OR Session in Final Weeks!

Posted by Pam Leavitt on June 5, 2025

OR Sine Die is Imminent!

We’re entering the home stretch of the 2025 legislative session. By June 30, our Constitutional Sine Die deadline—we’ll gavel out for the year. That said, depending on how quickly remaining work wraps up, the session could end anytime between mid to late June.

On May 27, the Speaker of the House officially declared “Sine Die is Imminent!”  This means that the session turns to shorter deadlines and the members spend a majority of their time on the Senate and House floor.

With policy committees now finished holding public hearings and work sessions, the remaining work is focused in Ways and Means, Rules, and Revenue Committees. This declaration also shortens the timeline for public notice on committee activity—from 72 hours to just 24 hours for initial public hearings, and from 48 hours to only 1 hour for all other meetings, including secondary hearings.

At press time, we are waiting to see if our housing bill concept, HB3188 will get funded by the Ways and Means Committee.  We are also following the funding push for Individual Development Accounts in HB2735 and the push to increase tax credits now in SB102.  You can track any bills on the Oregon Legislature tracking system, Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS) e-Subscribe tool.

Governor Signs Credit Union Bill

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed into law HB3370, the 2025 session update to the OR Credit Union Act.  The bills make three significant changes:

1. Update a technical issue and discrepancy in the timeline in which a financial institution must accept an affidavit from the Department of Human Services payout time.
2. Allow credit union management to reinstate expelled members instead of making it a Board of Directors responsibility.  This occurs rarely and creates an extra burden for boards that have many high-level strategic priorities pending.
3. Clarify the composition of the Supervisory/Audit Committee to allow Board members to fill these positions with caveats such as no management, Board Chair, etc. The Supervisory Committee supervises clerical and auditing personnel. The primary functions of the committee are to ensure financial statements are accurate and fairly present the financial condition of the credit union, and management practices and procedures safeguard members’ assets.

Bankers Introduce End of Session Bill

The Oregon Bankers Association, through support of legislators using a priority bill, were able to get a final bill introduced at the end of May that would impose a new tax credit for new banks and creates a corporate excise tax credit for each of the first three years that a bank does business in this state. The bill applies to banks that commence business in tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and before January 1, 2032.  There is no impact to credit unions, but we believe they will push for a public hearing before the session ends to have a public hearing and most likely bring up credit union competition.

The bill is essentially a three-year state tax exemption for de novo banks chartered in Oregon.

• Applies to any “de novo bank,” which is defined as an Oregon state-chartered bank that was first issued its charter and started doing business in OR in the current tax year or either of the two immediately preceding tax years. (So it would cover any bank started in 23, 24, or thereafter.) 
• Creates a tax credit applied to the corporate excise tax.
• The amount of the credit is the amount of the tax that would otherwise be imposed on the bank (but not more than $1 million) in each of the first three years in which it is doing business in Oregon.  Because the credit equals the amount of the tax, the bank winds up paying no tax, unless it elects to defer some or all of the credit to the following year.  The credit can’t be deferred beyond the third year. 

https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2025R1/Measures/Overview/HB3975

The bill was introduced by three House Republicans all on the House Revenue Committee where the bill is being heard, Rep. Bobby Levy, Rep. Greg Smith, and Rep. Werner Rescke

As we watch the final days of the 2025 Legislative Session, we have seen a great deal of floor activity.  Yesterday, the House passed the controversial bill (SB 916) granting unemployment benefits to striking workers.  We also await final progress on the transportation package that will impact the gas tax, and of course, we are watching for any activity on legislation introduced by the Oregon Bankers Association.

Posted in Advocacy on the Move, Oregon Advocacy.