Somewhere in Idaho (670 KBOI News) – Oregon’s 11 Republican state senators are in hiding until the end of the legislative session on June 30th, to deny the legislature the quorum needed to pass a carbon tax bill critics say will cripple the state economy and cost jobs.

Senator Tim Knopp of Bend told 670 KBOI’s Nate Shelman he’s hiding somewhere in Idaho, because Governor Kate Brown and the Democratic majority refuses to listen to their concerns over House Bill 2020.

“It essentially reworks Oregon’s economy, and taxes carbon dioxide emissions,” said Knopp.  “Our gas taxes go up 22-cents a gallon, our home heating, if you  heat with natural gas, will go up about 50%, and we’re going to lose all kinds of manufacturing jobs.  Probably to Idaho, as a matter of fact.”

Brown has sent Oregon state police to find the Republican senators and bring them back to Salem for the vote.

According to CNN, it’s a long-established tactic (click here).  In 2011, Democrat lawmakers in Wisconsin did the same thing to prevent a vote on the state budget.  In 2003, Democrats in the Texas House left for Oklahoma and New Mexico to deny a quorum on a redistricting bill.  In 1994, California Republicans did the same, in an effort to keep Willie Brown from being elected as Assembly Speaker.  Even Abraham Lincoln, when serving as a representative in the Illinois House, tried unsuccessfully to prevent a vote on a bill by jumping out a window.

— Jay Howell, 670 KBOI News