State Legislation Update: Your Chamber in Action

Oregon legislators whittled down nearly 1,200 bills out of the 2,900 introduced in the legislative session this past Friday. Policy committees have until Tuesday, April 4th to vote on bills, and any bill not voted out by this date will die. We are closely tracking policies that will impact the business community, and there are several we have actively engaged with. 

The Eugene Chamber has submitted public testimony on many bills. Each issue is presented to our Local Government Affairs Council, a group comprised of business leaders in the community, and their input on each policy informs the Chamber’s position. Chamber staff researches each issue, but all decision-making is done collaboratively with the larger business community. 

With these processes in mind, the Chamber has submitted public testimony on a variety of issues. Additionally, we partner with the Oregon State Chamber of Commerce to discuss the long-term impacts of policies on local organizations. Their insight on the larger business community in Oregon help other Chambers across the state work cohesively together- recognizing these policy decisions impact all of us. We value these partnerships. 

Below are links to our testimonies to bills we either supported or opposed. We encourage all to read through these testimonies to better understand why we took specific positions on these policies:   

• Support for HB 2433: this policy increases the exempt amount and filing threshold for the Corporate Activity Tax.  
• Opposition for HB 3152: this policy would ban natural gas in restidential homes. 
• Support for SB 698: this policy impacts incarcerated individuals trying to enter, or re-enter, the workforce. 
• Support for HB 3205, this policy effects pay equity requirements, to exclude hiring bonuses and retention bonuses.

We will continue to advocate on behalf of the business community in the coming weeks, and we encourage anyone with concerns or questions to reach out to our advocacy department. Our policy analyst, Heidi Bloodgood (heidib@eugenechamber.com), is available to answer any inquiries.