New legislative and congressional district lines will be redrawn to reflect population shifts
Although not directly a small-business issue, the elected representatives who emerge from newly re-designed districts will have a say on issues of importance to Main Street enterprises for many years after. For that reason, NFIB Oregon calls its members’ attention to the redistricting process underway.
Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution requires a new “enumeration” every 10 years, which commences after the latest U.S. Census has been completed. It has, and the Oregon Legislature will soon start holding public hearings. The Legislature has put up this Oregon State Redistricting site with all the information citizens need to keep up with the latest developments and perhaps participate.
According to this document from the Legislature and the National Conference of State Legislatures, “Now that the data has been released, our ESRI partners will reformat and load it into the redistricting tool which will then be available for use by the public. This may take several days but should be completed by Friday, August 20. Once this process is complete, the House and Senate Redistricting Committees will hold an informational hearing to discuss next steps and future public hearings. Please check the Legislature’s redistricting website for the latest information and updates.”
Should small-business owners want to get involved, this one-page reminder will tell you why your voice is more influential than you might think.
By the way, just what are the issues directly affecting small businesses? You can find all 75 of them in NFIB’s quadrennial Small Business Problems & Priorities report, and you can click here for a one-page explanation on why NFIB doesn’t take a stand on certain issues, such as redistricting.