“Sine Die” Is Imminent in Oregon Legislature

Posted by Pam Leavitt on March 2, 2026

Thirty-five days sure does go by fast! Notice has been given by the Speaker and Senate President’s office that Sine Die has been declared imminent, meaning that the typical deadlines are slashed and most committee work can be scheduled with only one hour’s notice. With that, committees have started to shut down, and we anticipate final items of the session to be hitting the floors of both Chambers next week.

The most controversial bills of the session normally wait until the very end to come through their second chamber amidst negotiations, and this year has been no different. The passage of SB 1507A takes several of the federal tax cuts in the “Big Beautiful Bill” and cancels them at the state level.

This bill was the first of the hugely controversial bills to pass this session, but the fight is not over now that opponents have already announced their intention to refer it to the ballot in November–the same process that effectively killed the transportation package during the 2025 session.

SB 1599 is a bill to change the transportation tax repeal to the May Primary rather than the November General election and is scheduled for a vote on the floor Monday March 2^nd and has not been without a great deal of controversy and headlines.

Last week, House Republicans negotiated to push it back until Monday’s calendar, which is well beyond the deadline that Secretary of State (SOS) Tobias Read had previously stated would be workable, leaving some serious uncertainty about if the SOS will actually move up the vote, or honor his concerns about limiting the voice of Oregonians due to the tight timeline to get arguments qualified on the ballot. Regardless, multiple entities have already stated they plan to launch legal challenges seeking an injunction if the SOS does plan to move forward, so everything is very up in the air, and whatever happens on the House Floor likely won’t be the end of this story.

Here is the status of some of the bills GoWest is tracking through the legislature:

HB4116 – Consumer Loans, Rep. Nathan Sosa

The measure would stop state financial institutions established in states outside of Oregon from being able to rely on their home state laws when determining an allowable interest rate. Currently federal law allows state banks to use the rate caps from the states they are registered in when doing business in Oregon. HB 4116 gives authority to Oregon to opt out of the federal law that creates this preemption allowing Oregon to enforce its own rate cap. The bill passed the House 31-24 and is waiting for action on the Senate floor.

HB4136 – Mortgage Interest Deduction on second homes, Rep. Annessa Hartman, Senator Jeff Golden

The bill disallows, for purposes of personal income taxation, a mortgage interest deduction for a residence other than the taxpayer’s principal residence, unless the taxpayer sells the residence or actively markets the residence for sale. A public hearing was held but no further action has been taken since the hearing. I anticipate this bill will not pass.

HB4141 – Debt Resolution Companies, Rep. Breese-Iverson

Requires a person that provides debt resolution services to consumers in this state to register with the Department of Consumer and Business Services and regulates the activities of debt resolution service providers. In 2009, Oregon passed a bill that established a 7.5% rate cap for debt resolution companies. The 7.5% fee cap applies to the percentage of savings that the consumer achieves through debt resolution. This bill will change that cap and allow debt resolution companies to come back to Oregon and be regulated. This bill is considered “dead” at least until the 2027 session.

HB4051- First-Time Homeownership, Rep. Werner Reschke
The bill creates a program for deferred loans to first-time home buyers in an amount not greater than the lesser of the closing costs on the purchase or one percent of the purchase price. An informational hearing was held but this bill will not go any further in this session.

HB4052 – Incentive Tax for Creation of State Bank, Rep. Werner Reschke
The bill creates a corporate income tax credit for Oregon-chartered banks that are new to the state and applies to banks first authorized to conduct business in Oregon and commencing business during the current tax year or the two prior tax years. The bill does not include banks formed by merger or conversion that has filed an Oregon tax return in a previous year and sets the amount of the credit at amount of tax due up to $1 million. The bill passed the House and is in committee on Monday 3/2 for consideration.

HB4128 – Relating to Single-Family Residences, Rep. Ben Bowman, Sen. Lew Frederick

Prohibits covered entities, which is defined as “real estate investor” from purchasing, acquiring, or offering to purchase or acquire a single-family residence unless the residence has been listed for sale to the general public for at least 90 days. This bill passed the House and is waiting for a vote on the Senate floor.

HB4178 –“The Penny Bill

Rep. Bowman will introduce the bill during the Rules Committee meeting and moved the bill our quickly.

HB 4178 (penny rounding bill) passed off the House Floor on a vote of 40-2 and is waiting for consideration in the Senate Rules Committee where time is running out!

The amended bill contains requests from Agencies and Publics so does allow all to adopt a rounding policy, requires notice to customers and includes liability protections and most importantly (and urgently needed) an exception to Oregon’s cash discrimination law.

The bill will:

Codify permissive rounding (retailer may) for cash to the nearest five cent
Make rounding for all cash payments – so mixed transactions permissive if customer wants to use card/gift card first then round cash balance (not prescriptive that customer must pay cash first)
Includes preemption just in case
Grants liability protection – protects rounding from UTPA and ORS 618.236
Will require signage that retailer has rounding policy and required to apply consistently – this was needed to provide liability protection to common law misrepresentation claims
Includes exemption to 659A.410 cash discrimination law
Take effect upon passage – Emergency clause

In the news: Goodbye, pennies: Oregon bill would allow stores to round to the nearest nickel when giving customers change

Posted in Advocacy on the Move, Oregon Advocacy.