BOMA Oregon 2011 Legislative Summary

For BOMA Oregon, it was a fairly positive session. With the Republicans and Democrats evenly split in the House and the Democrats with a slight 16-14 advantage in the Senate, the playing field has tilted towards the center. The delicately balanced politics of the Legislature resulted in many good bills being ignored…but equally as important, most bad bills never saw the light of day.

In general, BOMA scored the Legislature and Governor high marks on the budget process. The Governor submitted a budget proposal based on the anticipated revenue collections for the biennium rather than a proposal based on the costs of maintaining programs at their current budget levels and then raising taxes to make up the difference as has been done in the past. The Legislature agreed to the “living within our current means” approach and approved a General Fund budget of approximately $15 billion which represented about $3.5 billion in cuts to virtually every sector – education, health and human services, and public safety.

While the Legislature was not successful in reforming the capital gains tax or the kicker law, it did approve SB 301 which allows Oregon companies to access federal tax incentives including bonus depreciation and increased expensing limits for the purchase of capital equipment. And, to the Legislature’s credit, it wasted very little time with job-stifling regulatory and tax proposals. None of these proposals passed.

The BOMA Legislative Committee tracked over 110 bills that directly affected our industry. In addition, BOMA worked closely with a number of other business organizations to add leverage on many bills. BOMA would like to thank the Legislative Committee members whose collective efforts helped to enhance the Association’s credibility and effectiveness in the Legislative arena. The Committee was chaired by Jon Bradford.

For a more detailed report, visit your Dashboard for member resources.