LOC News
2022 Session Quick Summary: Key Bills Affecting Cities
The LOC’s lobby team saw success during this short legislative session, but also what has become part of any session: some disappointment. Probably the most frustrating part of the short session was House leadership preventing a $50 million back fill of lost marijuana revenues and a long-term solution for recovering marijuana revenue losses through SB 1506.
Post session, LOC advocacy will specifically focus our work with legislative leadership on convincing them of the importance of this lost revenue. We’ll need your help to illustrate the budget decisions cities face in the light of this reduced shared revenue source. What we have found in the last few sessions is some legislative willingness to assist with funding for cities, but reluctance to allow the local governments to determine their own priorities.
The bottom line is that the LOC and members will need to continue educating and challenging those in legislative leadership who insist that, “Cities are unable to make their own decisions.” We’ll need to come together, present data, and stick to a unified position from the start to finish of the next session.
The following are highlights from the short session that your lobby team would like to offer:
Behavioral Health
HB 4098 – Opioid Settlement: Chiefly sponsored by Representative Tawna Sanchez (D-Portland), HB 4098 implements the national opioid settlement with Johnson & Johnson and its largest distributors. The bill has passed the Senate is expected to be voted on in the Senate before sine die.
Scott Winkels, Lobbyist – swinkels@orcities.org
Housing and Homelessness
HB 4123 – $8 million for Homeless Services Coordination: HB 4123 establishes locally led, regional housing coordination through eight pilot programs across the state. Each pilot receives $1 million in state funding over two years to operationalize coordinated offices to strengthen their communities’ homeless response.
HB 4064 – Manufactured Housing: HB 4064 provides an important standardization that will allow siting of prefabricated structures in mobile home or manufactured dwelling parks, including parks that are cooperatively owned. It also allows clarification for local governments for the siting of manufactured homes and prefabricated structures in single-family dwelling zones inside an urban growth boundary.
HB 4051 – Homeless Support: HB 4051 has three key extensions that are critical for responding to the homeless crisis: 1) Adding one additional year to shelter siting provisions from HB 2006 (2021); 2) A necessary technical fix to SB 8 (2021), which allows more flexibility by clarifying that eligibility is based on ownership of the property not the housing unit; and 3) HB 2100 (2021) called for a Task Force on Homelessness and Racial Disparities. To fully address the issues and offer a more comprehensive assessment additional time was added.
$400 Million Homelessness and Affordable Housing Package: This is a combination of bills and the Christmas Tree bill that passed this week, establishing additional funding for local governments related to a $400 million package in response to Oregon’s homelessness crisis. This funding package includes an additional $50 million for Project Turnkey and $25 million for distribution to Oregon’s largest cities and metro-region counties.
Jim McCauley, Legislative Director – jmccauley@orcities.org
Public Safety
HB 4008 – Crowd Control and Training: Sponsored by Representative Janelle Bynum (D-Happy Valley), HB 4008 creates positions within the Oregon Department of Public Standards and Training to implement police discipline legislation passed in 2021. Additionally, the bill now contains crowd management language that places requirements on police departments when dealing with violent, unlawful behavior in crowded settings.
Scott Winkels, Lobbyist – swinkels@orcities.org
Tax and Finance
HB 4054 – Historic Property: HB 4054 extends the historic property special assessment program for two years. The bill also amends formulas for assessing property to eliminate double Measure 50 benefit for future program applicants.
HB 4056 – Indexing: HB 4056 requires an annual adjustment for inflation of shared revenue distributions from the state marijuana tax.
HB 4056 – Tax Omnibus Bill: HB 4056 includes a one-year gain share extension.
Mark Gharst, Lobbyist – mgharst@orcities.org
Telecommunications
HB 4092 – Broadband Omnibus Bill: HB 4092 helps the state address barriers to broadband by: strengthening the state broadband office’s governance structure; setting a strategic framework to guide the broadband office; allowing the broadband office to access more mapping data to guide their decisions and bring in more federal broadband dollars; and creating paths for more digital equity.
Jenna Jones, Lobbyist – jjones@orcities.org
Transportation
HB 4105 – Omnibus Transportation Bill: HB 4105 includes an important provision that will allow cities which have the authority with photo radar to allow a non-commissioned officer to review and recommend citations.
Jim McCauley, Legislative Director – jmccauley@orcities.org
Water Infrastructure
HB 5202 – Water Project Funding: HB 5202 is the Christmas Tree bill and establishes authority for Oregon Business Development Department to provide more than $10 million in direct grants to small cities for water and wastewater infrastructure projects. See project list in section 417.
Michael Martin, Lobbyist - mmartin@orcities.org
Last Updated 3/4/22