Nearly 1,500 bills already introduced, more expected
In the first of his reports from Salem, State Director Anthony Smith discusses the extensive legislative activity that preceded the official opening of a new session.
The First Regular Session of Oregon’s 80th Legislative Assembly will convene January 22, 2019. This 160-day session will run through the end of June.
Bills that were filed before the session were read first earlier this week, immediately following the swearing in of the members of the Legislature. In total, nearly 1,500 bills were introduced, with many more to come as the session continues.
NFIB has screened them all and has already flagged 250 of these bills as either harmful or helpful to NFIB members. Each bill that has been introduced can be viewed and tracked using the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS).
Gov. Kate Brown also delivered her “State of the State” address January as part of her inauguration ceremony before a Joint Session of the Legislature. You can watch the joint session here (with Gov. Brown’s speech starting about 1 hour into the video.) You can also read a written version of her speech here.
The speech references the budget she released in December several times, and unsurprisingly, the priorities she emphasized are the very same topics she mentioned on the campaign trail last fall:
- campaign finance reform
- housing
- homelessness
- Medicaid funding
- paid family and medical leave
- Cap & Trade
- education funding.
An ambitious list for sure, with very few details about how to accomplish her goals – or how to pay for them.
In addition to the $23.6 billion budget she’s proposing for the 2019-2021 budget cycle, she also challenged the Legislature to come up with $2 billion specifically for education. A Joint Committee on Student Success has been created to craft this proposal, and while it has come up with a wish list of more than $3 billion in new spending on education, neither the committee nor the governor has released any details on what those new taxes will look like – and who will be responsible for paying them.
For more information on small businesses’ legislative agenda, Governor Brown’s speech, and on why NFIB is the true voice of small business, click on the KYKN-AM 1430 radio logo below to hear Newsmakers’ hosts Brent DeHart and Dave Bourne interview Anthony Smith.
