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Patridge helps bring tax in under wire Freshman earns his checkered flags Reporter's notebook BY PETER WONG SALEM -- The checkered flag that four-term Rep. John Watt of Medford made famous here at the end of legislative sessions re-emerged Saturday at the desk of Watt's successor, Rep. Rob Patridge. But even taken together, the pair of flags planted on Patridge's desk could have fit into a corner of the racing-sized flag that Watt used to display. "We called all around and these were the only ones we could find," Patridge said. Aside from the fact he is Watt's successor, perhaps it was appropriate for Patridge to display the flags. Patridge helped revive a gasoline tax increase given up for dead Friday night in the House and bring it across the legislative finish line. The 1999 session, third longest in state history, ended Saturday after 195 days. When the House voted earlier this month to allot $110 per day to continue to pay members' personal staffs until the end of the session, at least one member did not need the extra allocation. "My mother is so fiscally conservative that she saved enough money from her account to continue paying me," said Becca Uherbelau, daughter and legislative assistant to her mother, Rep. Judy Uherbelau of Ashland. Members were allotted $25,171 at the start of the session for staff and supplies. Typically, members hire a legislative assistant and a secretary, but they may divide the money however they want. The amount was based on a 170-day session, so some members began running out of money at the start of July. The Senate approved extra money earlier. With his right arm in a sling and his neck in a brace, Sen. Frank Shields of Portland sought to inject humor into the Senate's debate on the gasoline tax increase. Like many Democrats, Shields voiced his resentment of the Senate Transportation Committee's coupling of the tax increase with the repeal of the weight-mile tax on truckers. But he said the sling and the brace, both fake, were the result of private persuasion by Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber. "If I could quote him directly, he says this bill is a piece of crap, but please vote for it anyway," Shields said. When it came down to it, Shields was the 18th and decisive vote for House Bill 2082 in the Senate. A proposed exemption of some gatherings from land use regulation worries Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland, who thinks it could preempt Jackson County's regulation of the Southern Oregon Barter Fair. (The county and the fair are entangled in a suit in U.S. District Court.) The revised version of Senate Bill 99, which has cleared both houses, exempts gatherings of less than 2,500 from regulation as land use actions if the gatherings do not exceed 120 hours. "One of the landowners has chosen to rent the property out to a group of individuals with a different lifestyle than some," he said. "They choose to celebrate it with music, drugs and alcohol. For quite some time, the county land use planning process was the only thing that kept a limit on what was conducted on the property." Oregon's mass-gatherings law, which is triggered by outdoor gatherings of 3,000 or more overnight, imposes a series of sanitation standards. A follow-up report on the status of some bills previously mentioned: Senate Bill 782, which provides $100,000 for planning for a Southern Oregon advanced technology center, has cleared both houses. The bill's chief sponsor is Hannon, but he said Patridge should get credit for securing the money. Senate Bill 634, which provides $350,000 for public libraries to promote pre-kindergarten and youth ready-to-read programs, also has cleared both houses. Patridge is its chief House sponsor. House Bill 3465, which sets up a task force to study partnerships and potential mergers of the Oregon Department of Transportation and county road agencies, has cleared both houses. ODOT and Jackson County Road and Park Services are housed together in White City. Patridge is its chief House co-sponsor. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA