Item 3: Ratification of IGR Actions

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HB 2417 Relating Clause: Relating to railroad-highway grade crossings. Title: Requires Department of Transportation to notify road authority 60 days prior to closing railroad-highway grade crossing. Sponsored by: By Representative GELSER, Senator MORSE URL:http://www.leg.state.or.us/09reg/measpdf/hb2400.dir/hb2417.intro.pdf ContactRespondentDept Updated Priority Policy Poli Numb Recommendation Tom Larsen Tom Larsen PWM 1/29/2009 Pri 2 Monitor Comments: Support for this bill will increase if amendments are made. The bill requires only notification to the road authority when ODOT has decided to close a crossing. Corvallis, Medford, Salem and Portland have apparently had problems with the consequences of closures they had no invovlement with. This bill at least removes some of the surprise associated with unilateral closures. To be effective in protecting local interest, the optional public hearing should be mandatory and held before the decision to close is made. There should be an appeal process and ODOT should be made responsibile for the all the costs in the road system that must be made as a result of the closure. HB 2427 Relating Clause: Relating to implied consent. Title: Provides that person commits offense of refusal to take test for intoxicants if person refuses to submit to urine or blood test when requested to do so under implied consent law. Punishes by fine of at least $500 and not more than $1,000. Provides that all fines collected for offense of refusal to take test for intoxicants that are distributed to state be used by Department of State Police for enforcement of laws concerning driving while under influence of intoxicants, whether or not resulting from citations issued by state police. Sponsored by: COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY URL:http://www.leg.state.or.us/09reg/measpdf/hb2400.dir/hb2427.intro.pdf ContactRespondentDept Updated Priority Policy Poli Numb Recommendation E. Cushman E. Cushman EPD-ADM 1/30/2009 Pri 3 No No Support Comments: This bill is very similar to HB 2239. We support this bill, which would expand the offense of refusal to take a breath test to include refusal to take a blood or urine test in those (fairly limited) situations where a person is required by statute to submit to such a test. This would create a consistent penalty for refusing any required test for intoxicants, instead of the rather odd situation which currently exists where there it is an offense to refuse to submit to a breath test when required by law, but not when the person refuses to submit to a required blood or urine test. Having this law in place will provide more of an incentive for the person to submit to the legal requirement, which is designed to provide a basis for objective determination of whether the person is or is not under the influence of an intoxicant while driving, and provide a sanction if s/he does not. 4