Rules should be based on duly passed laws, not OSHA interpretations, NFIB argues
State Director Anthony Smith reports from Salem on the small-business agenda for the political and legislative week ending February 24
February 24 was Day 39 of the 160-day 2023 Oregon Legislative Session and the inundation of new bills is finally set to let up after more than 2,700 legislative measures have been introduced so far.
February 21 marked the first of many self-imposed deadlines for the Legislature. Prior to this, legislators were able to introduce an unlimited number of bills. Now, and for the remainder of the 2023 session, they will be limited to five priority bills per legislator, with some exceptions, as you might expect.
Deadlines play a very important role in the Oregon Legislature. In order to stay on track to complete its work on or before its 160-day limit, bills are required to advance through the legislative process in compliance with House Concurrent Resolution 23, which passed in both chambers on January 9, 2023, and House Rules and Senate Rules that were adopted by each chamber at the beginning of session.
More information about these deadlines be read on the legislative calendar page of the Legislature’s official website.
Latest Forecast Shows State Tax Revenues Up Significantly
On February 22, state economists from the Office of Economic Analysis presented their quarterly revenue forecast to members of the House Committee on Revenue and the Senate Committee on Finance and Revenue. Since the most recent forecast three months ago, combined state resources for the 2021-23 and 2023-25 budget cycles have increased by nearly $700 million.
NFIB issued a press release immediately following the presentation, calling on legislators to prioritize tax relief for Oregon’s small businesses in light of the excess projected revenues. NFIB’s comments were covered by The Center Square:
“State revenues are up again,” said Smith, “and now that legislators have several hundred million dollars to work with for the state’s next budget, now is the time to provide tax relief for Oregon’s small businesses that are still facing a variety of economic challenges, including supply-chain issues, inflation, and a very tight labor market.
“The Corporate Activity Tax (CAT) and Oregon’s estate tax (death tax) are two tax policies in need of some practical revisions. Thankfully, both the House and the Senate have already held public hearings on several bills that would make a big difference for Oregon’s small businesses without substantially impacting the state’s overall fiscal outlook.”
NFIB supports raising the CAT filing and exemption threshold to reduce the economic impacts of the state’s gross receipts tax, which businesses with sales in Oregon of $1 million or more are required to pay whether they make a profit or not. Public hearings have already been held on HB 2433 and SB 127.
NFIB also supports reforming Oregon’s estate tax by increasing its lowest-in-the-nation exemption threshold of $1 million. As a comparison, the federal estate tax exemption threshold is $12.92 million for 2023. Public hearings have already been held on HB 2624 and SB 498.
Increased OSHA Penalties
On February 14, NFIB testified against SB 592, a proposal to increase penalties for violations issued by Oregon OSHA (Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Division, housed within the Department of Consumer and Business Services, or DCBS). Not only would the bill raise civil penalties significantly for all kinds of health and safety violations, which is worrisome enough, but it would also trigger a new “comprehensive inspection” process whenever a death occurs in the workplace – or whenever three or more “willful violations” occur.
Here’s an excerpt from NFIB’s testimony:
To be clear, NFIB members take safety seriously – and not just to avoid paying penalties to OSHA, but because they often work side-by-side along with their employees to get the job done each day.
That being said, we have some practical concerns with the bill. For one, there is no definition for the term “occupational death.” Considering an occupational death is what initiates the proposed “comprehensive inspection” process, having a clear understanding of what constitutes an “occupational death” versus a non-occupational death is essential. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to require OSHA to perform a “comprehensive inspection” when a death has no correlation to a workplace safety violation. But that’s not at all clear in the bill.
Secondly, while “comprehensive inspection” is a defined term in the bill, it’s still completely subjective based on the “professional judgment of the individual responsible for conducting the inspection.”
The real problem with this bill is that the Legislature is proposing to give far too much power to Oregon OSHA, an administrative agency, by leaving statutory language open to the agency’s own interpretation – that bureaucrats can change whenever they want to through rulemaking. Rules should be based on duly passed laws, not the other way around.
NFIB Goes on the Record with 2023 State Member Ballot Positions
NFIB Member Ballots have been the foundation of our advocacy efforts since the very beginning of NFIB nearly 80 years ago. The “One Member, One Vote” policy of NFIB is unique as far as other business and trade associations go – and we really do what our members say.
Two separate issues from NFIB’s 2023 Oregon Member Ballot received public hearings in mid-February and NFIB weighed-in on both, once in support and once in opposition. In both cases, NFIB submitted written testimony in order to get our full comments on the record. (Committee chairs often limit in-person testimony to just a few minutes for contentious issues in order to receive as much testimony as possible from the public.)
- Repealing Oregon’s 2035 Gasoline/Diesel Motor Vehicle Ban
HB 3022 would prohibit the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission (EQC) or the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) from adopting or enforcing rules or standards related to motor vehicle fuels or emissions unless the EQC and DEQ were authorized by the Legislature. In a recent survey of NFIB members in Oregon, 93.55% of respondents opposed the EQC adoption of California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rule. (The rule bans the sale of all internal combustion vehicles by 2035.) On issues of this magnitude with the potential to impact the lives and livelihoods of nearly every small business owner in the state, not to mention Oregonians in general, the ninety elected members of the Oregon Legislature should have the final say, not an unelected board, commission, or agency in Salem or Sacramento. (Excerpt from NFIB’s written testimony, full written testimony here
- Single-Payer Health Care
SB 704 would establish a Universal Health Plan Governance Board and direct the board to create a comprehensive plan for implementing a Universal Health Plan beginning in 2027. A 2023 survey of NFIB’s membership in Oregon found that 89.6% of our small business members oppose replacing private insurance plans with a government-run “single-payer” health care system. The state is as close as it’s ever been to achieving universal health coverage for all Oregonians. This committee’s efforts would be better directed towards identifying innovative, affordable, and responsible ways to provide coverage options for the relatively small number of Oregonians who are still uninsured, not moving forward with a Governance Board whose final product would be irrelevant without a $20 billion per year tax that will force thousands of small businesses to close or relocate out of state. (Excerpt from NFIB’s written testimony, full written testimony here)
Previous Weekly Reports and Related Information
- February 15—NFIB Oregon Small Business Day, April 18
