Dear OSCC Members & Colleagues –

Thank you all very much for the outstanding participation in our Friday call. The discussion with newly-appointed Chief Prosperity Officer Tim Knopp was informative. We all now have a good point of contact in the Governor’s office.

The two biggest news items of the Session’s first week: (1) the official state revenue forecast yielded an additional $286 million of general fund revenue, relieving some pressure on the state budget; and (2) Democratic leadership must not have believed they had enough bills circulating in the session to carry out their political objectives and introduced over 20 brand new bills on Day 4, nearly all of them “placeholder” bills that will be available to receive amendments crafted behind closed doors. Nearly all of the new bills were assigned to the Rules Committee in order to bypass the legislature’s self-imposed tight timelines for bill consideration. 

Among the new bills introduced was Senate Bill 1599, which is intended to change the election date of the transportation tax referral from the November General Election to the May Primary Election. This bill is designed by Democratic leadership to move quickly despite popular opposition. It will receive its first public hearing this afternoon in the Joint Special Committee on Referendum Petition 2026-302.

LAST WEEK:

Last week saw OSCC oppose the following bills which received initial public hearings:

SB 1507: Federal Tax Disconnect. OSCC testified against this bill that would disconnect businesses from federal bonus depreciation tax incentives for investments in machinery and equipment. OSCC issued an Action Alert.

HB 4098: Adding Insurance in the Unlawful Trade Practices Act. OSCC is part of the coalition opposing this bill. OSCC encourages member chambers to engage in opposition to this bill.

HB 4134: Statewide TLT tax increase. Increases the state TLT tax from 1.5% to 2.75%. OSCC opposes this bill and encourages members to continue to engage in opposition to this tax increase that will hurt the tourism sector and make travelling more expensive for Oregonians.

THIS WEEK

The intensity will ratchet up this week with more bills of consequence to OSCC and local business communities throughout Oregon.

·     Recreational Liability Waivers (SB 1593): OSCC has already issued an Action Alert on this issue. Oregon is the only state in the western US that gives recreational, outdoor and fitness businesses no ability to enforce liability waivers for ordinary negligence. This is a key issue for our outdoor industries and fitness and recreation businesses. SB 1593 has a public hearing this morning in the Senate Committee on Commerce.

·     Federal Tax Disconnect (SB 1507). We believe this $300 million tax increase, predominately on business, will be voted out of the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee this morning.

·     SALT Cap (SB 1510): We have heard from many members the importance of extending Oregon’s now expired “SALT cap workaround” to allow Oregon pass-through businesses to lower their federal tax burden. We believe this will likely be amended into SB 1510, which will have its first public hearing in the Senate Finance and Revenue Committee on Wednesday.

·     Prevailing Wage Exemptions on Housing Developments (SB 1566): This is a bill that OSCC supports and encourages OSCC members to testify on this afternoon in the Senate Labor and Business Committee. OSCC is aware of several critical housing developments that are being stalled or cancelled due to prevailing wage requirements on the construction.

·     Transient Lodging Tax diversion (HB 4148): OSCC sees this as perhaps our biggest threat in 2026. The TLT diversion bills would allow local governments to increase their share of local TLT tax revenues to pay for more general government purposes and away from tourism marketing. The current legal share for local governments is 30%, which would be moved up to 60% in HB 4148.

OSCC members are encouraged to both sign up to OPPOSE this bill and submit testimony for today at 3pm in the House Revenue Committee.

FINAL NOTE: Please be on the lookout for consistent ACTION ALERTS this week. There are multiple critical hearings and votes happening every day – sometimes multiple times each day. We will not be able to cover everything, but will do our best for the major issues.

For instance, TODAY we know there will be: (1) a committee vote on the federal tax disconnect; (2) a hearing on liability waivers; (3) a hearing on prevailing wage exemptions for housing developments; (4) a hearing on the TLT revenue diversion.

TOMORROW we know there will be (1) a committee vote on HB 4098 to include insurance in the Unlawful Trade Practices Act; and (2) a committee vote on the Climate Superfund cost recover bill – SB 1541 – that is designed to capture revenue from GHG emitters in the fuels sector and would translate into fuel price spikes.

And just remember…it will be over in less than 4 weeks!

We will be holding our weekly legislative update calls on Fridays at 9:30am. You can add these calls to your calendar using this link.