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Friends and neighbors, here are some highlights from the week and helpful community information for you! As the session is moving along and we're beginning to see deadlines, the heat of the building is rising. Please stay informed and I invite you to be part of the process.
- Shelly
"OREGON PUBLIC SCHOOLS HEMORRHAGED STUDENTS DURING THE PANDEMIC"
- THE OREGONIAN
From the Oregon House Republican Office:
Three years ago, on March 12, 2020, Governor Brown announced a statewide closure of Oregon K-12 schools from March 16, 2020 through March 31, 2020.
This closure would continue for almost two full years.
The result? This was the headline from The Oregonian, in March 12, 2023.
More from Oregon House Republicans, HERE.
CONCERNING BILLS COMING
HB 3214 – An Assault on Livestock Shows
🚨🚨 URGENT CALL TO ACTION for all rodeo/4H/FFA/livestock people! 🚨🚨
HB 3214 had a public hearing on Thursday in the House Judiciary Committee. The bill’s vague language likely BAN FFA/4H livestock shows, rodeos, and other common and enjoyable livestock activities.
Opponents were outnumbered before the committee, but there is still time to submit written testimony: TAKE ACTION BEFORE SATURDAY AT 8:00 AM!
Sign up to submit written testimony here.
🚩 HB 2002 – Abortion and Your Tax Dollars for Sex Changes
Regardless of where you stand on abortion, most Oregonians agree that our laws are too extreme. This bill makes our laws even more extreme by legalizing hiding whether a baby was born alive or dead. In addition, this bill would make it even easier for kids with gender dysphoria to make permanent, life-altering decisions about their bodies.
Some of the specifics include of the bill include:
- Prohibit an abortionist from providing information about a minor's abortion to their parents.
- Allows a minor to consent to an abortion at any age.
- Uses your tax dollars to provide abortion pills on university and community college campuses.
- Requires health insurance companies to cover sex changes for minors.
- Directs your tax dollars to cover sex changes for those who get insurance through the state.
- Protects doctors who perform sex changes on children from losing their license or from getting sued for malpractice.
- Exempts information about doctors who perform sex changes from public records law.
- Creates the crime of "interfering with a health care facility," which could include calling the facility or peacefully protesting outside. Regardless of criminal conviction, the bill creates a right for the health care facility to sue you if you participate in this kind of activity.
- A person currently commits the crime of concealing the birth of an infant if the person conceals the corpse of a newborn child with intent to conceal the fact of its birth or to prevent a determination of whether it was born dead or alive. This bill would legalize that activity.
HB 2002 is scheduled for a Public Hearing Session in the House Committee on Behavioral Health and Health Care on Monday, March 20, at 3:00 pm.
Sign up to testify here.
Sign up to submit written testimony here.
🚩 HB 2005 – Anti-2nd Amendment
This bill would ban firearms that you have made yourself. Under current law, making firearms in your own home for your personal use is legal. This bill would ban that practice and instantly make thousands of Oregonians criminals for having them.
HB 2005 is scheduled for a Public Hearing in the House Committee on Rules on Thursday, March 20, at 5:00 pm.
Sign up to testify here.
Sign up to submit written testimony here.
🚩 HB 2006 – Anti-2nd Amendment
This would make it illegal for adults between the ages of 18 and 21 to possess a firearm.
That includes any firearm they lawfully bought and currently own. There are no grandfather provisions. If a person under 21 lawfully owns any firearm today, they will become a criminal when this bill goes into effect.
HB 2006 is scheduled for a Public Hearing in the House Committee On Judiciary on Monday, March 20, at 5:00 pm.
Sign up to testify here.
Sign up to submit written testimony here.
🚩 HB 2007 – Anti-2nd Amendment
This bill expands the anti-2nd Amendment SB 554 that passed in 2021. That bill banned firearms in the State Capitol, even if you had a CHL, and allowed local school boards to ban CHL holders from exercising their rights on school grounds. HB 2007 would expand that authority to local governments, like counties, cities, or special districts.
The language in the bill would be able to also extend this prohibition to "adjacent ground." This dangerously vague language could give local governments complete control over your Second Amendment rights and render your CHL basically useless in situations when you might need it.
It is scheduled for a Public Hearing in the House Committee On Judiciary on Monday, March 20, at 5:00 pm.
Sign up to testify here.
Sign up to submit written testimony here.
🚩 HB 3312 – Increases Beer Tax by 1200% and Wine Tax by 500%
A proposed amendment to HB 3312 would increase taxes on Oregon’s beer and cider by 1200% and increase taxes on wine by more than 500%. Overall, 74% of Oregonians oppose increasing taxes on beer, wine, cider and spirits.
Oregon is home to 400 breweries, 1,000 wineries, 1,400 vineyards, 70 cideries, 100 distilleries, 73 distributors, and 10,000 restaurants, creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs and more than $14 billion in economic activity for the state. With the highest cost increases in generations, tax increases would only make it harder for these local businesses to invest in hiring and expansion.
Email the House Committee on Behavioral Health and Health Care Committee to kill this amendment.
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👍 One Piece of Good News 👍
HB 2426, my bipartisan and bicameral bill to allow Oregonians a choice in how they pump their gas, passed the committee and is now slated to pass the House on Monday.
As a reminder, under HB 2426, Oregonians across the state would have the choice to pump their own gas, or have it pumped for them. Here is what it would look like in the different counties across the state:
TAX UPDATE FROM
THE OREGON DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
The Oregon Department of Revenue has begun issuing refunds due to taxpayers who have filed their 2022 tax returns.
To check the status of their refund, taxpayers can use the Where’s My Refund Tool on Revenue Online. They will need their:
- Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN);
- Filing status; and
- The exact refund amount shown on:
- Line 46 of their Form OR-40, or
- Line 71 of their Form OR-40-N, or
- Line 70 of their Form OR-40-P
Here are common reasons refunds may take longer and what to do about it.
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Filing a paper return. Paper returns take longer to process and, as a result, it takes longer to issue related refunds. File electronically instead.
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Filing electronically and requesting to receive a refund via a check takes longer. Request direct deposit instead.
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Filing more than once. Sending a paper return through the mail after e-filing will a delay a refund. Taxpayers should file just once.
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Filing during peak filing periods. Refunds are also issued slower during peak filing periods, like the last few weeks before the April 18 deadline. Filing well ahead of the deadline will help taxpayers get their refunds sooner.
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Refunds may be delayed when errors are identified on returns. Taxpayers who receive a letter requesting additional information are urged to respond promptly through Revenue Online to speed the processing of their return.
Taxpayers who check Where’s My Refund one week after they file and receive a message saying their return is being manually processed should watch their mailbox for correspondence from the department. If it has been 12 weeks or more since they filed their return and they haven’t received a letter from the department, taxpayers should call (503) 378-4988 or (800) 356-4222 to speak with a customer service representative.
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Guest Column: Go back to the drawing board on habitat conservation plan Daily Astorian – By: Cyrus Javadi In the late 1930s, Clatsop County became the first county in Oregon to deed forestland to the state. It did so under the promise that land would be managed to benefit the local community. Oregon’s ensuing management has been a national model for sustainable forestry. But now, the Oregon Board of Forestry has proposed cutting nearly 35% of the timber harvest in our state forests. Under the proposal — the draft habitat conservation plan — harvest levels could drop from 73 million board feet to 48 million to 52 million board feet annually in the Astoria district alone.
Interstate Bridge replacement planners ordered to study drawbridge option The Oregonian Federal transportation authorities have directed the planners for the proposed Interstate Bridge replacement to study a drawbridge after the U.S. Coast Guard raised objections to the current plan. The Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transportation Administration directed the bridge planning team, which includes members of Oregon and Washington’s state transportation departments, to investigate the costs and impact of a drawbridge that would accommodate ships on the Columbia River, as well as products manufactured by local companies and shipped down the river.
Portland, Seattle among West Coast cities named the most expensive for residents KOIN6 A new study that shows which U.S. cities require the highest salaries from their single, childless residents reveals that some of the most expensive cities are near the coast, including Portland and Seattle. Financial advising website SmartAsset conducted the study using the University of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s latest living wage calculator. Then, assuming that MIT’s living wage calculator solely accounts for needs, the website doubled the recorded salary and applied the 50/30/20 rule.
Oregon lawmaker floats proposal to allow further delays of state’s long-awaited paid leave The Oregonian Sen. Kathleen Taylor, a Democrat from Southeast Portland who chairs the Senate Committee on Labor and Business, floated a proposal last week that would give the agency the authority to delay the launch of the program if it determines that its trust fund isn’t solvent. The program, which is slated to begin paying benefits as of Sept. 3, could be delayed until December, then potentially delayed again until March 2024, she said.
Oregon semiconductor bill advances, but nobody’s satisfied The Oregonian Lawmakers advanced a bill aimed at reviving Oregon’s semiconductor industry Wednesday, but conservationists, industry supporters and ambivalent lawmakers all object to key elements of legislation. So while the bipartisan legislation is moving quickly, it’s unclear whether it has the tools to meet one of the Legislature’s top priorities this year — attracting a share of $52 billion in newly approved federal dollars for chipmakers. And it’s unclear when the legislation will reach the full House and Senate, or what kind of reception it will get when it does.
RELIEF NURSERY NEEDS YOUR HELP!
From our friends at the Family Tree Relief Nursery:
We need your help! Our clothing closet is almost empty.
If you have new or gently used clothing you would like to donate, we need the following things:
- Girls 2-4T shirts and pants
- Girls 3-5T underwear
- Boys 2-3T and 5T underwear
- Boys size 2-5T pants and shirts
- Shoes for boys and girls size 9-12
More information about Family Tree Relief Nursery, go HERE.
HS SENIORS: SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY
From our friends at the Albany Boys & Girls Club:
ATTENTION SENIORS!
Education Scholarship due April 7
Apply, HERE.
MORE SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES!
From our friends at Red Canoe Credit Union:
Red Canoe's Scholarship Committee provides scholarships to members who are attending or entering college or vocational school, and excel in their studies and in their commitment to the community.
More information, or to apply, go HERE.
REMINDER: #9PMROUTINE
From our friends at the Albany Oregon Police Department:
Just a little reminder about the #9 pm routine in case you forgot.
TAKE CARE WHEN 'SHARENTING'
From our friends at ABC House:
Parents and caregivers-- consider the dangers of using social media to share information and images of your kids (a.k.a. “sharenting”). Be aware of your privacy settings and make sure that your location sharing is turned off any time you share an image or video of your child, especially if your account is public. Taking these simple yet crucial steps to ensure our children’s safety online provides us with all the benefits of using social media as a networking and marketing tool—without the added risks!
For more digital safety tips, join us this Thursday, March 16th from 4-5:30 PM at the Albany Public Library for our SafetyNet: Smart Cyber Choices training! Reserve your spot HERE.
SPRING BREAK AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAM
From our friends at the Albany Boys & Girls Club:
After School Program during Spring Break
- March 27th-31st
- 8:30-5:30
- Lunch provided
- Early bird fees apply
More information and how to register, go HERE.
IT TAKES A COMMUNITY - AND A VILLAGE
From our friends at the Albany Oregon Police Department:
The Albany Police Department went to the Albany Fire Department!
A little field trip to Albany Fire Department on 3/14!
The Albany Area Chamber of Commerce asked us to talk about APD to the Albany Area Chamber Youth Leadership Class!
Of course, we brought donuts, gadgets, and all the fun!
During the 2023 legislative session my office will continue to keep you updated and informed - and is always at your service. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any community event announcements, legislative questions, or concerns. |
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Talk soon,
 Capitol Phone: 503-986-1415
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, H-389, Salem, OR 97301
Email: Rep.ShellyBoshartDavis@oregonlegislature.gov
Website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/boshartdavis
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