Action Alert: Urge Your Legislator to Oppose SB 916
What happened: The Senate Committee on Labor and Business passed SB 916 on March 6. The bill would allow striking workers to collect unemployment insurance benefits. Now is the time to call or email your state senator to tell them to vote “no” on SB 916. OBI’s resources page can help you find your legislator and provides other useful information.
The problem with SB 916: The unemployment insurance system was designed to provide benefits for people who lose work involuntarily. It was not designed to provide benefits for people, like striking workers, who leave jobs voluntarily. SB 916 would provide an incentive for workers to increase the length of strikes, ramping up economic pain on the very employers who pay all unemployment taxes. As OBI’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel Paloma Sparks noted in testimony, passing SB 916 would further erode the business climate in Oregon, which already is ranked one of the least business-friendly states in the nation. Oregon is also in the midst of what the state economist has called a manufacturing recession.
Why it matters: Oregon needs continued business investment to generate jobs and tax revenue. Passing SB 916 would give businesses another reason to invest in other states, further eroding Oregon’s competitiveness. Perhaps that’s why California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill giving unemployment benefits to striking workers in 2023, why Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont vetoed a bill providing aid to striking workers one year later, and why the Seattle Times, for the second year in a row, on March 5 urged legislators not to give unemployment benefits to striking workers.
Oregonian editorial: On March 9, The Oregonian published an editorial in opposition to SB 916. It notes that SB 916 “would upend that dynamic and put all the power in employees’ hands, regardless of whether an employer can meet their demands.” The editorial also echoes OBI’s basic argument, which is that paying striking workers unemployment benefits is irreconcilable with the purpose of the system. “Going on strike is a voluntary action,” The Oregonian writes. “While workers may have legitimate criticisms of an employer’s contract offer, the decision to go on strike is a calculated effort to exert additional pressure.”
Learn more: Go here to watch Paloma’s testimony and here to read her submitted testimony. To review dozens of proposals that would improve Oregon’s competitiveness, check out OBI’s Oregon Competitiveness Agenda here.
OBI Foundation Releases 2025 Oregon Competitiveness Book
What happened: Today, the Oregon Business and Industry Research and Education Foundation released the 2025 update to the Oregon Competitiveness Book, a collection of more than 50 indicators of economic competitiveness, from per-capita personal income to state gross domestic product. For each indicator, the Oregon Competitiveness Book ranks Oregon among the 50 states.
Competitiveness website: As a companion to the Oregon Competitiveness Book, OBI has created a web page that provides context and analysis. The page sorts Oregon Competitiveness Book data into 11 categories, including business climate, taxation, wages and income, population and workforce, GDP and exports, and more. For each category, the web page provides trend information, where available, as well as additional data from Oregon Competitiveness Book source material and elsewhere. Visitors to the web page can read and download a copy of the Oregon Competitiveness Book.
Oregon’s competitiveness: Oregon does have strengths, including quality of life and a tech sector that supports many high-wage jobs. By most measures, however, Oregon continues to wrestle with the competitive challenges described by the inaugural Oregon Competitiveness Book, released in 2024. State and local taxes are among the nation’s highest for individuals and businesses, for example, and Oregon’s regulatory environment is ranked among the country’s most stifling.
Why it matters: Economic competitiveness matters because businesses provide hundreds of thousands of jobs and generate the tax revenue Oregon’s state and local governments need to sustain critical public services. Unless Oregon becomes more competitive, business investment will continue to flow to more welcoming states, and talented people, innovation and tax revenue will follow.
OBI Pushes to Extend Organized Retail Crime Grant Funding
What happened: On March 4, OBI Policy Director and Counsel Derek Sangston testified before the Senate Committee on Judiciary in support of SB 960, which would extend funding for the organized retail theft grant program administered by the Criminal Justice Commission. The bill would allocate $10 million for the 2025-27 biennium.
Organized retail theft: Organized retail theft involves the coordinated theft and resale of goods. Organized retail crime costs American retailers more than $69 billion per year, and theft in Oregon, Sangston testified, has contributed to an estimated $1.4 billion loss in economic activity, a loss of over 8,000 jobs and $40 million in tax revenue. Organized retail crime also places employees of retailers in danger.
Policy background: During the 2023 legislative session, OBI and other members of the Oregon Retail Crime Task Force successfully supported a package of bills to address organized retail crime. One of these bills, SB 900, created a $5 million grant program to help local communities and law enforcement combat organized retail theft. SB 960, now under consideration, extends and expands SB 900.
Why it matters: Organized retail theft, as Sangston testified, hurts businesses, endangers employees, reduces tax revenue and harms consumers as retailers lock away targeted items or simply close their doors. By failing to address organized retail theft, legislators would allow many of its harms to persist, including its contribution to Oregon’s reputation as a difficult state in which to do business. In its 2025 Free Enterprise Report, the Common Sense Institute ranks Oregon last among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., for public safety.
Learn more: Go here to watch Derek’s testimony and here to read his written testimony. Combating organized retail crime is an important component of OBI’s Oregon Competitiveness Agenda, which you can read here.
OBI Supports Increase in Corporate Activity Tax Threshold
What happened: On March 3, OBI Policy Director and Counsel Derek Sangston testified before the Senate Committee on Finance and Revenue in support of two bills, SB 381 and SB 490, that would increase the threshold for Oregon’s corporate activity tax to $5 million. The threshold since the CAT’s 2019 adoption has been $1 million in annual commercial activity.
Why raise the threshold? Companies with $5 million or less in commercial activity filed 73% of all CAT returns in tax year 2022 yet accounted for less than 7% of CAT revenue, according to the Legislative Revenue Office. Raising the threshold to $5 million, then, would provide a great deal of relief without sacrificing a great deal of revenue. That’s why other states with similar taxes have higher thresholds. Nevada taxes gross receipts over $4 million, and Ohio – whose tax served as a model for Oregon’s – recently increased its threshold from $1 million to $6 million.
Why it matters: Oregon’s effective business tax burden has increased by more than 30% since 2019, in part as a result of the CAT. The state’s corporate tax environment, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, is now the nation’s second worst. States compete aggressively for business investment, and Oregon’s tax climate places the state at a significant competitive disadvantage. As businesses choose to invest in other states, Oregon will lose jobs and tax revenue. Increasing the CAT threshold, as these bills would, is a component of OBI’s Oregon Competitiveness Agenda.
Learn more: Go here to watch Derek’s testimony and here to read his written testimony. Learn about OBI’s Oregon Competitiveness Agenda here.
Treasury Department Will Not Enforce CTA Reporting Rules
The latest: On March 2, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that it would not enforce penalties associated with beneficial ownership reporting requirements under the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The department also announced that it would issue a proposed rulemaking narrowing the scope of the rule to foreign reporting companies only. Read the department’s announcement here.
What is the CTA? Enacted in 2021, the law is intended to combat illegal activity such as tax fraud and money laundering. To that end, it requires the reporting of specified information about the “beneficial owners” of certain businesses, defined as people who either exercise a major influence on a company’s decisions or own at least 25% of a company’s shares. Before the Treasury Department’s March 2 announcement, legal challenges had delayed the law’s beneficial ownership reporting deadline.
Learn more: Visit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Federation of Independent Business to learn more.
Register for April 28 Oregon Trade Summit
On April 28, join OBI for the Oregon Trade Summit, an event focused on trade, tariffs and their effects on Oregon’s economy. The Oregon Trade Summit will include:
- An in-depth look at Oregon’s trade economy, including partnerships in North America, Europe and Asia.
- An update from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce about the federal policy landscape.
- A multi-industry panel discussing opportunities and challenges facing businesses across Oregon.
The summit will take place at the Salem Convention Center. Doors will open at 1 p.m., and the program will run from 2-4:30 p.m. A networking reception will follow.
Go here to register.
Legislative and Rulemaking Updates
Online Retailer Requirements: On March 6, the House Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection held a public hearing on HB 3255, which would require retailers with substantial online sales to maintain a “permanent” phone number and email address, respond to customer complaints within 24 hours, and allow the secretary of state to pull business licenses for noncompliance. The bill is unworkable. Among other things, it would limit the ability of a business to change models or implement better, more efficient technologies. Oregon’s retail sector, like many other sectors in Oregon, has lost jobs over the past year. Luckily, strong opposition from industry stakeholders should keep this bill from becoming law.
Two Revenue Committees: With the many provisions of the federal Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) set to expire later this year, the Oregon legislative committees that focus on revenue had two very different responses this month. On March 4, the House Committee on Revenue held a public hearing on HB 2092, which as introduced would have maintained Oregon’s automatic connection to the definition of federal taxable income (something that happens routinely). Unfortunately, a late-posted amendment would freeze Oregon’s connection to federal tax law to Dec. 31, 2024, which means Oregon’s tax policy would not automatically adjust to any federal policy changes or interpretations made after that date. Ostensibly, the change is intended to protect Oregon revenues from changes to federal tax policy. This is shortsighted and unnecessary. The Legislature can easily make one-off changes to its connection, as it has in the past. Switching from a rolling connection to a past static connection would make tax compliance incredibly difficult. Meanwhile, on March 5, the companion Senate committee held a public hearing on SB 111, which would extend 2021 legislation helping certain pass-through businesses – specifically partnerships and S-corps – reduce their federal tax liability through a mechanism that treats more of their Oregon tax liability as a business expense. This is often referred to as the SALT cap workaround. The policy is revenue-neutral, so extending it is a prudent, common-sense move to protect Oregon businesses. OBI is pushing for an amendment that would expand it to trusts and allow individual taxpayers more flexibility.
Labor Standards Boards: Unions are pushing to create labor standards boards for two industries, agriculture and home and community-based care providers. HB 2548 would create a new board to regulate pay, hours and working conditions in the agriculture industry. The bill would also eliminate at-will employment in that industry. HB 3838 would create a similar board for home and community care workers – long-term care, residential facilities, in-home care and personal support workers. In both cases, unions and labor advocates would have outsized representation on the boards. These unelected boards would have the power to make new administrative rules without adhering to the administrative procedures act. The bills lack meaningful accountability tools for the boards. Neither bill provides a process for acknowledging employer costs and whether employers have resources to absorb new costs. The House Labor and Workplace Standards committee will hear HB 2548 this week and has scheduled HB 3838 to be heard on March 17. Paloma will testify in opposition to both bills.
Tire Tax Hearing: On March 4, the Joint Committee on Transportation held a hearing on HB 3362, which would impose a 4% excise tax on tire sales to fund public transit, address water quality affected by pollutants from tire wear and reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions. It is surprising that legislators would consider this bill during a session in which it intends to pass a multibillion-dollar transportation package. Meanwhile, Oregon already has a dedicated payroll tax for transit. There are serious questions about the viability of the transportation package given a nearly insolvent state highway trust fund, major ODOT accountability issues, the need to rebalance revenue formulas for passenger and freight vehicles and higher expected costs due to the governor’s executive order mandating project labor agreements. Business interests, including OBI, testified against the bill. OBI doesn’t expect the bill to move.
Greenhouse Gas Bill: On March 11, the House Committee on Climate, Energy and Environment will hold a hearing on HB 3477, which would set new and more stringent climate goals for the state. The current goal, set by former Gov. Kate Brown’s executive order 20-04, is to reduce emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. HB 3477 would establish a goal to reduce emissions 95% below 1990 levels by 2050 and net zero or net negative emissions thereafter. The bill is virtually identical to a bill introduced in the 2023 session. OBI generally supports the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and private industry work to that end. However, these goals are not realistic. Oregon should not impose policies that exceed available technology or exceed what is economically viable for businesses or consumers.
PFAS Bill: HB 3512, which will receive a hearing on March 13, would ban the manufacture and sale of products with “intentionally added” perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The definitions in the bill are exceptionally broad, and the bill itself is more far-reaching than a similar law in California. The bill applies to a broad list of products such as juvenile products, cleaning products and packaging. Given the significant regulatory impact such a bill would have and the clear errors in the existing draft, too much work is needed to pass something this session. OBI is working with member companies and a broader business coalition to oppose the bill.
Housing Bill: HB 3145 would direct the state’s housing department to use state funds to buy factory-built housing and install it. The bill recognizes that prefabricated housing must play a role if Oregon is to address chronic affordability problems. However, the governor’s executive order requiring project labor agreements promises to undermine the bill. Why? The bill identifies $800 million in funding for housing through the Local Innovative Fast Track (LIFT) program. LIFT funds are state bonds known as Article XI-Q bonds, which require state ownership and/or operational interest. It is therefore difficult to see how these funds wouldn’t fall under the executive order. This would place participating manufactured home factor workers under the PLA requirement. And at the very least, onsite assembly and installation of the housing would fall under the PLA requirement.
Notable News
Knight Philanthropy: Phil and Penny Knight gave more than $370 million to charities last year, ranking them No. 10 on a new list of the country’s biggest donors (The Oregonian).
Columbia on Moon: On March 6, Columbia Sportswear’s Omni-Shade Sun Deflector material landed on the moon. The product reflects sunlight and is used in some of Columbia’s hoodies and half-zips. Although the landing didn’t go as smoothly as hoped, it marked the second time in two years that a Columbia product touched down on the lunar surface (The Oregonian).
School Accountability: Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is preparing to wade into the state’s raging debate over what, exactly, will fix its ailing public school system, and she says she doesn’t think the automatic answer is more money (The Oregonian).
Portland Tree Regulation: In 2015, the Portland City Council launched the city’s first tree code: a 32,000-word document that regulates how trees in the city must be cared for and preserved. The result is one of the most unpopular policies in the city, a set of rules so inflexible and ruthlessly enforced that at least one family says it spurred their decision to leave town (Willamette Week).
I-5 Bridge: For the past several weeks, city councils across Southwest Washington have been debating the subtleties of a single paragraph in their agreement about the planned replacement of the Interstate Bridge between Oregon and Washington. This latest argument over the decades-long, multibillion dollar megaproject boils down to whether Clark County municipalities like Battle Ground, Camas and Washougal are willing to chip in to fund light rail on a new bridge, and if their refusal to do so could create a bigger wedge in the project (Oregon Public Broadcasting).
BPA Market Decision: Bonneville Power Administration intends to join the new energy market Markets+, the federal agency said March 6, a decision with potentially significant energy cost and reliability ramifications that has divided utilities and other industry stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest (Portland Business Journal).
Oregon Child Care: Paying for care for a baby in Oregon can cost more than supporting a college kid. The average cost of infant care in the state in 2024 was about $19,064 a year, or $1,589 a month, according to a new tool released by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank (The Oregonian).
Housing Legislation: Gov. Tina Kotek wants to see thousands more duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, cottage clusters and townhomes built throughout the state. The governor is urging lawmakers to approve a measure that greatly expands where what’s known as “middle housing” can be built (Oregon Public Broadcasting).
Multnomah Wage Growth: Household incomes have been on the upswing across the Portland area, rising by more than 20% in most of the region since the emergence of COVID-19. Median incomes in Multnomah County are rising more slowly. That could be a worrisome sign for Oregon’s most populous county and for Portland’s comeback from pandemic-era upheaval (The Oregonian).
Wildfire Map Appeal: The Deschutes County Commission voted 2-1 March 3 to file an appeal of the state’s wildfire hazard map on behalf of all 21,258 properties in the highest designation, a move intended to send a message to state lawmakers as calls to repeal the controversial map continue (The Bulletin).
Port of Morrow: A group of 26 conservation nonprofits, grassroots organizations and community leaders have signed a letter sent to Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek alleging the Port of Morrow intentionally misled the governor about its wastewater storage capacity while seeking an emergency order earlier this year (Columbia Insight).
Eugene School Budget: Eugene 4J School District is preparing for significant budget cuts as enrollment declines and costs go up. The district has roughly 1,000 fewer students now than it did five years ago (KLCC).
Microchip Layoffs: Microchip Technology detailed plans March 3 to lay off 2,000 more workers across the company as it responds to steeply falling sales. Microchip has historically employed about 900 in Gresham. (The Oregonian).
Check Out OBI’s Member Benefits
OBI offers members a range of programs that can save money or help small businesses offer benefits normally available only to much larger companies. Benefit programs include:
- HealthChoice: Helps businesses with fewer than 100 employees offer comprehensive health-care benefits through our partnership with Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon.
- CompSAFE: Helps eligible companies enjoy workers’ compensation discounts through SAIF Corporation.
- Fuel Program: Helps members save fuel costs through our partnership with Ed Staub & Sons.
- ODP Business Solutions: Helps OBI members save money on office furniture, supplies and other services.
- LegalPLUS: OBI members receive 15 minutes of free legal consulting per month from Innova Legal Advisors.
Go here to learn about all of OBI’s member benefits.