April 8, 2011
Oregon Politics Roundup: Sippy cups, bottle bill, K-12 budget, solar panels
The Joint Ways and Means Committee approved two bills that set the K-12 school spending level at $5.7 billion for 2011-13. That's about how much the state is giving schools in the current two-year budget, and not enough to prevent teacher layoffs and bigger classrooms, school advocates say. This will become the Legislature's first big budget debate. Both bills are likely to hit the Senate floor early next week.
The Senate approved a ban on using a certain kind of plastic when making baby bottles or sippy cups. Known as BPA, critics say it can lead to cancer. A similar measure failed in the Senate last year. Here's Oregon Public Broadcasting's take on how things went differently this time around.
On another bottle front, a legislative committee kicked off hearings on changing Oregon's first-in-the-nation bottle bill. Lots of media covered it. Here's the take from The Register-Guard in Eugene. The proposal would put lots of other types of bottles under the deposit law and would increase the deposit from a nickel to a dime on containers that don't achieve an 80 percent recycling rate. Various attempts have been made over the years to expand the bottle bill, especially to include wine, tea and sports drink containers. Each time, however, a strong effort by various lobbyists has blocked the attempts. This time could be different.
Here's an intriguing possibility for Oregon: General Electric wants to build a huge solar panel manufacturing plant, and Oregon is competing hard to get it. The state has attracted a number of similar plants, thanks in part to attractive tax incentives. But the state's economic development director worries that other states have better financial carrots to offer.
– Harry Esteve
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/04/oregon_politics_roundup_sippy.html
