GOP lawmakers launch fight against Oregon’s new health tax

SALEM, Ore. — Three Republican lawmakers have set the stage for a possible ballot fight next year that could overthrow Oregon’s new multimillion-dollar health care tax before it can take effect.

Republican Reps. Julie Parrish, Cedric Hayden and Sal Esquivel filed initial paperwork with state elections officials Wednesday for a voter referendum on House Bill 2391, which Gov. Kate Brown signed this week. If they can gather almost 59,000 valid signatures before its effective date in 90 days or so, the bill would be placed on hold until voters decide its fate, potentially during a special election on Jan. 23, 2018.

Delaying the bill comes with high stakes. Tax revenue designed to help keep the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program, afloat over the next two years couldn’t be collected and health coverage for thousands of low-income residents may subsequently be jeopardized. It could also throw Oregon into “budget disarray,” says Democratic Sen. Richard Devlin, the Legislature’s state budget expert, since the bill fills more than one-third of the state’s $1.4 billion deficit for the 2017-19 cycle.

HB 2391 passed the Oregon Legislature earlier this month with full support from Democrats and only four Republicans — one of them being Esquivel, who is not running for re-election next year and provided the one GOP vote in the House chamber needed for a supermajority.

He says he’s now joining Parrish and Hayden’s effort to block it because he wasn’t initially aware the tax revenue could be used for other purposes, such as cost-free abortions in another bill now awaiting Brown’s signature.

“I supported HB 2391 because I think those who qualify under the federal law should have a way to see the doctor. It was a hard vote, but it needed to be done,” Esquivel said in a statement. “What’s ensued since is a major overreach by the House Democrats to drive new costs and expand programs when we can’t fully fund programs for our veterans and citizens. That’s not how those tax increases were presented to me.”

A referendum would place HB 2391 on the November 2018 ballot, or some other date set by the Legislature.