem or Eugene. With teleconferencing, he said there is no reason for that anymore.

Walker said the county wanted support from the association to create a tax base for assessors' offices throughout the state that collect for a number of agencies. Every time a new agency is created, it gives the Assessor's Office additional work but no extra revenue.

Walker said the proposed legislation would likely step on somebody's toes, but he said he sees the association's job as sticking up for the counties.

In general, the association appears to have more allegiance to counties in the northern part of the state, he said.

"There hasn't been, in my estimation, a good effort to communicate with the rural counties," he said.

Mike McArthur, executive director for the association, said he was surprised to get the letter Thursday from Jackson County.

He said there have been differences of opinion of legislation, but with an association that is comprised of 36 counties that's nothing new.

"I'm hopeful about clearing up a misunderstanding about some sequence of events that happened during the last legislative session," he said. "We've got a failure to communicate."

McArthur said he thinks the association didn't react fast enough to get behind the legislation Jackson County was pushing. He said it is difficult to get that kind of support quickly because it has to through various committees in his organization, but ultimately it was supported.

Commissioners may not be aware of all the issues the association is currently grappling with, including trying to get agreement from the counties of the tax initiatives, Measure 66 and 67, he said.

"With C.W.'s physical problems, and Jack's too, and Dave's busy schedule, they have a tough time staying up on what's going on here," McArthur said.

McArthur disagreed that the association was showing more support for other special interest groups.

He said it is sometimes necessary to reach a compromise with other groups, which have the power to kill legislation. Paying the assessors' offices would take about 2 percent from tax revenues that are badly needed by schools, he said.

McArthur said Commissioner Walker has often criticized his organization for not taking a tougher stand on some land-use issues.

However, he said the organization will be pushing for legislation that might provide some relief for those who sought relief from property rights laws under Measure 37.

McArthur said he plans to draft a letter responding to Jackson County with board president Steve Grasty. He hopes to meet with local commissioners in the near future to help resolve some of the differences.

McArthur said no county has dropped out of the organization since he's been executive director in 1992.

"That doesn't mean we haven't had people upset with us," he said. "But we've always managed to work through that."

Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476, or e-mail dmann@mailtribune.com.

Source:mailtribune.com/

Senators Add the Ornaments and Trimmings

The term “Christmas tree” has its own special meaning on Capitol Hill. It usually refers to a bill that has been decorated with “ornaments,” loaded up with special goodies for the folks back home.

But the term is particularly apt this week, as Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, works to have a vote on a heavily festooned health care bill by Christmas Eve.

They decorations include these:

The “Louisiana Purchase,” as it is being called, a provision for Senator Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, who obtained an extra $300 million in Medicaid funds for her state.

The Hawaii exemption, a measure that allows the state to keep its own health care system.

A break on the excise tax on so-called Cadillac health insurance plans for people in the 17 states where premiums are the highest. (The measure was initially intended to apply to the 10 states with the highest premiums, a Senate aide said, but some other senators wanted in and the number was bumped to 17.)


An exemption for small makers of medical devices from a new tax — relief that was sought by Democratic senators from states including Indiana, Massachusetts and Minnesota, where such device makers are based.

Favors for Nebraska as yet undescribed, sought by Senator Ben Nelson, a Democrat, for his home state as he demanded that the bill contain strict anti-abortion language.

Supporters of the bill say these sugar plums are a small price to pay to round up the necessary votes to pass landmark legislation that will result in most Americans having health insurance, many with subsidies, and will end some of the insurance industry’s most discriminatory practices.

Lavish Lobbying

But these ornaments are mere baubles compared with some of the neon measures that some lawmakers and lobbyists have fought to keep out of the bill.

Most prominent was the demand by Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, that leaders drop two provisions that the insurance industry and big business had been lobbying vociferously against.

One, of course, was a government-run insurance plan, or public option, which would have competed with private insurance companies. The other was an expansion of Medicare to include some people ages 55 to 64, a change that hospitals and doctors fought because it would have meant taking care of more patients at lower Medicare rates.

Insurers also beat back an attempt to strip the industry of a partial antitrust exemption that it has long enjoyed.

To achieve these goals, the lobbying campaign on health care legislation has been lavish, even by Capitol Hill’s inflated standards.

Final spending amounts for the year will not be known until mid-January. But in the first nine months of the year, health care lobbyists spent at least $396 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks the influence of money on elections and policy.

Because the lobbying intensified in the fourth quarter as both the House and Senate prepared their final bills, the year-end total is likely to shatter the previous record for money spent on a single issue in a single year.

Perhaps not surprisingly, that record was set just last year, when health care lobbyists spent $486 million in anticipation of the legislative action this year.

“If spending this quarter remains on pace with the first three quarters — just on pace — lobbying in the health care sector will obliterate the high-water mark that it set last year,” said Dave Levinthal, a spokesman for the center.

But even those figures do not give the full picture of the flood of cash funneled into lobbying on health care in 2009.

For example, the center’s health care figures do not include lobbying by the insurance industry. Mr. Levinthal said the center could not isolate the amount the industry spent only on health insurance, as opposed to other forms of insurance.

Nor do the figures include spending by groups like the United States Chamber of Commerce, which has multiple issues pending before Congress but led the effort to kill the public option.

Some of the lobbying, especially in the early days, was done on behalf of remaking the health care system. But over all, more has been spent against it. Because Democrats control both houses, they have received more money than Republicans.

Corporate Glee

The insurance companies were probably among the merriest of industries last week. Because the legislation mandates that everyone buy insurance, those companies stand to gain 30 million new customers — and there will be no government plan to compete with.

But the drug companies were certainly joyful too. So far, they have kept intact a deal with the White House to bar the importation of cheaper drugs from Canada and elsewhere. In exchange, the drug companies agreed to give up $80 billion over 10 years through discounts and rebates.

Some Senators fought the pharmaceutical deal, noting that $80 billion represents only about 2 percent of the $3.6 trillion that Americans are expected to spend on drugs in the next 10 years. But the Senate effectively voted last week to keep the drug pact in place.

The pharmaceutical industry has spent more money by far than any other on lobbying in the first nine months of the year, laying out $199 million. That is also the single highest amount that any industry has ever spent on lobbying in a nine-month period, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Citizens who do not normally pay attention to Congressional gift exchanges may have been galled at the process, particularly with the health care of the nation’s citizens and one-sixth of its economy at stake.

But they will see more maneuvering in the weeks ahead, as lobbyists seek to ensure that the measures they kept out of the Senate bill will also be excluded from the final bill that the Senate produces in conference with the House.

On Capitol Hill, decorating the Christmas tree is always in season.

Source:prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/

Students go to Hill to lobby for Iran sanctions

Clifford Chance senior partner Stuart Popham has been appointed chairman of a lobbying group dedicated to helping London maintain its position as a leading financial centre.

Popham is the only lawyer in new organisation TheCityUK, which launches tomorrow (19 November) with the aim of promoting the City's financial sector, which has seen its reputation suffer as a result of the global recession.

The group is backed by Sir Win Bischoff of Lloyds Banking Group and former Merrill Lynch European chief Bob Wigley, with former political secretary to the British Embassy in Seoul, John Ingamells, serving as director.

It will aim to represent the financial community as it faces new regulations and reforms from governmental and regulatory bodies.

Popham's appointment to chair TheCityUK comes after he also landed a role advising HM Treasury on Britain's role in the global economy.

In May he was named as the sole lawyer on the Financial Services Global Competitiveness Group, working alongside 20 senior financial figures from banks, regulatory bodies, accounting firms and governmental organisations.

The group is chaired by Chancellor Alistair Darling and Sir Bischoff and meets on a monthly basis.

Source:legalweek.com

Students go to Hill to lobby for Iran sanctions

More than 200 students from Washington and New York universities took a break from studying for final exams last week to lobby Congress to support a bill sanctioning Iran for its nuclear ambitions.

The lobby mission, sponsored by several student groups from all the schools, was a day-long affair that yielded 52 separate meetings with lawmakers from more than 35 states, according to statistics gathered by the George Washington University group GW Acting Politically for Israel.

The event, which drew students from Yeshiva University, George Washington University and American University, began with a talk on lobbying by Sen. Joseph Liberman (D-Conn.) and AIPAC lobbyist David Gillette. The talk was followed by several hours of meetings, at which student representatives urged lawmakers to support the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanction Act, which would impose sanctions on Iran's energy sector in an effort to halt the nation’s nuclear plans.

The bill has yet to be voted on, though House leaders have said it will come to the floor before Congress breaks for the holidays this month.

Eric Gallagher, co-president of GW Acting Politically for Israel, on Monday deemed the event a success.

“They were generally very, very receptive to our message,” Gallagher said of the lawmakers the students met. “We found that the problem isn’t a lack of support for the bill but that it’s on the backburner because of the healthcare bill. We’re hoping to urge the leadership to get the bill up for a vote [soon].”

This month’s effort marks the third time GW Acting Politically for Israel has lobbied Congress to sanction Iran, Gallagher said.

Alison Silver, co-president of the Yeshiva University Political Action Committee, said her group had plans to follow up on the lobby mission’s success. She said the group was planning a student letter-writing campaign to members of Congress to urge them to support the bill.

“I probably had 50 or 60 emails and people who came up to me and said how glad they were that they came” to lobby, Silver said. “Hopefully we made an impact on Capitol Hill, and we made an impact on-campus.”

Source:jta.org/