[school-discuss] Oregon legislator on Microsoft lobbying against open source

["Frederick Noronha (FN)" <fred@bytesforall.org>]

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Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 12:11:40 -0400
To: politech@politechbot.com
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com
Subject: FC: Oregon legislator on Microsoft lobbying against open source
   bill

From: Fred Heutte <phred@sunlightdata.com
To: <declan@well.com
Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 04:25:33 -0700
Subject: Fw: Legislative E-Newsletter #2, Mid-May 2003

Phil was the sponsor of the Open Source bill here this year.

fred

------ mail forwarded, original message follows ------

To: Barnhart.Rep@state.or.us
From: Staff.Repphilbarnhart@state.or.us <Staff RepPhilBarnhart
Subject: Legislative E-Newsletter #2, Mid-May 2003
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 15:28:19 -0700


Phil's Welcome

This is the second of what I hope will be many E-Newsletters to inform
and enrage you about the state of affairs in Salem. I intend to write
about the events involving Central Lane and Linn Counties (House
District 11), the events at the Capitol, and issues involving State
government and services in general.

This legislature does not understand, nor does it seem to care about,
the damage being done in Oregon to state funded services, including
schools, colleges, universities, health care, public safety, economic
development, or the protection of our environment. (This is identical to
the sentence I wrote last week. It will be included until it is no
longer true).

I want this e-newsletter to be useful to you. Send me your comments,
questions, and criticisms. I need your help to make our communication
useful.


Legislative Update

~~Oregon's Budget Crisis Deepens~

No healthy family would spend money on yachts or other frills while
neglecting the education of its children or stiffing the family doctor.
Oregon's low tax and low spend legislature is about to do exactly that.

A Tremendous Shortfall: The state's revenue projection has fallen short
once again, this time in spectacular fashion. On Thursday, I sat in the
revenue committee and listened to the state economist tell the committee
that in 2003-2005 biennium will have $650 million less in revenue than
was predicted in March. This means that the already meager Co-Chairs'
and Governor's Revised budgets are out of balance by another $650
million.

That's $650 million less for our schools, our seniors, the disabled or
sick, the police, prisons and courts, and our environment at a time when
services for these areas have already been cut to the bone or
eliminated.

What Needs to Be Done: The days of shortchanging our kids' education
must end. The shirking of our responsibility to Oregon's most vulnerable
must stop. The time to raise revenue is now.

In my last newsletter, I spoke at length about various ideas to raise
revenue and close the shortfall. Yesterday's revenue forecast makes
these ideas even more pertinent. We can save our schools and public
services by utilizing any number of good, fiscally sensible ideas which
have been proposed.

The most important of these ideas is retaining a portion of the $6
billion the state gives away in income tax breaks annually. But there is
no shortage of revenue concepts, which include reducing state lottery
commissions to restaurants and taverns from video poker machines,
increasing the Oregon's beer and wine tax -one of the lowest in the
nation-, and increasing Oregon's incredibly low $10 corporate minimum
tax. The doctor-representative from Ashland, Alan Bates, has come up
with an innovative provider tax to keep the federal dollars flowing to
Oregon's healthcare system, a billion dollars we cannot afford to lose.

The Outlook:  We are faced with a budget so lean that some school
districts, health systems, and necessary public safety organizations
will starve. These institutions are crucial to the well being of our
kids, the sick, and all of us who may be victims of crime. To protect a
system for an Oregon where any of us will want to live, we must have
more state revenue. To promote the economy and the growth of good jobs
we must have good schools and good services. That development requires
that we have more state revenue. To date, the House Leadership has been
unwilling to consider any substantive increase. A case in point, House
Bill 3636, of which I am a co-sponsor appropriates $6 billion to
Oregon's schools. The bill would guarantee a budget that would protect
the programs our schools had two years ago. It would also force the
legislature to consider more revenue. It has not budged from committee.
There have been no hearings scheduled. Nothing...  The Republican
Speaker of the House continues to sit on her hands.

I will continue fight to do everything I can through my seat on the
House Revenue Committee to force a discussion on raising revenue. The
odds are very bad, however, that the Republican Majority will allow a
discussion of real, substantive revenue increases. Our sights should be
set on two or three billion dollars, not the couple hundred million we
may actually see.

Elections: If you have friends in Multnomah County or Corvallis, I urge
you to encourage them to vote "yes" on their local tax levies. Those
levies may be the only chance they get to save the schools in their
areas. The people of Oregon should not count on the Republican
leadership in this chamber to do what has to be done. We will continue
to work in hopes they will come to their senses...

~~HB 2892 - Open Source Software for Oregon~

Open Source. It sounds so simple, so inviting. My House Bill 2892, to
allow the State to consider open source and open standards when making
purchasing decisions for the State's vast computer systems, would save
us millions of dollars. It mandates...nothing. It suggests giving us...
a choice! School districts across the state are already reaping the
benefits of a system that is more reliable, more secure and free, why
not the State? Dare I suggest the presence of an 800 lb. gorilla (a.k.a.
Microsoft) in the Speaker's office might have something to do with the
very popular bill failing to emerge from House Government Committee?

My colleagues on both sides of the aisle reported receiving volumes of
mail supporting the sensible procurement process. Proprietary software
costs us every time we upgrade; with 55,000 computers in the system, the
licensing fees alone amount to about $8 million yearly. I have yet to
hear a well-reasoned argument against saving the State money. The chair
of the Committee stated in a work group that he "would have introduced
this legislation had Barnhart not beat me to it." We made numerous
concessions to the industry in the form of amendments. The Microsoft
people simply had no desire to work out a compromise. The answer to my
question of their lobbyist, "So, you just want this bill to go away?"
was an unequivocal, "Yes." The answer to their question of me, "Have you
given up on Open Source Software for Oregon?" is an unequivocal, "NO."

I welcome your comments, thoughts and suggestions. Please feel free to
contact my office if there is anything my staff or I can do for you. It
is often a frustration but always an honor to serve you.

Sincerely yours,

Phil Barnhart

State Representative

Central Lane and Linn Counties

~~Contact Rep. Barnhart~

Capitol:

900 Court  St NE, H-477, Salem, OR 97301

In-District:

P.O. Box 71188, Eugene, OR 97401

(503) 986-1411 * rep.philbarnhart@state.or.us
<mailto:rep.philbarnhart@state.or.us  *
http://www.leg.state.or.us/barnhart/home.htm

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