Oregon Public Broadcasting

Democratic leaders in the Oregon House made good on a promise Wednesday.  One of the bills at the heart of a vote-trading controversy passed.  

Questions about the bill surfaced after a letter seemed to outline a case of quid pro quo among lawmakers.  But as Salem Correspondent Chris Lehman reports, there’s apparently nothing illegal about vote-trading.

Last week, majority Democrats were looking for an extra vote for a major tax hike.

At the same time, an eastern Oregon Republican was looking to expand a tax break for logging companies, an issue he felt was important to his rural district.  

So House leaders wrote a memo to Representative Greg Smith promising that tax break would pass the House.

Unwritten, but implied, was that Smith would cross the aisle and vote for the tax hike.  He did, and now his logging tax break has also passed.

The Oregon Republican Party filed an ethics complaint.  But Ethics Commission director Ron Bersin quickly rejected it.

Ron Bersin:  “When you’re trading votes for bills, that isn’t necessarily a financial gain for the individual that’s asking for them.” 

The tax break for loggers passed by a wide margin.  The earlier vote for the tax increase was much closer, but in the end despite all the hullabaloo, Smith’s vote wasn’t the deciding factor.