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Dear OSCC Members & Colleagues –
We are down to the last four weeks of the 160-day legislative session. By Constitution, the session must adjourn by 11:59pm on Sunday, June 29th, but Democratic leadership has set the date of June 20th as the target date for adjournment.
Again, all of the policy committees are now closed.
All bills are now funneled through the Joint Ways and Means Committee, Joint Tax Expenditures, and Joint Transportation Reinvestment, as well as the House and Senate Rules Committees and House and Senate Revenue Committees.
Sine Die has now been declared imminent, which means bills can now move with only one hour of notice.
The hottest remaining policy discussion right now continues to be the nascent Transportation Package. As it stands, there are not nearly enough votes right now to pass the $1.8 billion package of taxes released by Democratic leadership several weeks ago. The only possible way forward is a negotiated package between majority Democrats and Republicans.
We continue to monitor these transportation discussions as they may usher in a statutory “Cap and Trade” system to replace the onerous Climate Protection Plan (CPP) that was promulgated in late 2024 by the DEQ.
Again, it is unlikely that Democrats would be able to muster the necessary votes to support a Transportation Package, with its associated taxes, without major concessions to Republicans and Republican votes. So OSCC is monitoring the development of this potential package carefully.
LAST WEEK:
Unfortunately, the House passed the onerous Senate Bill 426 last week with the bare minimum 31 votes. In a shocking turn of events, Republican Greg Smith (R-Heppner) proved to be the 31st and deciding vote on the bill as four Democrats voted ‘no’ – enough to kill the bill.
OSCC has written about this bill several times and OPPOSED SB 426. OSCC opposed the idea that holding property owners and general contractors liable for unpaid wages at the subcontractor level would punish the wrong parties for wage theft and would have a chilling effect on commercial construction and improvements in all of our local communities. The House narrowed the bill down to apply to commercial and residential projects with six or more residential or commercial units on a single tract.
COMING THIS WEEK:
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS FOR STRIKING WORKERS. (Senate Bill 916) We are now getting close to the moment of truth on this bill. SB 916 is very hotly contested and we believe that several Democrats will break ranks to oppose the bill. There will be no Republican support. Democrats currently only have 34 members eligible to cast votes right now and can only afford to lose 3 votes on this bill.
OSCC is opposing the bill as it stands. It would force taxpayers to foot the bill for striking public sector workers; and for the private sector, it would force thousands of small employers to subsidize labor disputes for much larger corporations. OSCC testified and submitted comments to OPPOSE this bill. OSCC is also actively lobbying the bill.
The House Committee rejected attempts to make SB 916 mirror the Washington bill (3-week waiting period, 6-week maximum benefit) and instead passed an amendment to allow local governments to claw back UI payments in future paychecks. Oregon’s school superintendents weighed in this past week to oppose the bill – causing additional hurdles for the bill as the issue of requiring school districts to pay for teachers to go on strike is becoming the linchpin issue on which this bill is being decided.
OSCC is expecting that a House vote on this issue could come as early as Tuesday, but we remain skeptical that Democrats will find the needed votes until they are able to swear in their 35th member next weekend (Rep Courtney Neron vacated her seat last month to fill an opening in the Senate).
OSCC will issue an ACTION ALERT at the appropriate time.
TRANSIENT LODGING TAXES (HB 3962)
As discussed on our Friday call, this is a MAJOR issue for OSCC members. The outcome on this bill hangs very much in the balance.
HB 3962, with the -2 Amendment, will allow local government to divert TLT funds away from tourism promotion to fund “tourism impacted services.”
Although there is an active workgroup on this issue, OSCC member and workgroup participant Debbie Fromdahl (CEO, Roseburg Area Chamber) reports that the workgroup is very much designed to try and force an outcome in support of HB 3962.
OSCC opposes HB 3962 as Oregon and our local communities are in no position to start compromising on tourism promotion – once those TLT dollars are diverted they will never go back to their intended use.
Per our OSCC weekly call, we believe this bill is hanging in the balance. We would recommend that OSCC members directly contact the following legislators who will be influential in the final outcome of this issue:
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