December 29, 2024 • 30 mins
Legislation in Congress to protect the Owyhee Canyonlands made surprising progress before Congress ended the 2024 session. Oregon's threat tipline Safe Oregon is receiving an increasing number of tips. The Oregon Department of Revenue has tips to help you get ready for tax season.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to local voices. I'm brad Ford. As Congress came
to a close this year, there was a last minute
surprise for a treasured part of the state and safe Oregon.
The Threat tip line is receiving more tips than ever.
The Owayhi Canyon Lands is an area in southeastern Oregon
that's called the state's Grand Canyon. Bills in Congress would
(00:27):
provide protection of the land and grazing rights. During the
week we talked with Oregon, so did Aron Widen about
that bill and other issues facing the state. Senator let's
start here explain where the Owahi Canyon Lands legislation is
and what's next.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
What happened late on on Friday night, really Saturday morning,
was Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, came to me.
He's a member of the leadership, and he said, why
don't we just pair two good bills and get action
in the Senate And he has a Wyoming bill. Mind,
of course, is Theywahi's our state people call the Owahi
(01:02):
is the Grand Canyon of Oregon. What I've been working
on in a bipartisan way for some time now is
to protect the eggway of life and our Treasures and
we got it through the United States Senate on unanimous
consent late at night. So this gives us enormous leverage
as we come to tackle the bill next year. And
(01:23):
I talked to Congressman Bentz after the vote. He was
very pleased. We're going to be working with Democrats and Republicans,
and we've got some issues to work out, but we're
on our way. This is the first time either the
House or the Senate has ever acted to protect the Owahis,
so we've got some good things sent in motion.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
One of the main issues in protection of the Hawaii
Canyon Lands.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, you have to protect the aggway of life, which
is crucial, but certainly the issue with respect to wilderness
and roads and where the roads are located is key.
And you know this is not I five I hate four.
These are you know, really with charney stems as they're called,
they're really smallly are important to the area, and we're
(02:12):
trying to work with the maps, and I believe we're
going to get it done. We made a lot of
headway on that. I think that both sides are being constructed.
Congressman Bentz certainly from an area where he grew up
feel strongly about this, as do I, and we're taking
the time to tee it up right. But to give
you a little bit of the timeline, two days ago
(02:33):
we really put out a statement saying we were going
to be working together, and twelve hours later we had
a big boost because the Senate leadership said, fine, on
a bipartisan basis, pass this bill, and we're going to
work closely with both the House and the Senate to
get this done.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
That was a nice end of the year surprise. Let's
move on to Portland General Electric. You said a letter
to PGE raising concerns about their increase in rates the
last three years. The OREK and Public Utility Commission just
approved another five and a half percent increase. It takes
effect New Year's Day. What are your concerns about the
PGE rate increases.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, I'm still very concerned. The five and a half
isn't anywhere near as big as what they ask for.
But we have to stay at it because the issues
they come up in my town hall meetings bred are
the ones where the second word is bill. It'll be
medical bill, it'll be insurance bill, it'll be housing bill,
it'll be utility bill. It's all about affordability and costs,
(03:31):
and I'm still troubled about the evidence that was given
to man. I appreciate the company being candid about the
implications that because the big industrial users the data centers
are important, that in effect the rate payer looks like
they're subsidizing that kind of thing. And I think we've
(03:53):
got to make sure that we are competitive. We want
to have the jobs, but we don't want to take
it out of the hide of rate payers of modest means,
and we're going to have those discussions further. They've also
read to make some changes in terms of shut off
of services and the like, and that'll be helpful as well.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Right, Pacific Corps has announced that they're raising rates ten
percent here in the new year. Since twenty twenty one,
their rates were up nearly fifty percent. Do you have
similar concerns with Pacific Core and other utilities that are
raising rates.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, they have different, you know challenges. A lot of
it revolves around you know, litigation and the like. We're
going to see continued debate on it. One other good
aspect of what we were able to do is the
twenty seventeen Republican tax las stopped the American families from
being able to take the miscellaneous itemized deduction, and that
(04:44):
meant that wildfire victims were having trouble. After they were
rightfully compensated for their property damage and hardship, they would
be taxed on all of their settlement proceeds, including the
portion goes to attorneys' fees that the victims never see.
I made that a priority to change because it seemed
to me this was like Oregon's version of insult injury.
(05:06):
You get clobbered by fire and then all of a sudden,
a bunch of tax characters show up, and you know
you've got to pay taxes on it. It was in
my bipartisan tax bill. We got that changed as well,
and we've been able now to make sure that wildfire
settlements are exempt from income taxes and is.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Huge because it'll help those homeowners rebuild what they lost.
Let's move on to the Explorer Act. The Senator proved
the Explore Act, which you sponsored. It's headed down to
the President to sign. Tell us what the Explore Act
does well.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It's basically set up to expedite ways to promote recreation.
And I had the Recreation Not Red Tape provisions that
are going to become law.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
And what we.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Found was that a lot of the recreation system, the
procedures were out of the dark ages. People were getting
up in the middle of the night to call all
across the country to wait in line and the like.
There was nothing resembling, you know, modern kind of services
and digital Given the size that everybody else is taking
(06:12):
advantage of, those opportunities, ought to be something that's part
of the recreation system. So under my legislation called Recreation
Not Red Tape, we clean out a lot of that
and it's going to make it easier for pears and
snowshoers and rivers, river rafters and people who are out
during the winter, people are out in the summer to
be able to get their permits and get through the
(06:32):
red tape with a lot of loud.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Tassle, you know, to show how long it takes and
how really how difficult it can be to get something past.
You started work on the Recreation Not Red Tape Act
in twenty fifteen, so this incorporates parts of that. Are
there other parts of that that you'd still want to advance.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
We're looking at that, but you know, legislation is is
not linear. You know, Brad, I have a book coming
out in a couple of a couple of weeks called
It Takes hoot Spot, and it talks about how everybody
in whatever field they're in needs to show some grit
and some perseverance and being willing to stay at something.
And the reality is, yeah, there were a lot of
(07:13):
bumps in the road in terms of a bill that,
like you said, should have been passed a long long
time ago. But legislation is not linear. It doesn't just
move from point A to point B and then everybody
shakes each other's hands and calls it a day. You know,
we had a lot of stops and starts, and initially
there was some pushing back by some of the agencies
(07:33):
and the bureaucracies, and we just kept giving them more
and more examples, and you know, Oregonians were getting up
in the middle of the night to call all over
the country to try to square away permits. And we
got it. We got it done. And as they say,
it sometimes takes a little hooks. Better just stay at it.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I can't wait for the book.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
It's another thing that you've worked on for years is
the pharmacy benefit manager issue. What happened with the legislation
that was put forward this year, Well, I.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Think what happened with Elon musk if I were to
sum it up. I worked very closely with Democrats and
Republicans in both the House and the Senate. And basically
what we said we were going to do is these
pharmacy benefit you know, managers who basically squat right in
the middle of these transactions that are supposed to get
(08:26):
a good deal for seniors that really are lining their
own own pockets. We said, we're going to end the
pricing system to create some centives for more profits and
less for seniors and higher expenses for taxpayers. We got
it done. We negotiated and spent many many months, and
(08:47):
Donald Trump and on others here in the last couple
of weeks said, you know, we got to beat the
hell out of these people. We got to knock them
out of the box, and and like and basically, when
when the dust settled, he stepped in, must stepped in
and basically killed it. And who knows why, And you know, maybe, uh,
(09:09):
they're they're going to tell us. But what Donald Trump
and Muskott did like you know, porch pirates, you know,
ripping that ritten the priorities away coverage the way.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
What do you see for the future of that legislation
this year or is it, like you said, a matter
of waiting to see what their issues are with it.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I'm just flat flabber gifted about about the whole whole
rad Doald Trump said to give you the exact quote,
you know this this week he said, I want to
take on the drug middle meant quote, they're rich as hell,
Donald Trump. I'm me, We're going to knock them out,
Donald Trump, not me. Well, the first opportunity to do that.
(09:53):
He and Elon Musk said.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Very interesting. What are your thoughts on how the continuing
Solution to keep the government open that was killed because
of opposition from Elon Musk and President elect Trump revised
and then approved with just hours to go before the deadline.
What are your thoughts on the way that process went down.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I think it's kind of kind of stunning in that
here they here, they are not even sworn into sworn
into office, trend to run around and dictate everything to
a bunch of House Republicans, and a lot of those
House Republicans just said no, And you know they think
they had challenges you know here over the last couple
(10:35):
of weeks. Wait, wait till next year when you have
a lot of new Republicans who are really more independent
than in the crowd serving. I think he's going to
have his handsful of getting organized.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
How about you approach President elect Trump's second term? Will
you make changes from the way you dealt with the
administration during his first term?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Well, I mean, we're starting to try to figure this out.
Either you know, it's Trump and a mini me or
Musk and his mini me. I mean, you try to
figure out who you're dealing with. And either way, it's
a bad approach to start a new Congress, a new Congress.
You know, President can sad one won the election. It
won the landslide. He won the election. You ought to,
(11:15):
you know, come in and work with the speaker, the
Speaker of the House and the leadership on both sides
of the aisle. We were ready to go. We made
a bipartisan deal. Bread That's what's important to remember here.
The fighting took place after there was a bipartisan agreement
between the Senate and the House, joining hands on things
(11:39):
like disasters, joining hands on things like farming, joining hands
on things like pharmacy benefit managers. And then Trump and
Muska came in, and I guess a big, big part
of it was, you know, Trump just wanted to make
sure that he'd get what he wanted on the debt
sealing issues so they could do a lot of borrowing
to get helped to to the well to do in
(12:01):
a tax bill.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
But as it turned out, he didn't get that right, and.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
He didn't get that either.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
On so much I think is the chaos that he
and Elon Musk spread and caught fire, particularly in the House,
was not at all constructive. And he could have said, hey,
really like the fact that the House and the Senator
worked together put together a deal on disaster and farmaid
(12:27):
and PBMs and other priorities, and said we're going to
build on that. Instead, what he did is really walk
walk away with what looks like Trump and Musk generated chaos.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
So in the Senate, Republicans hold fifty three seats. How
do you assess that majority and its ability to work
together and when they need to come together.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Well, I'm convinced they're going to have some big decisions.
We had a social Security Bill, for example, up at
the end, and the Republican leadership wanted to say that
they were concerned that this Social Security bill was going
to contribute to the deficit and that's why they were
against it. And I said, you know, we already have
(13:09):
a double standard on taxes. You know, where well to
do people can go for years paying little or nothing,
and the working person pas taxes with every paycheck. Now,
what we saw last week was a double standard on deficits.
The deficits apply when you're talking about this person getting
a little bit of help them their Social Security, But
deficits don't apply when you have tax cuts for well
(13:32):
to do people. And I call this the tale of
two deficits, and they're going to have to sort that out.
I mean, historically Republicans were the party that wanted to
pay for what they care about. But looks to me
now what they want to do is just get those
big tax cuts out and when people ask them about
how they're going to pay for them, they'll just say, oh,
we're going to grow out of them and the like.
And they said that in twenty seventeen, and what happened
(13:53):
is we generated a lot more debt.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
It's going to be an interesting four years. Senator, thank
you very much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Thanks for having me, Brad talk to you.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
That's Oregon Seat a Ron Whyden discussing some of the
top issues facing Oregon in Congress. Oregon has a tip
line for threats against schools. It's called Save Oregon and
it's been in operation since twenty seventeen. Lisa Miller with
Oregon State Police joins us on local Voices to update
the program. Lisa tell us about Save Oregon.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Sure So, Save Oregon is a statewide school safety tip line.
So it is available to all of our schools throughout
Oregon kindergarten through twelfth grade, public or private schools. It's
completely voluntary. Our schools sign up for the program if
it's something that they would like to offer to their
community as a resource. The tip line itself is available
(14:44):
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week for
individuals to use if they see or hear something that
they consider is a threat to a school or individual student.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So what happens when a tip is made, so the tip.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Actually comes in through through a contracted independent call center.
There are trained call center staff that receive the information
and what they will do is they will try to
triage the tip collect isn't much information as possible to
determine what kind of response would be needed. The way
the tip line is set up, when a school registers
(15:19):
to use the tip line, they designate a couple of
point of contacts for the tip information when it comes in,
So our tip line technicians are collecting that information to
pass it along to directly to our schools so that
our schools can respond to it appropriately. When the information
(15:39):
comes in through the tip line, it can be received
through an email or a phone call. There's a text
ability as well. There is a web form on the
website at sayforigin dot com, and then there is also
a mobile app that tips can be submitted through as well.
So the tip line technicians will receive the tips through
(16:00):
those methods and triage them, determine what kind of response
levels needed and then push that information back out to
the schools so the schools can respond to it.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
So how are threats that are made on social media?
How are they handled or how should they be handled?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Well?
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Social media is really a part of our life every
day now, and so we realize that a lot of
information is being passed along back and forth through social media,
and what we're seeing more commonly now are threats that
are being pushed around through social media and reposted frequently.
And one of the things that we really want the
(16:39):
community to understand about these social media threats is that
oftentimes they might be recycled from an earlier, non valid
threat that has already been determined that wasn't real. It
could have been from last year, and so oftentimes those
types of threats are creating a little bit of a
(17:02):
crisis in the community that's not necessary at that moment
in time. So when these social media threats are coming through,
what we really encourage people to do is report them
right away. We always want that information be passed along
through the tip line or through local law enforcement, or
directly to the school however they feel most appropriate, but
(17:23):
just really making sure that that information has passed along,
but not reposting it right away. We know that our
first initial response is we want people to know. We
want people to know there might be a threat, but
because the information is so limited, we really want to
have a chance to be able to investigate that and
make sure that the threat really is valid before we
start creating fear and panic with our students and our
(17:47):
families and our schools. When a threat will come in,
these threats will always be taken seriously. The call center
will always try to collect as much information as possible,
but oftentimes it can be very limited. They will pass
it along and they will be taken very seriously, and
our schools will involve law enforcement if they need to,
(18:08):
and they will investigate these incidentss as quickly and the
best that they possibly can. If and when they decide
that there is a valid threat, they will absolutely communicate
with the community as quickly as possible to get that
information out, and that needs to be shared as quickly
as possible. But until that information is validated and we
(18:31):
know that it's a true threat, we really want to
contain that information a little bit and make sure that
we're not spreading that fear. Whenever a school goes into lockdown,
whenever there is a threat that comes in, no matter
if it's valid or not, there's still a lot of
trauma that's happening with our kids and with our teachers
and with our families because we don't know what's happening,
(18:52):
and so we really want to try to limit that
as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Sure, because when that happens, they have to assume that
it's real, and so the fear that the word occur
with that is dramatic for the staff and for the students.
Man is for somebody who makes the tip, do they
get any kind of a response. You know, you mentioned
the social media, you might be reporting something that was
maybe six months old. Does the person making the tip
(19:18):
get a response saying, you know, thanks for the tip,
you know this is something that's been investigated. Do they
get any kind of feedback like that?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
There is not any kind of feedback like that. So
the way it's designed, the information comes in and because
it is a confidential or anonymous tip line, the information
remains confidential and anonymous, and so it's not released back out.
So if a tipster actually submits a tip to the
(19:46):
tip line and then calls back to try and find
out more information, they won't be able to receive any
of that information. So the best thing to do is
wait to hear directly from the school itself. Because this
the tip line is set up to go directly to
the school. The school is the one that will be
collecting that information and pushing the information back out to
(20:08):
the families and so hopefully the tipster will be able
to find out that information from the school directly when
they know.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
How long has Safe Oregon been in operation and has
there been an increase in tips since the hotline was started.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
The tip line first came about in twenty seventeen. It
was rolled out with a small number of pilot schools
to try out the system. We started off with a
little over three hundred schools that implemented the tip line.
They were receiving just a few number of tips to
kind of work out all the bugs. But since twenty seventeen,
over the last almost eight years, we have an over
(20:45):
ninety percent enrollment rate with our schools throughout Oregon, so
almost all of our schools are enrolled in offering this
service to their students and families. And we've seen a
twenty seven percent increase over the last three years of
the number of tips that are coming in. So we
average about three hundred and eighty five tips a month
through the tip line, which comes out about twenty six
(21:06):
hundred tips a year, which three years ago it was
about twelve hundred and thirteen hundred tips a year, So
we're definitely seeing it increase each year.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Is a tip line promoted in a way to students
so that they know it exists. For example, does the
school post flyers.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Yes. When a school enrolls in the program, they will
receive some Safe Oregon posters to put along in the hallways.
Also some stickers that are available to put into the
restrooms in the private areas so students can access the
information there as well. And then they also receive access
to all of the branding materials, the logo for Safe Oregon,
(21:48):
the embedded code so they can put it on their website.
And so we really work with our schools to try
and encourage them to promote the program as much as
they can to the students. A lot of schools will
put it on the back of these student ID cards
so the students have the phone number with them all
at all times. Also on their websites, they will have
(22:09):
a direct link to save Oregon. Some schools that actually
have little laptops or small iPads for students to use,
they will automatically download the mobile app for Safe ore
again on those systems so that it's readily available. So
our schools are do a great job of being really
(22:29):
creative of trying to push that messaging out to the students.
It's an ongoing promotion as our students are always graduating
and moving on to the next grade, so we always
have to keep up with that promotion. So some years
maybe it may be better promoted than others, but hopefully
our students are aware of the program, that how it works,
(22:51):
and that it's out there for them.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Have there been instances where threats have been stopped.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Absolutely, yes. The thing with prevention is that it's very
hard to quantify. It's hard to talk about the things
that we did prevent because we don't know for sure
whether or not they would have happened. But we do
have a lot of really great success stories. Some of
our schools share with us at the end of the
school year how Safe Oregon has helped. And we do
(23:18):
have stories of individual students who may have been dealing
with some struggles with suicidal ideation, showing some behaviors that
their friends were concerned about, and so their friends used
the tip line to ask for some help. So some
early intervention happened to wrap around that student to help
them through that situation. We also know that there have
(23:42):
been instances where there have been students who had weapons
on campus or were planning to bring a weapon to campus.
Whether or not they had all intention or not, that's
really not the important piece of the fact that the
tip was submitted that a student knew the other students
had access to a weapon and was planning to bring
(24:03):
it to the school, maybe for their own protection or
you know, to show off for their fellow friends, whatever
the intention was. That information was passed along through the
tip line, which helped. The information was given to our
law enforcement partners and the school and they were able
to intervene very quickly, and it's very possible that they
(24:24):
stopped a very critical situation from happening. And then we
also have situations where there might be some abuse tips
that come in. Child abuse tips occasionally come in through
Safe Oregon and our schools as mandatory reporters. They received
that information and they passed that along to DHS to
make sure that the students are safe, and they may
(24:45):
not have received that information if it hadn't been for
the tip line. So we know those situations are happening
all the time. I wish that we could say this
is the number of lives that we've saved. This is
the number of threats that we've stopped. But we know
that it's working and we know that it definitely has
safe lives.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yeah, it's very difficult to quantify it in that manner.
Let me ask you, Lisay, anything else you'd like to
add that I didn't ask you about.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
I think I just really would would. I hope the
community understands that this tip line is available, it's out there.
It's not a replacement for individual contact. We really want
our students to feel safe and be able to actually
have face to face conversations with their teachers and their counselors,
(25:30):
but we know that sometimes that's not always possible. So
Safe Oregon is a good alternative for that. If there's
something that's happening that they really need to pass that along,
but they don't feel comfortable talking to anyone about that,
Safe organ is a really great option. It's not a
replacement for nine to one one, so it's it's not
as if something if an emergency is happening, Safe Oregon
(25:52):
is not the appropriate place to go, but it is
something that is there for those individuals that really needed
to pass along information and they're just not sure where
to where to pass it along to, or they just
don't feel comfortable passing along in person and so they
want to remain anonymous or confidential.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
So for people who want to contact Safe Oregon, what
are the different ways they can do that.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
For general information about Safe Oregan, visit the website at
www dot saforgon dot com. On the website as well,
there is a link to a web form that can
be filled out to submit a tip if they wanted
to submit a tip and the other ways to report
a tip. You can download our mobile app. You can
(26:37):
call Safe Oregon at eight four four four seven two
three three six seven, or you can also text a
message to Safe Oregan at the same number eight four
four four seven two three three sixty seven. Or you
can send an email to submit a tip at tip
at saferegon dot com.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
That's Lisa Milar with the Oregon State Police. Details on
the safe tipline, and again their website is Saferegon dot com.
Tax seasons around the corner and the Oregon Department of
Revenue wants you to be ready. Robin Maxi says, create
a log in with Oregon Revenue online.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
So yeah, people should view their online account information to
make sure that things like their username, their password, and
address is current in Revenue Online. That's the department's online portal.
People who don't have a Revenue Online can sign up
for one on the agency's website. It really is the
best way to communicate with the state about your taxes
this year. Having a Revenue online account will be especially
(27:35):
helpful for those who can electronically file for free using
the combination of the IRS Direct File and direct file
Oregan Direct file organ will work best for those who
are logged into our Revenue Online.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
And how do you find out whether you're eligible to
do the direct file?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
So the IRS has an eligibility checker on their website.
Just through IRS dot gov and in the search bar,
type in eligibility checker and it'll bring up that page
and it is very simple to use. The first thing
you do is pick your state and then you just
follow some prompts. It provides information about the kinds of
(28:14):
income that you can report on direct file and the
kinds of credit so that you can claim on direct file.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Getting all your stuff together is important. What's your advice
on how to organize things?
Speaker 3 (28:24):
So the most important thing is to make sure that
you have all of your W twos and ten ninety
nine from your employers and other income sources. If you
accidentally happen to leave one of those out, it will
slow down your return because we have a system by
which the employers, anyone who issues you one of those
(28:45):
forms reports it to us, and if those things don't match,
the slow down your return. It is always tempting for
some people to take that last paycheck of the year
and fill out there tax return and get it ready
to go. And if they miss one of those W twos,
they're trying to get it done early and get stuff
(29:06):
back sooner. If they miss a W two or ten
ninety nine, their return will get flagged and instead of
having to wait just a couple of weeks to get
that last document, they may wind up point in a
couple of months to get their refund. You don't want that.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
What's the fastest way to get a refund?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah, So the best way is to use a bank account.
By finding electronically and choosing direct deposit, factpayers will get
their refund faster, And there's information available about how to
do that on the IRS website.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
If you need to find someone to do your taxes,
The Oregon Department of Revenue's website has a link to
check qualifications of prepareres if you need help and can't
afford it. They also have a list of organizations that
offer free help. Thanks to Robin Maxi with the Oregon
Department of Revenue for joining us on Local Voices. Thanks
for listening to Local Voices, I'm brad Forward. You can
hear past episodes on the iHeartRadio app under the podcast tab.
(29:56):
Local Voices is a public affairs presentation from i Auric Radio.
Yeah
Welcome to local voices. I'm brad Ford. As Congress came
to a close this year, there was a last minute
surprise for a treasured part of the state and safe Oregon.
The Threat tip line is receiving more tips than ever.
The Owayhi Canyon Lands is an area in southeastern Oregon
that's called the state's Grand Canyon. Bills in Congress would
(00:27):
provide protection of the land and grazing rights. During the
week we talked with Oregon, so did Aron Widen about
that bill and other issues facing the state. Senator let's
start here explain where the Owahi Canyon Lands legislation is
and what's next.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
What happened late on on Friday night, really Saturday morning,
was Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, came to me.
He's a member of the leadership, and he said, why
don't we just pair two good bills and get action
in the Senate And he has a Wyoming bill. Mind,
of course, is Theywahi's our state people call the Owahi
(01:02):
is the Grand Canyon of Oregon. What I've been working
on in a bipartisan way for some time now is
to protect the eggway of life and our Treasures and
we got it through the United States Senate on unanimous
consent late at night. So this gives us enormous leverage
as we come to tackle the bill next year. And
(01:23):
I talked to Congressman Bentz after the vote. He was
very pleased. We're going to be working with Democrats and Republicans,
and we've got some issues to work out, but we're
on our way. This is the first time either the
House or the Senate has ever acted to protect the Owahis,
so we've got some good things sent in motion.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
One of the main issues in protection of the Hawaii
Canyon Lands.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, you have to protect the aggway of life, which
is crucial, but certainly the issue with respect to wilderness
and roads and where the roads are located is key.
And you know this is not I five I hate four.
These are you know, really with charney stems as they're called,
they're really smallly are important to the area, and we're
(02:12):
trying to work with the maps, and I believe we're
going to get it done. We made a lot of
headway on that. I think that both sides are being constructed.
Congressman Bentz certainly from an area where he grew up
feel strongly about this, as do I, and we're taking
the time to tee it up right. But to give
you a little bit of the timeline, two days ago
(02:33):
we really put out a statement saying we were going
to be working together, and twelve hours later we had
a big boost because the Senate leadership said, fine, on
a bipartisan basis, pass this bill, and we're going to
work closely with both the House and the Senate to
get this done.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
That was a nice end of the year surprise. Let's
move on to Portland General Electric. You said a letter
to PGE raising concerns about their increase in rates the
last three years. The OREK and Public Utility Commission just
approved another five and a half percent increase. It takes
effect New Year's Day. What are your concerns about the
PGE rate increases.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Well, I'm still very concerned. The five and a half
isn't anywhere near as big as what they ask for.
But we have to stay at it because the issues
they come up in my town hall meetings bred are
the ones where the second word is bill. It'll be
medical bill, it'll be insurance bill, it'll be housing bill,
it'll be utility bill. It's all about affordability and costs,
(03:31):
and I'm still troubled about the evidence that was given
to man. I appreciate the company being candid about the
implications that because the big industrial users the data centers
are important, that in effect the rate payer looks like
they're subsidizing that kind of thing. And I think we've
(03:53):
got to make sure that we are competitive. We want
to have the jobs, but we don't want to take
it out of the hide of rate payers of modest means,
and we're going to have those discussions further. They've also
read to make some changes in terms of shut off
of services and the like, and that'll be helpful as well.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Right, Pacific Corps has announced that they're raising rates ten
percent here in the new year. Since twenty twenty one,
their rates were up nearly fifty percent. Do you have
similar concerns with Pacific Core and other utilities that are
raising rates.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, they have different, you know challenges. A lot of
it revolves around you know, litigation and the like. We're
going to see continued debate on it. One other good
aspect of what we were able to do is the
twenty seventeen Republican tax las stopped the American families from
being able to take the miscellaneous itemized deduction, and that
(04:44):
meant that wildfire victims were having trouble. After they were
rightfully compensated for their property damage and hardship, they would
be taxed on all of their settlement proceeds, including the
portion goes to attorneys' fees that the victims never see.
I made that a priority to change because it seemed
to me this was like Oregon's version of insult injury.
(05:06):
You get clobbered by fire and then all of a sudden,
a bunch of tax characters show up, and you know
you've got to pay taxes on it. It was in
my bipartisan tax bill. We got that changed as well,
and we've been able now to make sure that wildfire
settlements are exempt from income taxes and is.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Huge because it'll help those homeowners rebuild what they lost.
Let's move on to the Explorer Act. The Senator proved
the Explore Act, which you sponsored. It's headed down to
the President to sign. Tell us what the Explore Act
does well.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
It's basically set up to expedite ways to promote recreation.
And I had the Recreation Not Red Tape provisions that
are going to become law.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
And what we.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Found was that a lot of the recreation system, the
procedures were out of the dark ages. People were getting
up in the middle of the night to call all
across the country to wait in line and the like.
There was nothing resembling, you know, modern kind of services
and digital Given the size that everybody else is taking
(06:12):
advantage of, those opportunities, ought to be something that's part
of the recreation system. So under my legislation called Recreation
Not Red Tape, we clean out a lot of that
and it's going to make it easier for pears and
snowshoers and rivers, river rafters and people who are out
during the winter, people are out in the summer to
be able to get their permits and get through the
(06:32):
red tape with a lot of loud.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Tassle, you know, to show how long it takes and
how really how difficult it can be to get something past.
You started work on the Recreation Not Red Tape Act
in twenty fifteen, so this incorporates parts of that. Are
there other parts of that that you'd still want to advance.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
We're looking at that, but you know, legislation is is
not linear. You know, Brad, I have a book coming
out in a couple of a couple of weeks called
It Takes hoot Spot, and it talks about how everybody
in whatever field they're in needs to show some grit
and some perseverance and being willing to stay at something.
And the reality is, yeah, there were a lot of
(07:13):
bumps in the road in terms of a bill that,
like you said, should have been passed a long long
time ago. But legislation is not linear. It doesn't just
move from point A to point B and then everybody
shakes each other's hands and calls it a day. You know,
we had a lot of stops and starts, and initially
there was some pushing back by some of the agencies
(07:33):
and the bureaucracies, and we just kept giving them more
and more examples, and you know, Oregonians were getting up
in the middle of the night to call all over
the country to try to square away permits. And we
got it. We got it done. And as they say,
it sometimes takes a little hooks. Better just stay at it.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
I can't wait for the book.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
You know.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
It's another thing that you've worked on for years is
the pharmacy benefit manager issue. What happened with the legislation
that was put forward this year, Well, I.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Think what happened with Elon musk if I were to
sum it up. I worked very closely with Democrats and
Republicans in both the House and the Senate. And basically
what we said we were going to do is these
pharmacy benefit you know, managers who basically squat right in
the middle of these transactions that are supposed to get
(08:26):
a good deal for seniors that really are lining their
own own pockets. We said, we're going to end the
pricing system to create some centives for more profits and
less for seniors and higher expenses for taxpayers. We got
it done. We negotiated and spent many many months, and
(08:47):
Donald Trump and on others here in the last couple
of weeks said, you know, we got to beat the
hell out of these people. We got to knock them
out of the box, and and like and basically, when
when the dust settled, he stepped in, must stepped in
and basically killed it. And who knows why, And you know, maybe, uh,
(09:09):
they're they're going to tell us. But what Donald Trump
and Muskott did like you know, porch pirates, you know,
ripping that ritten the priorities away coverage the way.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
What do you see for the future of that legislation
this year or is it, like you said, a matter
of waiting to see what their issues are with it.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I'm just flat flabber gifted about about the whole whole
rad Doald Trump said to give you the exact quote,
you know this this week he said, I want to
take on the drug middle meant quote, they're rich as hell,
Donald Trump. I'm me, We're going to knock them out,
Donald Trump, not me. Well, the first opportunity to do that.
(09:53):
He and Elon Musk said.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Very interesting. What are your thoughts on how the continuing
Solution to keep the government open that was killed because
of opposition from Elon Musk and President elect Trump revised
and then approved with just hours to go before the deadline.
What are your thoughts on the way that process went down.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I think it's kind of kind of stunning in that
here they here, they are not even sworn into sworn
into office, trend to run around and dictate everything to
a bunch of House Republicans, and a lot of those
House Republicans just said no, And you know they think
they had challenges you know here over the last couple
(10:35):
of weeks. Wait, wait till next year when you have
a lot of new Republicans who are really more independent
than in the crowd serving. I think he's going to
have his handsful of getting organized.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
How about you approach President elect Trump's second term? Will
you make changes from the way you dealt with the
administration during his first term?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Well, I mean, we're starting to try to figure this out.
Either you know, it's Trump and a mini me or
Musk and his mini me. I mean, you try to
figure out who you're dealing with. And either way, it's
a bad approach to start a new Congress, a new Congress.
You know, President can sad one won the election. It
won the landslide. He won the election. You ought to,
(11:15):
you know, come in and work with the speaker, the
Speaker of the House and the leadership on both sides
of the aisle. We were ready to go. We made
a bipartisan deal. Bread That's what's important to remember here.
The fighting took place after there was a bipartisan agreement
between the Senate and the House, joining hands on things
(11:39):
like disasters, joining hands on things like farming, joining hands
on things like pharmacy benefit managers. And then Trump and
Muska came in, and I guess a big, big part
of it was, you know, Trump just wanted to make
sure that he'd get what he wanted on the debt
sealing issues so they could do a lot of borrowing
to get helped to to the well to do in
(12:01):
a tax bill.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
But as it turned out, he didn't get that right, and.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
He didn't get that either.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
On so much I think is the chaos that he
and Elon Musk spread and caught fire, particularly in the House,
was not at all constructive. And he could have said, hey,
really like the fact that the House and the Senator
worked together put together a deal on disaster and farmaid
(12:27):
and PBMs and other priorities, and said we're going to
build on that. Instead, what he did is really walk
walk away with what looks like Trump and Musk generated chaos.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
So in the Senate, Republicans hold fifty three seats. How
do you assess that majority and its ability to work
together and when they need to come together.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Well, I'm convinced they're going to have some big decisions.
We had a social Security Bill, for example, up at
the end, and the Republican leadership wanted to say that
they were concerned that this Social Security bill was going
to contribute to the deficit and that's why they were
against it. And I said, you know, we already have
(13:09):
a double standard on taxes. You know, where well to
do people can go for years paying little or nothing,
and the working person pas taxes with every paycheck. Now,
what we saw last week was a double standard on deficits.
The deficits apply when you're talking about this person getting
a little bit of help them their Social Security, But
deficits don't apply when you have tax cuts for well
(13:32):
to do people. And I call this the tale of
two deficits, and they're going to have to sort that out.
I mean, historically Republicans were the party that wanted to
pay for what they care about. But looks to me
now what they want to do is just get those
big tax cuts out and when people ask them about
how they're going to pay for them, they'll just say, oh,
we're going to grow out of them and the like.
And they said that in twenty seventeen, and what happened
(13:53):
is we generated a lot more debt.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
It's going to be an interesting four years. Senator, thank
you very much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Thanks for having me, Brad talk to you.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
That's Oregon Seat a Ron Whyden discussing some of the
top issues facing Oregon in Congress. Oregon has a tip
line for threats against schools. It's called Save Oregon and
it's been in operation since twenty seventeen. Lisa Miller with
Oregon State Police joins us on local Voices to update
the program. Lisa tell us about Save Oregon.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
Sure So, Save Oregon is a statewide school safety tip line.
So it is available to all of our schools throughout
Oregon kindergarten through twelfth grade, public or private schools. It's
completely voluntary. Our schools sign up for the program if
it's something that they would like to offer to their
community as a resource. The tip line itself is available
(14:44):
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week for
individuals to use if they see or hear something that
they consider is a threat to a school or individual student.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So what happens when a tip is made, so the tip.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Actually comes in through through a contracted independent call center.
There are trained call center staff that receive the information
and what they will do is they will try to
triage the tip collect isn't much information as possible to
determine what kind of response would be needed. The way
the tip line is set up, when a school registers
(15:19):
to use the tip line, they designate a couple of
point of contacts for the tip information when it comes in,
So our tip line technicians are collecting that information to
pass it along to directly to our schools so that
our schools can respond to it appropriately. When the information
(15:39):
comes in through the tip line, it can be received
through an email or a phone call. There's a text
ability as well. There is a web form on the
website at sayforigin dot com, and then there is also
a mobile app that tips can be submitted through as well.
So the tip line technicians will receive the tips through
(16:00):
those methods and triage them, determine what kind of response
levels needed and then push that information back out to
the schools so the schools can respond to it.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
So how are threats that are made on social media?
How are they handled or how should they be handled?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
Well?
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Social media is really a part of our life every
day now, and so we realize that a lot of
information is being passed along back and forth through social media,
and what we're seeing more commonly now are threats that
are being pushed around through social media and reposted frequently.
And one of the things that we really want the
(16:39):
community to understand about these social media threats is that
oftentimes they might be recycled from an earlier, non valid
threat that has already been determined that wasn't real. It
could have been from last year, and so oftentimes those
types of threats are creating a little bit of a
(17:02):
crisis in the community that's not necessary at that moment
in time. So when these social media threats are coming through,
what we really encourage people to do is report them
right away. We always want that information be passed along
through the tip line or through local law enforcement, or
directly to the school however they feel most appropriate, but
(17:23):
just really making sure that that information has passed along,
but not reposting it right away. We know that our
first initial response is we want people to know. We
want people to know there might be a threat, but
because the information is so limited, we really want to
have a chance to be able to investigate that and
make sure that the threat really is valid before we
start creating fear and panic with our students and our
(17:47):
families and our schools. When a threat will come in,
these threats will always be taken seriously. The call center
will always try to collect as much information as possible,
but oftentimes it can be very limited. They will pass
it along and they will be taken very seriously, and
our schools will involve law enforcement if they need to,
(18:08):
and they will investigate these incidentss as quickly and the
best that they possibly can. If and when they decide
that there is a valid threat, they will absolutely communicate
with the community as quickly as possible to get that
information out, and that needs to be shared as quickly
as possible. But until that information is validated and we
(18:31):
know that it's a true threat, we really want to
contain that information a little bit and make sure that
we're not spreading that fear. Whenever a school goes into lockdown,
whenever there is a threat that comes in, no matter
if it's valid or not, there's still a lot of
trauma that's happening with our kids and with our teachers
and with our families because we don't know what's happening,
(18:52):
and so we really want to try to limit that
as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Sure, because when that happens, they have to assume that
it's real, and so the fear that the word occur
with that is dramatic for the staff and for the students.
Man is for somebody who makes the tip, do they
get any kind of a response. You know, you mentioned
the social media, you might be reporting something that was
maybe six months old. Does the person making the tip
(19:18):
get a response saying, you know, thanks for the tip,
you know this is something that's been investigated. Do they
get any kind of feedback like that?
Speaker 4 (19:26):
There is not any kind of feedback like that. So
the way it's designed, the information comes in and because
it is a confidential or anonymous tip line, the information
remains confidential and anonymous, and so it's not released back out.
So if a tipster actually submits a tip to the
(19:46):
tip line and then calls back to try and find
out more information, they won't be able to receive any
of that information. So the best thing to do is
wait to hear directly from the school itself. Because this
the tip line is set up to go directly to
the school. The school is the one that will be
collecting that information and pushing the information back out to
(20:08):
the families and so hopefully the tipster will be able
to find out that information from the school directly when
they know.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
How long has Safe Oregon been in operation and has
there been an increase in tips since the hotline was started.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
The tip line first came about in twenty seventeen. It
was rolled out with a small number of pilot schools
to try out the system. We started off with a
little over three hundred schools that implemented the tip line.
They were receiving just a few number of tips to
kind of work out all the bugs. But since twenty seventeen,
over the last almost eight years, we have an over
(20:45):
ninety percent enrollment rate with our schools throughout Oregon, so
almost all of our schools are enrolled in offering this
service to their students and families. And we've seen a
twenty seven percent increase over the last three years of
the number of tips that are coming in. So we
average about three hundred and eighty five tips a month
through the tip line, which comes out about twenty six
(21:06):
hundred tips a year, which three years ago it was
about twelve hundred and thirteen hundred tips a year, So
we're definitely seeing it increase each year.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Is a tip line promoted in a way to students
so that they know it exists. For example, does the
school post flyers.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Yes. When a school enrolls in the program, they will
receive some Safe Oregon posters to put along in the hallways.
Also some stickers that are available to put into the
restrooms in the private areas so students can access the
information there as well. And then they also receive access
to all of the branding materials, the logo for Safe Oregon,
(21:48):
the embedded code so they can put it on their website.
And so we really work with our schools to try
and encourage them to promote the program as much as
they can to the students. A lot of schools will
put it on the back of these student ID cards
so the students have the phone number with them all
at all times. Also on their websites, they will have
(22:09):
a direct link to save Oregon. Some schools that actually
have little laptops or small iPads for students to use,
they will automatically download the mobile app for Safe ore
again on those systems so that it's readily available. So
our schools are do a great job of being really
(22:29):
creative of trying to push that messaging out to the students.
It's an ongoing promotion as our students are always graduating
and moving on to the next grade, so we always
have to keep up with that promotion. So some years
maybe it may be better promoted than others, but hopefully
our students are aware of the program, that how it works,
(22:51):
and that it's out there for them.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Have there been instances where threats have been stopped.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
Absolutely, yes. The thing with prevention is that it's very
hard to quantify. It's hard to talk about the things
that we did prevent because we don't know for sure
whether or not they would have happened. But we do
have a lot of really great success stories. Some of
our schools share with us at the end of the
school year how Safe Oregon has helped. And we do
(23:18):
have stories of individual students who may have been dealing
with some struggles with suicidal ideation, showing some behaviors that
their friends were concerned about, and so their friends used
the tip line to ask for some help. So some
early intervention happened to wrap around that student to help
them through that situation. We also know that there have
(23:42):
been instances where there have been students who had weapons
on campus or were planning to bring a weapon to campus.
Whether or not they had all intention or not, that's
really not the important piece of the fact that the
tip was submitted that a student knew the other students
had access to a weapon and was planning to bring
(24:03):
it to the school, maybe for their own protection or
you know, to show off for their fellow friends, whatever
the intention was. That information was passed along through the
tip line, which helped. The information was given to our
law enforcement partners and the school and they were able
to intervene very quickly, and it's very possible that they
(24:24):
stopped a very critical situation from happening. And then we
also have situations where there might be some abuse tips
that come in. Child abuse tips occasionally come in through
Safe Oregon and our schools as mandatory reporters. They received
that information and they passed that along to DHS to
make sure that the students are safe, and they may
(24:45):
not have received that information if it hadn't been for
the tip line. So we know those situations are happening
all the time. I wish that we could say this
is the number of lives that we've saved. This is
the number of threats that we've stopped. But we know
that it's working and we know that it definitely has
safe lives.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Yeah, it's very difficult to quantify it in that manner.
Let me ask you, Lisay, anything else you'd like to
add that I didn't ask you about.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
I think I just really would would. I hope the
community understands that this tip line is available, it's out there.
It's not a replacement for individual contact. We really want
our students to feel safe and be able to actually
have face to face conversations with their teachers and their counselors,
(25:30):
but we know that sometimes that's not always possible. So
Safe Oregon is a good alternative for that. If there's
something that's happening that they really need to pass that along,
but they don't feel comfortable talking to anyone about that,
Safe organ is a really great option. It's not a
replacement for nine to one one, so it's it's not
as if something if an emergency is happening, Safe Oregon
(25:52):
is not the appropriate place to go, but it is
something that is there for those individuals that really needed
to pass along information and they're just not sure where
to where to pass it along to, or they just
don't feel comfortable passing along in person and so they
want to remain anonymous or confidential.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
So for people who want to contact Safe Oregon, what
are the different ways they can do that.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
For general information about Safe Oregan, visit the website at
www dot saforgon dot com. On the website as well,
there is a link to a web form that can
be filled out to submit a tip if they wanted
to submit a tip and the other ways to report
a tip. You can download our mobile app. You can
(26:37):
call Safe Oregon at eight four four four seven two
three three six seven, or you can also text a
message to Safe Oregan at the same number eight four
four four seven two three three sixty seven. Or you
can send an email to submit a tip at tip
at saferegon dot com.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
That's Lisa Milar with the Oregon State Police. Details on
the safe tipline, and again their website is Saferegon dot com.
Tax seasons around the corner and the Oregon Department of
Revenue wants you to be ready. Robin Maxi says, create
a log in with Oregon Revenue online.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
So yeah, people should view their online account information to
make sure that things like their username, their password, and
address is current in Revenue Online. That's the department's online portal.
People who don't have a Revenue Online can sign up
for one on the agency's website. It really is the
best way to communicate with the state about your taxes
this year. Having a Revenue online account will be especially
(27:35):
helpful for those who can electronically file for free using
the combination of the IRS Direct File and direct file
Oregan Direct file organ will work best for those who
are logged into our Revenue Online.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
And how do you find out whether you're eligible to
do the direct file?
Speaker 3 (27:52):
So the IRS has an eligibility checker on their website.
Just through IRS dot gov and in the search bar,
type in eligibility checker and it'll bring up that page
and it is very simple to use. The first thing
you do is pick your state and then you just
follow some prompts. It provides information about the kinds of
(28:14):
income that you can report on direct file and the
kinds of credit so that you can claim on direct file.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
Getting all your stuff together is important. What's your advice
on how to organize things?
Speaker 3 (28:24):
So the most important thing is to make sure that
you have all of your W twos and ten ninety
nine from your employers and other income sources. If you
accidentally happen to leave one of those out, it will
slow down your return because we have a system by
which the employers, anyone who issues you one of those
(28:45):
forms reports it to us, and if those things don't match,
the slow down your return. It is always tempting for
some people to take that last paycheck of the year
and fill out there tax return and get it ready
to go. And if they miss one of those W twos,
they're trying to get it done early and get stuff
(29:06):
back sooner. If they miss a W two or ten
ninety nine, their return will get flagged and instead of
having to wait just a couple of weeks to get
that last document, they may wind up point in a
couple of months to get their refund. You don't want that.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
What's the fastest way to get a refund?
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah, So the best way is to use a bank account.
By finding electronically and choosing direct deposit, factpayers will get
their refund faster, And there's information available about how to
do that on the IRS website.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
If you need to find someone to do your taxes,
The Oregon Department of Revenue's website has a link to
check qualifications of prepareres if you need help and can't
afford it. They also have a list of organizations that
offer free help. Thanks to Robin Maxi with the Oregon
Department of Revenue for joining us on Local Voices. Thanks
for listening to Local Voices, I'm brad Forward. You can
hear past episodes on the iHeartRadio app under the podcast tab.
(29:56):
Local Voices is a public affairs presentation from i Auric Radio.
Yeah
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