Rep. Jason Kropf on the Current Legislative Session, Priorities and Measure 110

The Oregon State Legislature’s “short session,” lasting 35 days, started on Feb. 5. Rep. Emerson Levy, who represents House District 53 in Bend and Redmond, will bring two bills to the legislature, focusing on insurance assistance and e-bike laws. In a podcast conversation, the Source Weekly talked to Rep. Jason Kropf of House District 54 in Bend about the walkout last session, his plans for the current short session and his priorities regarding Measure 110 and community safety.

Source Weekly: What was it like being a legislator last session, when legislators walked out, and how’s that going to affect this session?

Jason Kropf: We just had the Supreme Court ruling a couple of hours ago, as we’re sitting down to tape this. The session started out, on the House side, very normal. The first part of the session is we’re working through policy bills, and then the second half is the finalization of those bills and finalization of the budget. Things are sort of moving along on the House side.

On the Senate side, there had been, in some respects, a higher level of tension. They were reading bills in their entirety on the Senate floor, there was just more tension from the walkouts. So that just sort of broke the session completely apart. It was a difficult and stressful time.

As a House Democrat, we just kept governing, we kept working. We kept getting our budget priorities together, we kept getting things prepared, because we knew at some point this work has to get done. So, there was a level of frustration, but we just sort of kept working.

SW: The decision just came down from the Supreme Court that those 10 legislators are not going to be able to run for their office again. How’s that going to affect things?

JK: I’ll speak for myself. I’m going to show up to work on Monday, I’m going to work as hard as I can for 35 days. We have a ton of work to be done. I’m glad there was a ruling. We needed some clarity from the Supreme Court about Measure 113. What I heard last election cycle, what I heard from the will of the voters is, if we elect you, we expect you to show up and get to work. And we have significant work to do on the housing front and housing production and helping folks who are unhoused right now. We have significant work on the addiction crisis in the state. I’ve been working at this and I’m going to show up on Monday and work as hard as I can.

SW: Each legislator gets a couple bills. What are you working on?

JK: In the short session, in the even years, we can request two bill drafts. Most of my work for this session is the joint committee that’s tackling the addiction crisis. I’m co-chair with Senator Lieber of the Portland area. I have one bill that’s sort of in that, it’s called a placeholder bill, it’s in case we need it. The bill that I have drafted is a bill to provide some level of stability in the funding for our child advocacy centers, like the KIDS Center here in town, and our domestic violence and sexual assault service providers like Saving Grace.

Right now, we provide some state funding to those organizations through the Department of Justice. It’s always one-time funding. What we’re trying to do is sort of bake it into the budget a little bit more, so there’s at least a little extra stability for the funding in those services.

SW: You played a big role in crafting some of the language around the proposed Measure 110 changes. When I look at where the changes are heading, Democrats and Republicans aren’t very far apart on this. What are your thoughts?

JK: We’ve been tasked with taking a holistic view at our addiction response and public safety response. The framework that we’ve put together, that we’re proposing starting on Monday, is enhancing the funding we have for youth prevention, making sure that we have a strategic plan when it comes to substance abuse treatment for our young people, making sure that we know that medication works for people struggling with opioid addiction, breaking down barriers so that people who are serving jail time and making sure that they can have access to that.

We’re going to make sure our prosecutors and police officers have the tools they need to prosecute people who are profiting off the addiction of others. We have proposed making the possession of a small amount of drugs a Class C misdemeanor.

When I look at this entire framework, the source of tension between us, our proposal and some of my Republican colleagues is we think it should be a Class C misdemeanor, they think it should be a Class A misdemeanor. There’s a ton that we agree upon in the space. So, I’m hopeful that we’re going to pass a pretty robust package this session.

This article appears in Source Weekly February 8, 2024.