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Legislature: a moving experience Lawmakers wrestle with more than bills � housing in Salem can be a challenge, and the trip is one long commute By Dani Dodge No one knows what the beginning of the legislative session means more than the Hannons. It�s meetings, meetings and more meetings. And it�s moving. Just ask Dixie Hannon. She and her husband, Sen. Lenn Hannon, have moved up to Salem 14 times in 26 years. Not only is it tough emotionally � especially when children are involved � it�s also a financial strain. "You are making two payments for six months on two homes," Hannon said. "For every set of bills at home, you have the same set in Salem. You make it, but that�s why the wives work, too." Oregon legislators are paid $1,283 a month. While they are in session in Salem, legislators earn an additional $85 per day for expenses. The "per diem" is the same for all legislators, whether they represent Salem or are from far-flung places like Medford. Competing for homes Legislators find different ways to make do. Some actually buy recreational vehicles for the drive to Salem. Others find rooms, share apartments or rent houses from snowbirds. Most continue to pay mortgages in their home districts while they are away because they need to be home on weekends. Some take their families to Salem, while others learn to nurture commuter marriages. And while some, like Rep. Rob Patridge, continue to draw another salary, others like self-employed Sen. Jason Atkinson live off their legislative salaries alone. Patridge earns his other income as the attorney for Pacific Retirement Services. "It�s a killer financially," said Atkinson, a Republican from Jacksonville. "You really don�t even break even because what you get paid doesn�t cover the cost of your second mortgage." And then, of course, there�s the challenge of finding housing in Salem. "I�m a state senator, and we�re competing with college students to find places to live," Atkinson said. "That�s a little discouraging." First-time legislators Rep. Alan Bates, D-Eagle Point, and Rep. Cherryl Walker, R-Murphy, both left their families at home and rented bedrooms for the session. Bates is spending $350 to rent a bedroom from a family friend. Walker is paying $300 a month, plus utilities, to rent a bedroom from a woman who lives across the street from Walker�s daughter. Both spend their weekends driving back home to be with their families. Bates said it�s difficult for him as a parent. He still has one daughter in high school. "I�m missing half her senior year," he lamented. Walker said she and her husband, an emergency room physician, have come up with strategies to keep their marriage strong despite the distance. "Typically I call around 8 o�clock when I get in (from the Capitol)," Walker said. "On weekends, I try to go home when I can and some weekends he comes up here. "The most important part, though, is the daily contact, discussing the day-to-day things you would talk over dinner." Futons and �rat holes� Other legislators take their families with them to the Capitol. Patridge, a Medford Republican, packed along his wife, Mary, and their 15-month-old daughter, Maya, when he headed for Salem this session. They found a nice home for $850 per month. "We were going to rent furniture, but my wife conned me into a new sofa last week," Patridge said. "We moved a whole trailer of stuff up because we have the baby. So we moved the crib and changing table and our bed." On weekends at home in Medford, Patridge and his wife sleep on his old college futon, he said. Last session, Atkinson did the house-hunting for his family, which includes his wife, Stephanie, and their two dogs, Boaz and Stella. After a tough search, they spent the session in what he calls a "rat hole." "I rented a box with shag green carpet and walls that grew mildew," he said. "We had to keep our nice clothes in plastic bags." This year, Stephanie did the house-hunting and found something a little bit better: the home of a couple who camp in national parks 10 months of the year. Despite its �60s decor, they�re pleased. And it�s only $700 a month. Learning the ropes Dixie Hannon said if there�s one thing she learned over her 14 moves it�s that somehow, somewhere a rental will come available. The first time they moved to Salem, she and Lenn were inexperienced movers. That problem was compounded by the fact that they didn�t find out until December that Lenn had actually won the seat because the vote had been so close they had to wait for an automatic recount before they could make plans. "We�d only lived in two homes in Ashland," Dixie Hannon recalled. "Moving was a new and frightening experience with hardly any money and four kids. "We just looked in the paper and took the cheapest apartment that could accommodate six people." Over the years � even after their fifth child was born � they continued to make the biannual trek as a family, except when their youngest was a senior and they let her stay in Ashland with an older sibling. Moving as a family was "non-negotiable," according to Lenn. Dixie said the children resented changing schools at first, but learned to adapt. The biggest problem was finding places that would accept the big family. "Property management folks weren�t too keen on that many children," Dixie Hannon said. They ended up living in practically every area of Salem. "We got what we could get and worried about the school district later," she said. "We found every school the kids went to was good." With one exception, they always were pleased with the places they found to live. But the exception was a doozy. It was the early �80s, and the number of children and the financial limitations forced them to accept an apartment building where many of the residents were recently out of prison. "It was an apartment that served as sort of a halfway house for prisoners," Dixie said. "We heard police cars almost every night. We had both our vehicles broken into and our (locked-up) bicycles stolen from the porch. "It was really ugly." That year, Hannon ended up calling children�s services twice because every time a 3-year-old in the complex wet his pants, his parents would strip him naked and make him sit in the sand in the playground. "That was a real stressful session," she recalled. The last move Because of term limits, though, this will be the Hannons� last move to Salem in the foreseeable future. Dixie Hannon said the change will give them a chance to discover what they want to do with the rest of their lives. But it does seem a shame it has to stop now that they�ve got the moving part of the deal down. And it�s so much easier now that the kids are all grown and gone. This year they found a nice apartment for $625 only a few blocks from the Patridges. They are renting furniture for $300 a month instead of huffing up I-5 in a U-Haul. Life is easy � as easy as it will ever get for someone from the outskirts of the state, anyway. "When you have to move to Salem, as opposed to those who can commute from Albany, it is a whole different ball game," Hannon said. "The cost is much greater. "It�s a sacrifice any way you look at it." Reach reporter Dani Dodge at 776-4471, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.