Oregon Special Session Outcome Still Not Clear

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Matt Howry

Oregon lawmakers are meeting in Salem Monday for a rare special session. The legislature will consider a series of measures on taxes and pensions meant to beef up state finances.

The package is the result of an agreement between Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber and top Democrats and Republicans. But there's no guarantee any of the measures will pass.

When you get right down to it, the four legislative leaders represent just four votes in the legislature. And this package of bills has something for everybody to like, but more significantly something for everybody to dislike.

If you're a Republican, you probably aren't too thrilled to be voting on tax hikes. If you're a Democrat, you probably aren't too thrilled to be voting on cuts to retired public employees.

And then there's the statewide ban on local regulations of genetically modified organisms. That's got some lawmakers up in opposition to that measure as well. That's sort of the wildcard here.

On the Web:

Special session information - Oregon Legislature 

Copyright 2013 Northwest News Network

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Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.