Episode 18 - Legislative Forum

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hello Oregonians and welcome to Life and Legislation with Lucetta. If you've ever wanted to get to know your politicians personally or understand what it is they are actually doing, then you're in the right place. I'm your podcast host Jessica Campbell. [00:00:17] Speaker B: I'm your State Representative for House District 24, Lucetta Elmer. [00:00:21] Speaker A: This podcast is a place for you to get to know Representative Elmer both personally and professionally. [00:00:27] Speaker B: We want Oregonians to feel connected with and educated politics. So we're so glad you've joined us on a fresh new podcast adventure as we cover all things about life and legislation. [00:00:43] Speaker A: Hi Oregonians and welcome back to Life in Legislation with Lucetta. This episode will be a bit different from our usual ones because instead of having a conversation with Lucetta, we are sharing the recording of a recent Legislative Forum that was held at stillwater on on October 23, 2025 and was hosted by the McMinnville Chamber of Commerce. The forum was a chance for the business community to hear from Representative Elmer, Representative Scharf and Senator Starr about the recent long session. We want to give a big shout out to McMinnville Community Media for recording this forum and sharing the recording with us for this episode. We highly recommend checking out MCMTV for other recorded events and local programming and we'll include their link in our Episode notes. If you'd like to watch the video version of this episode on our YouTube channel, the link to that will also be in the Episode notes. For this audio version, we've done our best to even out the volume so you can hear the questions from the audience at the end of the forum. As always, if you have questions, we'd love to hear from you so we can address those in future episodes. You can reach Representative Elmer at the email address provided in the Episode notes. And now, here is the recording from the legislative forum on October 23, 2025. [00:01:56] Speaker C: So good evening and welcome to the 2025 legislative forum. My name is John Olson. I'm the President CEO of the McMinnville. [00:02:03] Speaker D: Area Chamber of Commerce. [00:02:05] Speaker C: Thank you so much for being here on behalf of the McMinnville Area Chamber along with our partners at the Shahla Valley, Sheridan and Wilhelmia Chambers of Commerce. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. Before we get started, I'd like to take a moment to thank our Chambers Government affairs sponsor, Oregon Mutual Insurance. Their ongoing support helps us to bring these policy conversations to life and ensures our business community remains engaged in the legislative issues that affect all of it. So a big thank you to Oregon Mutual of course, we also have a big thank you tonight to our venue hosts here at Stillwater for opening their doors to us this evening. At this point, I'd like to invite our host Frank Fogey to come into welcome us this finding. Great. [00:02:57] Speaker E: First, thanks to representative Elmer, Representative Sharp and Senator Star for being here. So I'm Frank Bode. I'm the apprentice servant leader of the ground. I was a servant leader, but then someone told me I couldn't name myself that, so I added apprentice. And I'm hoping that that's the end of my bedjamin button journey and a to get demoted any more than that. So this venue, you're welcome to tour around at the end. We literally just got our final inspection on a really sizable catering kitchen behind you. Next time you come to our facility, there's 40 parking spots right here, CT building. It was part of getting approved. So you should really use those parking spaces. No orderly construction vehicles. And we'd love to tour you around and show you and don't want to take up a lot of your time except to say that the ground is about everything and everyone being connected not only to the earth, but to each other. And I believe we have this great opportunity with some tremendous leaders in service to the state who are about that same connection that you get to hear from today. So without further ado, back to you. Thanks for. Hey, and by the way, sing in the front. [00:04:13] Speaker C: Plenty of seats up front. Thank you so much, the ground and Stillwater team. We appreciate your hospitality. This forum gives our local business community an opportunity, a valuable opportunity to connect directly with our elected officials, to reflect on what has happened in Salem in this past year and to look forward to what's next for Oregon Yamho County. And we know how much it matters to have a local voice. Our local voice is heard in the Capitol, and so tonight we have a chance to just that. And so I appreciate Representative Elmer and Senator Starr for being here. Before we get going tonight and hearing from our elected officials, I'd like to take a moment and to recognize and congratulate both Representative Elmer and Senator Stone on their recent elections to the House and Senate minority leaders. I hope at some point tonight they'll tell you what that means and how that's better for you or at least making out words for them. I don't know. But we are really thankful to have you in positions voicing our voices in Salem. So thank you so much. So to start tonight's program, we just wanted to give you an opportunity to say hello to Everybody and kind of have an opening statement of what's going on for you and the things that you're watching and things concerning before. We kind of jump into the questions that our chambers have put together. So ladies first. And those microphones in front of you are for you to use. [00:05:46] Speaker B: Oh, are they? [00:05:47] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. They're on already. [00:05:50] Speaker F: Your leader, go ahead. [00:05:52] Speaker B: Well, is this on for real? Okay, great. Good evening. Thanks for coming out and just taking some time out of your week and your night to be here. That matters to us. I mean, we've definitely been in rooms where we haven't had this great of an audience. So thank you for just wanting to know what's going on in your legislature. I am Lucetta Elmer and the newly elected leader for the House Republican office. And I'm also state representative for House District 24, which we are in right now. So my area includes Yamhill, Carlton, McMinnville, the city of Amity, Sheridan, Willow, Mina, Grand, Ron. And in addition to that, as, as the leader, I also sort of have that voice that represents our caucus across our state. Within our caucus right now, we have 23 members. And so part of my role is to make sure that they just have all the tools and whatever they need to do their job and to represent their districts and get their policy polished and ready to go. In addition, it's also my role has a lot to do with the campaigns that will be coming up next year. Next November 26, state representatives will be up for reelection and some senators, but not this one. And so have our eye on elections. And right now we're recruiting candidates and getting ready for all of. All of that that happens next year. And then lastly, I have a lot of conversations with lobbyists and stakeholders and experts in the field of different policy that we're diving into and looking to create bills around to pass legislation. So right now my days are. We're not in session, we're in the interim, but my days are busy with all of those things that I just mentioned. I never know what my day brings. Today was fun. The Hungarian delegation was in Oregon and I had a fantastic opportunity to meet with them. And it was just so. It's just. I mean, who. Who knows when they wake up that's going to happen in their day. But, but it was really. It was really a special moment and I appreciated them taking time to meet with me. So I really do like my role. Thank you for trusting in me to represent you. And please know that my door is always open. I love to hear from all of my constituents. [00:08:19] Speaker F: Good evening. My name is Anna Sharp and I'm the state representative for House District 23. I'd also like to thank you all for taking time out this evening to be here. I've actually had a town hall where I think we could count the number of people who showed up on one hand. So this for me is a little overwhelming. This is fantastic. I actually get the pleasure of representing the rest of Yamhill county that Representative Elmer does not have. In addition to a good chunk of Polk. I have served with Representative Elmer on the labor and not business as we like to call it committee. I'm the vice chair of the Early Childhood and Human Services Committee, which I also have the pleasure of serving with Representative Elmer on. And then I sit on the House ag Committee as well as a sub human services committee which looks at some pretty the two largest state budgets. My role currently will be to support Representative Elmer as one of the members of the caucus. I've served in the legislature since 2021 and along with the other members of our caucus, I will get to run for reelection again. I've already filed, so I'll be helping her fundraise and helping us also recruit some other fantastic candidates. I will say that she often says I'm the Ying to her yang because I'm sometimes a little bit of a Debbie Downer. But I will say I had the pleasure of meeting several of the candidates that we've already been out recruiting at a luncheon during legislative days that just happened since in September. And I am encouraged. I met some phenomenal candidates that we are looking at running in 26 and for me, not House District 26 in 2026 elections. Actually there's a really great one in seat 26. But I'm really encouraged and excited for what could be coming at us as far as bringing balance back to Salem, which is exactly what we need to see to make better choices for Oregonians in Yampel County. So thank you. [00:10:21] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:10:25] Speaker D: Yeah, it's great, great to be with you this afternoon, this early evening. Bruce Starr. I have the privilege of serving with these two state great state representatives. We, we as legislators representing Senate District 12 work really well together. We work collaborate together. Our staff works well together. So that's really fantastic to have that team effort. I have focused most of my legislative effort on transportation policy. If you don't know, I previously served in the legislature for 16 years from 1999 through 20 through 2014. Took a decade off and come back into the process and during my previous service was very active, involved in transportation policy. So did that again in this current session. As you look at the challenges in front of us, they're real, they're big. There's a lot that needs to be fixed in our state. But like Representative Scharf said, I'm extraordinarily optimistic about our future as a state. I look at the challenges are real, but next year, Oregonians are going to get a choice. They're going to get a choice to change directions to turn the state around. And I think that as the Senate Republican leader, I can tell you that the candidates that are stepping forward to run for the state Senate seats that are open are fantastic Oregonians that bring a breadth of experience and will ultimately make really, really great additions to not just the Senate Republican caucus, but to the Oregon State Senate, where balance is important. Balance is needed. We're in the super minority, just as they are in the House right now. But I don't see that continuing after the next election. And what I'll tell you is, even though we're in the super minority, if you look at the most recent session, your Senate Republicans stood strong for accountability in government, stood strong for safer communities, stood strong for helping to try to build a business environment that is conducive to actually growing and having a successful business. I will tell you that we introduced a lot of bills to toward that end. A lot of those bills didn't see the light of day because we're not in the majority and we don't have the kind of balance today that we that we need. But we continue to show up, we continue to advocate, we continue to work hard to represent. I think the the kind of policy that ultimately will grow Oregon's economy, that will create better schools, that will make it easier if you're a company trying to recruit executives from out of state to actually want to come to Oregon. Those are the kinds of things that I think Senate Republicans have advocated in the previous in this last session. That's what we're going to talk about in the short session next year. And I expect that we're going to make better progress in 2027 after the next election. So thank you for being here. Thank you for standing up for business and why that's important. I'll just make one more note and then turn it over for questions. I served on the Finance and Revenue Committee, and we got the revenue forecast in early September. Basically, they tell us how much money we can expect to have, and the state economist is sitting in front of us, and he basically Says, hey, we're not in recession in Oregon, but we're close. We're not in recession in Oregon because there's investment being made in our state, not in the Portland metro area, but investment being made in our state in the Willamette Valley in southern Oregon and central Oregon. So clearly we have a challenge in our state, in the Portland metro area. There's no question about that. And ultimately, those three counties need to have the ship. Right? It kind of. So. And I think that'll happen. But the point of my, of my story is there is investment occurring in the Willamette Valley. There is investment occurring in Yamhill and Polk County. There is investment occurring in places in our state. And I think that's a good thing. Let's, we just need more of it. And so let's, you know, as your state senator, as your state legislators, we stand ready to help and move the state forward in that direction. So thank you. [00:15:31] Speaker C: Thank you so much. So when we thought about this night and we thought about how to best inform our members and our citizens, for many of us, we get a little bit of a taste of what's coming out in the news about what's going on. But this was a long session with a lot of bills. And so we kind of wanted to have an opportunity for you to tell us a little bit about what happened in the long session, what in the world happened with the short special session, and then also give us just a little bit clue. I know we're looking to do a crystal ball in a way of saying in the short session 2026, what are some things you think are going to be topics of discussion or things you hope might be topics of discussion? And so our first question tonight is a look back, looking back at the 2025 long session, what were the most important outcomes that you see directly impacting Yamhill county, whether for local businesses, families, or really just in general? And once again, these aren't directed to any one of you. So if you are locked in, you know, have an answer, let us know what happened in the long session. [00:16:39] Speaker F: Are you wanting us all to answer. [00:16:41] Speaker C: Every question or I'll stop you when. [00:16:42] Speaker D: We need to keep moving? [00:16:44] Speaker C: I recognize giving open questions. [00:16:46] Speaker F: How long do you want us to be here tonight? [00:16:51] Speaker B: Well, I'll, I'll just speak briefly and I'll, I'll highlight some things that, that were directly impactful in my office, but that also impacted Yanhill County. And one of them was we, all of us up here worked on getting the money for the fire. District. So that was a little over $3 million that came into McMinnville very excited about that. Something else that came out of this long session was Youth Suicide Awareness Day, which was a bill that passed, and we just celebrated. It was passed as an emergency bill. And so we just celebrated the first Youth Suicide Awareness Day this month. The Morris family was there in honor of Mikalin, and it was beautiful. The vigil was just beautiful. So I think those were two big things that impacted this community. But those I know were coming specifically a little more out of our area. So I'll leave all of the rest for you guys to talk about. What happens when you go first. [00:17:54] Speaker F: You got the easy ones. So I guess what I would say is that sometimes it's not about what happens, it's about what doesn't happen. And as Senator Starr said, there's a super majority happening in both chambers. And so with the super majority, what that means is the super majority is what's necessary to pass taxes. It's two thirds in each chamber. And so that means that realistically, taxes could have been levied in all areas or increased in all areas. And really, the minority party didn't even need to show up except to provide quorum for that to happen. And so I fully expected to walk into last session and see all kinds of bad things happening. As far as increased business taxes, increased corporate activity tax, I was fully expecting that to happen, and we didn't see it. I don't know if it was just God's grace coming down on us or if they couldn't get their own act together. I don't know what happened, but we did not see that happen. So I'm taking that win right there, for what it's worth. But we didn't see any relief either. So Republicans introduced a whole slew of tax relief bills that we couldn't get through, such as no tax, our own version of no tax on tips to give our waitresses and our hairdressers and all the folks that we give our tips to, Oregonians, they get taxed on those. Didn't used to, back in the day when I was waiting tables in college. And even after that, I didn't get taxed on those tips. And so there was things like that and lowering the corporate activity tax. We weren't able to accomplish those things. For me personally, the big one, though, which affects everything and every person, whether you own a business, whether you have kids in school, is agency accountability and rulemaking. Our state agencies have decided that they like our jobs more than we like our jobs. And they have taken to writing law in their rulemaking. So typically we pass laws, they write the rules, which are the ABCs of how to implement. But over the years, they have mission creeped into actually writing law. And so I introduced a bill for two sessions. And we thought this time it was going to get over the hump to actually change that rulemaking power and how it happens to make the playing field a little more, even more transparent. So that Oregonians, whether it's rules for business, rules for schools, rules for everyday Oregonians, you would be able to participate and have better visibility to it. And unfortunately, we didn't quite get there. Representative Elmer sits on the Rules committee and she fought hard and we worked really diligently. It was an Oregon business and industry bill. And we're going to come back in the short session and I feel confident the governor was actually on board with us on it, but we had a special interest group that tanked us at the very end. But I feel confident we're going to come back and get that one next time. And that will absolutely be good for Oregonians across the board. No political, there's no partisanship in it. It's just good for everybody. [00:21:08] Speaker D: Great, thanks. So I've got like 10 pages, single spaced. [00:21:15] Speaker C: Well, that's all the time we have. [00:21:18] Speaker D: That lists all the bills that, that Republicans introduced that didn't get hearings and didn't move. But there is a few things that, that Republicans sponsored that are good policy that we actually got done. Not all of them impact Yamhill county or our specific area, but there was a handful of things. One of them, I don't know if you followed the wildfire hazard map. I see nods. Very controversial and very damaging to rural landowners. So that was repealed in the sessions. That's a good thing. I mean, that's a positive, strong bipartisan support for that repeal because everybody recognized what a disaster that was. Anyway, there's a handful of things that were, that were positive that we did. A new estate tax exemption for up to $15 million for qualifying natural resource properties used in farming, forestry and fishing businesses. So again, those are, they're small wins, but we'll take them. There's a whole, I mean, the list of bills that we introduced that didn't move is way, way, way, way, way, way longer than the ones that, that we actually found bipartisan support for. But let me talk really quickly about transportation. So there was an expectation that we were going to come into this legislative session, starting January, February, and pass a transportation Funding bill, comprehensive bill, a bipartisan bill, a collaborative process, just like has been done for the last 25 years. Every six or eight years or so, the legislature comes together and says, hey, we really need to invest in transportation. It's one of those things that government has to do. I mean, it's not like you can outsource that to the private sector. I mean, you can kind of on toll roads, but I won't go there. So that was an expectation. And having done those policies in the past, to be honest, I was like, great. I dove right into that conversation expecting that we would have a collaborative negotiation, bipartisan, that nobody gets everything they want, but we actually identify challenges, solve problems. And so I was in that room at those tables and to some degree there was some. There was collaboration and bipartisanship. And if you look at the bills that were ultimately introduced, there are pieces of those bills where I wholeheartedly, completely support, like reforming the way we tax trucks in our state. Simplifying the weight mile tax makes a boatload of sense. That's in the bill, it's in the legislation. How we tax diesel very much makes sense. There's some accountability measures in those pieces of legislation that we very much agree with. If you're driving an electric vehicle today, you're really not paying your fair share of damage to the road. So that's remedied in this transportation. Those were things that were generally agreed upon. But when Bush came to shove and there was two proposals on the table, one coming from the majority and one coming from the minority, every kind of policy reform that the minority put on the table that actually would make your tax dollars go further, the majority said, no, we can't do that. No, no, we can't do it. Ultimately it became a non negotiation where the majority just said, how big of a tax are you as Republicans willing to vote for so that we can move on? Honestly, that's not, that's not how the Republicans are going to approach this conversation. So what you saw at the end of the legislative session was the majority trying to pass a bill with just Democrat votes. I knew that that wasn't going to work because I. I knew that I had colleagues on the other side of the aisle that told me that they wanted to vote for. They wouldn't. They would only vote for a bill that I would vote for. That bipartisan process. So it broke down at the end of session. It was ugly, it wasn't pretty, but that's how legislation sometimes work. And then the governor took over after session and that Got us to basically the governor's bill and special session. [00:25:34] Speaker C: So that's my next question. Can I jump to that? [00:25:37] Speaker D: Is that more you want to add? So there's. You asked a question and I can complete the story. [00:25:42] Speaker C: Sure. [00:25:42] Speaker D: Okay, absolutely. [00:25:44] Speaker C: So we can't have a two man act. We should go on the road. This special session this summer produced a $4.3 billion transportation bill, but as many of us know, that did not include funding any specific transportation projects. And so that leaves out a lot of important regional priorities like the Newberg Dundee bypass, which is still waiting for critical investment. So what parts of that legislation do you think will have the greatest impact either because it only dealt with part of the issue and not the whole, or what do you think the impact of just that gas tax will be on residents like this in Yamo County? [00:26:25] Speaker G: Go ahead. [00:26:25] Speaker D: Thank you. [00:26:26] Speaker F: Okay, keep going. You're on a roll. [00:26:28] Speaker D: So the governor, I have a good relationship with the governor. And so we're in conversation shortly after the session. She, you know, back and forth, she tells me that she's going to move a transportation bill forward. Okay, great. I get the phone call from the governor after a few weeks and she says, I'm going to call a special session. I said, oh, you are? She said, yeah, I'm going to call it either this day or that date. And I was like, okay. She said, will you show up? And I was like, well, of course, if there's a special session, I'm going to show up to do my job. She didn't ask, what do we need to do to get Republican support for transportation bill. She asked Republicans to show up. Difference the wrong approach, unfortunately. And so ultimately we did show up. The House passed the, passed the bill on a purely partisan vote, actually. It was, it was bipartisan on the no side. And, and then after, after a month, we finally got it passed in the, in the Senate as well. The question is what happens next? And myself and Representative Ed Deal and Jason Williams of the Taxpayer association of Oregon will be co petitioners to refer to the ballot. It's a referendum process to the ballot. So Oregonians will have a chance to weigh in on this governor's bill. We're only going to refer parts of the bill because we don't have to refer the entire piece. We're going to refer the gas tax, the title and registration fees, and the payroll tax that goes through transit. Those are the four pieces that are going to be in the referral. We have a very short window to get those signatures because the governor has until November 12th to sign the bill and then we have to have the signatures by the end of the year. We're actually going to aim for December 20th. Our goal is to raise gather 100,000 valid Oregon signatures. We're well on our way with the organization part to get that done. Again, I'll give the microphone to my friends here in a minute. But again, the goal here is bipartisanship. The goal here is a collaborative process. The goal here is to bring the two sites together to solve a problem. Obviously, I represent Yamhill county, so I've got a project or two that is important to our community that I want to make sure there's resources for. But there's projects all over the state that are important as well. It is a statewide system and cities and counties need those resources as well. I mean, the cost of transportation projects have gone up. There's no question about that. So there is a need. But this, the solution is not a one party super majority kind of cramming it through the process like has happened. And again, I'm optimistic. I believe that the governor is, you know, in January, when we qualify, everything's put on hold and she's got a crisis on her hand. My hope is she calls up and says, okay, how do we solve this problem? And I kind of believe she'll do that. So that's where that is. And I'll pass the microphone. [00:29:49] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:29:52] Speaker B: Gosh, I'm usually the optimistic one, but I'm going to give that one to you. You win on that one. And I hope that too. [00:29:59] Speaker D: I do. [00:30:00] Speaker F: Are you channeling me? [00:30:01] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't know what's happening. I think the question was what happens now for Yamhill county or for our state? We have higher tax to pay. We have higher fees to pay at the dmv. We have a double payroll tax to pay. If it hadn't passed, would you have seen bigger potholes and would the snowplows not have worked? No, no. It's not a revenue problem. It is a priority problem. And I've spoken about this a lot. You know, there are different buckets of money that are within the agencies. And, you know, maybe, maybe legislatively or legally we can't access one because of the way the rules are written. But that's what we do as legislators. We could open up one of those buckets and say, oh, you know what? We need money over here for this and we would be happy to do that. I wasn't sitting in the position I am today when the special session was called. That would have been former leader Christine Drazen. I do know that she got a call from the governor as well. And her question back to Governor Kotech was, okay, well, when can we meet to talk about this? And the response was, no, we don't. I don't need to meet. It's done. I have it dialed in. We're good to go. I just need to know if you're going to show up. So the tone just was so offensive and not collaborative at all. You know, I truly believe that there is value in the minority voice. And so we all sit here with proof of that. I mean, our job is to continue to elevate that voice, but our democracy depends on it. You know, it isn't just about a dictatorship. It is about two different perspectives coming together to the table and working out the kinks. So I like your positivity. I'm going to try to channel that, but it might be a titch. Doubtful. So we'll see. [00:31:57] Speaker F: Within the last week, a Channel 2 KTU News poll showed that 98% of their viewership, Oregonians, Republicans, Democrats, non affiliates, green party, whoever, 98% of Oregonians want to vote on this. 98% of Oregonians deserve to vote on this. That tells me a lot right there. That tells me that the wrong decision was made and that Oregonians deserve to have their voice heard. The only thing that I would add, Senator Starr explains this way better. He has been in the weeds on this. When he was running for office, I reminded him that he was coming back to a legislator legislative building that was much different than the one he had left. I think he's starting to realize that, that it is much different than the one he had left. But we also are in control of a lot of the things that have increased the cost of our projects, that have increased the cost of our deliverables, of our transportation packages, that we can also fix things such as the governor's PLA mandate project, labor agreement mandate, things that have come through the labor and not Business Committee, which were complete partisan votes, which have driven up the cost of projects, which have driven up the cost of deliverables across the state. And so as we move forward with not just the funding of ODOT, but with the funding of the Newburgh W bypass, which we gotta get that done, but also other projects. I mean, my district goes down into Polk county and we have some of the most deadly intersections in the state. In Polk county, as we try to also address those safety concerns, there are policies that we have put into place that drive up those costs. So there's just, there's, there's a gamut of things that must be addressed within the world of transportation. [00:34:00] Speaker C: Transportation investment ties closely to the overall strength of Oregon's economy. And so I want to shift to our broader business climate. As the chamber of commerce, we're not surprised when polls come out that show that Oregon has dropped in its business friendly climate. And so I guess our question is, what can you do? What can legislators do to help create an environment that retains, attracts and supports the businesses that call Oregon home? It's a jump ball. [00:34:39] Speaker B: Am I starting again? [00:34:40] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:34:42] Speaker B: So as representative Scharf mentioned, we sit on the business and. Or I'm sorry, Labor and workforce development committee used to be called business and labor. I vice chair that committee and I have since I was elected in the legislature. And I was excited. In the beginning it was called business and labor. And I thought, well, this is fantastic. Privately we own businesses, my family and I, and this is something that, you know, is sort of in my wheelhouse and I'm excited. Overwhelming majority of things that come through that committee are partisan votes. Like representative Scharf said, there is, there just is not again, there's not a collaborative process. This year had to have been the worst. It was painstakingly awful. Senate Bill 916. First state in the nation that is allowing public employees who go on strike to collect benefits. Just we, gosh, we tried, we tried on that. And the amount of people that showed up to, to this committee in Salem, I mean, we had both of the workforce standard boards. There was one for ag and one for long term care. People just packed the house, submitted so much testimony saying, no, no, no, no, no, this is just killing business and just falls on deaf ears over and over and over. And then we find out, oh, we're in a manufacturing recession, we're in a business decline. That's what we've been saying. And it's just so frustrating because we're not able to get through. So we definitely saw things that were very sad. We saw Dutch brothers leave. We saw Jill Dwin leave. Cracker Barrel, Campbell Owens, Brockway, Tektronics, Adobe, Keen Owens, Corning, rei, Target, Macy's and Office Depot, Nordstrom. So many businesses and they're being courted from other states because other states know that we are on the wrong side of this and they're coming in and they are approaching our businesses, which obviously just has that trickle down effect. How do we support our budget if we don't have the tax dollars that flow through business. So it. I don't even know if I answered questions, but I feel better. So thank you for letting me. [00:37:01] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:37:02] Speaker C: This is a group therapy session. [00:37:04] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. [00:37:05] Speaker C: It's okay. It has not gone unnoticed by us either that the state of Ohio is putting ads in the Portland Business Journal asking businesses to move to Ohio. That's bad, folks. It makes me angry. To create the right environment to allow businesses to be able to start and to thrive here. They need to know that they can have the workforce to make the things and to do the jobs that make those businesses. Businesses thrive. And workforce and housing continue to be top concerns for employers throughout Yampel County. That's what we hear every single day as this chamber of Commerce. What did the legislature accomplish in 25 that will make a difference locally? And where do you see gaps that still need attention that hopefully we can start a conversation in 26 about. [00:37:58] Speaker D: You're up. [00:37:59] Speaker F: I was still in the last one, man. There's so much we could talk about that. So I think that. I think it ties together with the last one. So first of all, I want to go back to the last one for just a second. I think that in order to attract business to the state, in order to keep business in the state, in order to grow business in the state, you have to prove to employers that they can keep employees, that you're going to have good schools for their kids to attend, you're going to have safe communities for them to live in. I mean, period, end of story. That otherwise they leave. And then when employees leave, businesses leave. And we're seeing a mass exodus from this state of both not just employers, but employees. Because let's all face it, it's expensive to live here, but with housing. With respect, I went back and I looked at some of the bills because I don't sit on the housing committee. Don't. Please don't put me on that committee. Leader. Please don't. I'll get angry, but we did pass, really a bill that I supported, and then that one was passage of a bill to use local and state owned lands inside the urban growth boundary for infill. The state is a prime example. The state of Oregon owns all kinds of land inside of urban growth boundaries that sits vacant. Go to downtown Salem and look at all the office buildings that are empty and look at all the property that they own. Vacant lots. But yet they don't want to use it to build apartment buildings on. They don't want to use it to build duplexes on and some of our cities not pointing fingers at any specific city here or otherwise. Yamhill County, Polk County. But we do have cities that are like that that could use publicly owned land to sell off to infill with inside our urban growth boundaries. Some of the other things that we passed was a required residential development plan review timeline in order to speed up that process to get those plans for developments out faster. However, we didn't do anything to actually help housing starts. If you look at the lumber market right now, it's in the tank. What do you need to build houses? [00:40:13] Speaker H: You need lumber. [00:40:14] Speaker F: We are still not cutting down trees. We still don't have a lumber market that supports building houses. We rolled back absolutely zero building code regulations that would have helped building houses faster or less expensive. There are some legacy things that we did two sessions ago that added cost for no apparent reason. Ten units or more, you must put in an EV car charging station. Even if the landlord doesn't want it, you have to put it in. Okay. This makes no sense to me, so. And that's besides the fact that nobody wants to be a landlord in the state of Oregon anymore. So I'm not sure that we did enough. Because my idea in order to increase housing starts is we've got to figure out how to deregulate some of that stuff. And I come from a natural resource community. I grew up in a timber town. We got to cut down some more trees. [00:41:10] Speaker D: Yeah. Just to follow up on that, The Senate Bill 974 is the. We call it in the Senate, the shot clock bill basically requires some local governments to speed up the approval process. That's a good thing. I mean, that's something that's positive. That passed. We also passed a bill to deal with the shortage of building inspectors so that actually you can get your inspections done quicker. It's more of them. But at the end of the day, I agree there's a whole lot more that we should do or could do. And we have examples around the country of other locations, jurisdictions that actually have solved the affordability issue with housing. It's called increasing the supply of land available to develop and cut the regulations on the developers. Home builders and developers want to develop, they want to build homes, but they got to have the ground to do it on. 1.2% of Oregon. 1.2% of Oregon is urbanized. 1.2% of Oregon Is urbanized. We created these urban growth boundaries and it constricts the supply, obviously. I mean, it's. You don't have to be a brain surgeon. The laws of supply and demand do not, you know, apply to Oregon just like they apply everywhere else. And so if we were just to increase the amount of supply, reduce the regulations, the housing crisis that we see would solve itself. Instead, what we see is state government, not Republicans, but state legislators, taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of the back pockets of Oregon taxpayers, filtering it through state government, state government agencies, and then doling out monies to nonprofits, God bless them, to build affordable housing that's not generally not affordable because the cost involved, that's how they're trying to solve this problem right now. And it's not really solving the problem when instead you just let the market work and the market would work again. If, if we are in the ability in the next election cycle to bring balance to this process, I believe that the common sense proposals that Republicans put on the table this last session will find the light of day and we can actually improve this. I am optimistic again, because the data is the data. Numbers are numbers. They're not Republican or Democrat. They're not conservative or, or liberal. It is what it is. And you can't deny the facts of what's occurring in our state. And at some point, I believe that we have to turn the corner here. And again, I believe that we're just on the precipice of that happening. [00:44:19] Speaker C: So the last question that we have tonight before we get to some audience questions is, is looking forward to the short session of 2026 at maximum 35 days. As you prepare for this short session, what issues or opportunities do you believe will most directly affect communities like ours in Yampe County? [00:44:43] Speaker D: Well, one thing that we get to deal with is the impacts of what's happening at the federal government. At the federal level, the federal government passed HR1 that has impacts on our state and our state budget. And so we're gonna have to deal with that. The co chairs of the Ways, Ways and Means Committee have asked every state agency to propose a 5% reduction in their budgets. I think that's a good start. I served in the legislature and the recession in 01 and 08 and we cut a whole lot more than that in those recessions. And so 5% I think, is doable. Every state agency will say it's going to be, you know, to the bone. It's going to be terrible. The reality is that we can manage it. The other thing that I want to highlight is the. There's talk about disconnecting Oregon's tax code from the Federal tax code. Currently we're connected. So when the federal government passes a bill that reduces taxes on tips, reduces taxes on overtime, accelerates business depreciation, small business depreciation, those kinds of things, it has an impact on our state budget and the impact's about $880 million. That sounds like a lot, but it's again, it's completely, we can completely do it, fix it. So. But the majority is talking about doing a disconnect so that we wouldn't have those impacts on our state budget. I personally think that Oregonian, especially those that are working overtime and collecting tip revenue or tip income, should have the benefit of those reductions rather than Oregon legislature, you know, basically making, making it so that those dollars stay in the state government's pocket rather than in the taxpayers pockets. [00:46:44] Speaker B: I 100% agree. And I also think that it would negatively impact small to mid sized business, which was my last rant that I went on. And we definitely don't need to see more, more blows given to these businesses and these entrepreneurs and these business owners. We don't need to see businesses leaving because then obviously we have employees that are out of work. So when businesses see that they are not going to be able to get the tax cuts that they've had in the past or that they could get if they just move to any other state, I mean, you know what's going to happen. So again, I think that is a huge mistake and I'm hopeful that, I'm hopeful that that's not the path that we go down as far as what's coming up in short session. It is fast, but it will be a lot about money because we, we have a negative budget right now. So obviously those cuts need to happen and there will be a lot of conversations. I don't see anything policy wise going through if it has a fiscal, I don't know how that would happen. So it'll be an interesting session for sure. Five weeks, fast and furious. [00:47:54] Speaker F: I don't, I'm not looking at it as budget cuts. I prefer to call it priority choices. And there are so many things. So the Subways and Means Human Services committee that I sit on, which is that we look at the budgets before they go to the full Ways and Means committee. And the two that come through my Subways and Means committee are Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority. And those are the two largest state agency budgets that the state has. They get funding for programs that have never even started. So we're funding things that haven't even started. So if you're getting money every month in your family budget for something that you've never done, where do you start cutting? You cut there, right? It's priorities. These agencies are just going to have to look and prioritize where they're going to go with these things. I had a conversation this last week with the Oregon Health Authority and actually with Representative Nathanson, who is a longstanding Democrat member of the House, who knows a lot about state agency budgets. And I had a question to her about how many people at the state agency, Oregon Health Authority, actually do this process and how redundant is it? And she started laughing and I said, why are you laughing? She goes, because I've been asking them that for 20 years and they can't answer it like why are we doing it then? So we're going to have to a lot of asking a lot of these why questions. There are some folks in that building that have been asking these questions for a very long time and saying the money is going to run out. And guess what? The money has finally run out and the roosters are coming home to roost, if you will. So I mean, I'm kind of excited about it, to be quite honest. I think we're going to have to get honest with ourselves and we're going to have to tighten our belts and state agencies are going to have to do what every person in this room has had to do over the last few years and really reevaluate. Is it a must or is it something that you just kind of want? And I think that's a good thing for the state to have to do. I'm glad you're optimistic that we're not going to see anything crazy because it's the 35 day short session which is the lobbyist Olympics. We're going to see crazy stuff, I guarantee it. [00:50:11] Speaker D: Absolutely. [00:50:12] Speaker C: So some of you said you wanted to ask questions tonight and you took your ticket. And I've got tickets right here in this raffle basket which every Friday we do raffles at our Chamber of Commerce. And I'm not sure this is the best price, but important for you to be able to ask questions directly of your elected leader. So ticket number 4, 5126, 5 1. [00:50:40] Speaker B: That's you. [00:50:42] Speaker C: All right, there you go. [00:50:43] Speaker F: The price of sitting in the front row. [00:50:45] Speaker D: That's right. [00:50:45] Speaker C: It's cuz you sat in the front row people. [00:50:49] Speaker B: Rhonda asked me if I wanted a ticket. [00:50:50] Speaker H: I said, I don't know, do you? She said, well, you know, just fast. I did not realize we were from Hope County. [00:50:57] Speaker B: I don't. [00:50:58] Speaker H: I try to stay away from politics because I've become overwhelming to my brains. I focus on smaller, smaller local things. So I'm actively involved. Actually I just think someone is secret to say that I'm actually involved in home. I just want to say first and fore. I love if not if you guys don't know what Pokemon is doing, they're setting example for what we should be doing here. They have a. Sorry, they have a. Not only a community resource center that you can walk in that has partners to help with rent assistance, utility assistance, you name it. You walk in, they will connect your person. [00:51:36] Speaker F: We also have a brand new crisis. [00:51:38] Speaker H: Center that I like to see which is phenomenal. [00:51:40] Speaker D: Beautiful. [00:51:41] Speaker F: Two sides. [00:51:42] Speaker H: On one side you could go in and it's for admission services. So those sorts of problems. Other side everybody else. So you're scared of. You're suicidal, you're scared you're going to lose your house. [00:51:55] Speaker B: You're whatever it is. [00:51:56] Speaker H: Like you walk in, there's spaces and people they care and they call care spelling. One thing they want you to know is they care. So my question is when can McMill have something like that? That's my question. [00:52:09] Speaker F: You only got to get him $3 million like I did. [00:52:12] Speaker D: That's to the mayor. [00:52:14] Speaker B: We're not going to put the mayor. [00:52:15] Speaker C: In the spot tonight. So human answers and maybe what worked or. [00:52:21] Speaker F: Well, I would just thank you and I'm glad you brought that out. So I would just say that the Polk county kudos. I have to give them kudos because they budgeted really long and hard for that building and it took lots of years and lots of scraping. They used a lot of ARPA dollars that came out of COVID for that. And it was also one of my very first or second sessions when the state was still throwing out money like it was monopoly time and Republicans actually got money and I gave them a huge chunk of cash for that. So the belts are tightening and the money's not there. But it is amazing what they are doing with that. I agree every community would be beneficial to have one of those. But it is not a cheap endeavor to go down that road and you have to staff it. [00:53:18] Speaker D: I also think if you want to. [00:53:19] Speaker C: Know what McMindle is doing, I know Mayor Morris would love to talk to you about that. I think chat with the chair for Yanko county is a great way to talk about what the county services are. Many of the services we have going on in our county, they might just not be as well publicized, but thank you for your question. All right, 5118. Hey, that's you. Yeah. [00:53:45] Speaker D: Okay. [00:53:47] Speaker H: Hi, my name's Megan Corvus and first I just like to remind you all that not everyone in Eastern is a Republican and not all of your constituents are Republicans. Some of the comments up there have been a little one sided. Congratulations to Senator Starr and Michael Douglas. I think it's a real honor for Nickel county that both of you have been selected to be caucus campus. Genuinely, I'm really proud that both of you representing us. [00:54:17] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:54:19] Speaker H: The thing I wanted to ask was to you, Representative Palmer, in your first sort of press tour as caucus leader, you focused on a comparison between. [00:54:33] Speaker B: Healthcare. [00:54:34] Speaker H: Through the Healthier Oregon program and the Oregon State Police budget. I think that was really misleading. Healthier Oregon covers over 100,000 residents and the Oregon State Police has fewer employees than just Multnomah county share. [00:54:52] Speaker D: And. [00:54:55] Speaker H: They'Re very different. Those are very different, I think. So what I'd like to ask is if you can walk me through how that comparison came to be and your thinking in that. And the reason I'm asking is that I think given everything that's going on with ICE with the raids, there's so much attention and it concerns me that we would bring something to attention that could have a negative impact if people. I mean it's pretty clear that the suggestion there was that we're comparing immigrants to police. And given the political rhetoric at the moment. [00:55:37] Speaker B: Sure. Thank you. Thank you for the question. I think I said this earlier and I really believe that part of my job is to elevate that minority voice. And you know, sometimes there's so many things out there that are clickbait and that are headlines to get people to lean in. And I just wanted Oregonians to understand. So $1.3 billion has been spent on Healthier Oregon and that is for non citizens health care. And I was comparing that to 717 million that has been spent for state police for their budget, which saw a decrease. I think what's significant in this is that in 2021 when the healthier Oregon program passed through the legislature, it had, it was, it was, my understanding is that it was, it was passed to provide funding for people that didn't qualify for Medicaid. So our non citizens who don't qualify for those Medicaid dollars only because of citizenship. Correct. [00:56:43] Speaker D: All of the other. Correct. [00:56:45] Speaker B: And there was $100 million cap put on that. But since 21 to 2025 we have seen that grow to 1.3 billion. And that really was my point also wanting people Oregonians to understand that under that definition of health care, things like air conditioners, things like rent assistance, full medical vision, things that can you not. [00:57:15] Speaker C: We need to be respectful. She did not honor after you when you were talking, so could you please let her answer? [00:57:21] Speaker B: Thanks. Thanks. I. I know it can be challenging. I think my point was just to make sure that everyone did understand that when I think of health care and I think of people that are paying for health care and still have these huge deductibles and they are still struggling to make ends meet, that when we had a cap of $100 million to, to try and help this part of our population and it has grown exponentially to 1.3 billion. At the same time, while we were reducing our Oregon State Police, I just wanted Oregon to understand that and to also understand what was covered under it. [00:58:00] Speaker H: There was no transparency. [00:58:04] Speaker C: Well, the representative is always open to conversation and contact. And so if you have more questions, feel free to reach out to her for step. The last question of the night. 5128. Did they leave? I was giving away a wine vacation. [00:58:22] Speaker B: That was mean stars mean. [00:58:30] Speaker C: It changed. It's just one second. 5125. 1205127. That's you. [00:58:51] Speaker G: I don't think I'm gonna need the. I think we just got the ballot on for what is it getting doing $98 million in bonds, you guys for or against that? I don't live in McManville or anything like that. Going into debt, but I don't know. You guys supporting that? [00:59:20] Speaker C: Well, that's a city issue. [00:59:22] Speaker G: I think they're going to question. [00:59:25] Speaker D: Yes. [00:59:25] Speaker C: Yes. Okay. [00:59:28] Speaker D: Okay. [00:59:32] Speaker B: Oh, I just heard the last one. [00:59:33] Speaker G: We were talking about getting work jobs for Oregon and I, I am running. I'm planning on running for House of Representatives, United States House of representatives in 2026. And I want to get the jobs to Oregon. 60 Minutes last week had a story about some Chinese viruses that were infecting the mainframes of the United States utilities companies and so forth. And this is done through a device called the programmable logic controller. These PLCs are for the most part not manufactured domestically. A lot of them are manufactured in China. And because they are programmable logic controllers, the Chinese can put malicious firmware and stuff like that in there. So I, one of the things I'm going to propose if I do become representative is that PLCs be built manufactured domestically. That would prevent any malicious software from being put on them. And if we were to replace the PLCs that exist in our infrastructure now, that would bring jobs to, well, to America. But specifically, do or I know there's about 10 different companies in Oregon that could benefit from that. Now my question is, how do we get our representative in Washington, Andrea Salinas, how do we communicate with her the importance of getting that kind of thing done over here to benefit Oregon country companies? [01:01:08] Speaker F: I'll grab this one real quick and answer it. 10 years with Hewlett Packard and voted no on Senate Bill 4, which was the CHIPS Act. And the primary reason I voted no on Senate before the CHIPS act, which was the Semiconductor act for Oregon, was because of what we have seen happening with the semiconductor industry in the state of Oregon, where it's very nomadic and it comes and it goes. It comes to the state of Oregon and then it leaves the state of Oregon. And I think that we have a much bigger problem than talking to Congresswoman Salinas or talking to any of our congressional delegation. We have to go back to the conversation that we had earlier in the evening about how we make Oregon a business friendly state. How do we take care of our problems here at home? How do we lower our corporate business tax structure? How do we get rid of the corporate activity tax? How do we make sure that we have a ready workforce that's ready and willing to go to work every single day, that's trainable, that's good, hardworking kids coming out of high school ready and able to work, coming out of college trained and ready for those jobs? How do we solve our problems here, not in Washington, D.C. that's a whole other conversation back there. But frankly, the semiconductor industry will come and will go just like any other business will come and we'll go. And until Oregon is ready to say we are open for business and we're gonna not send you to Ohio, we gotta take care of things at home first. [01:02:34] Speaker B: Thank you. [01:02:35] Speaker D: Good job. Yeah. [01:02:36] Speaker G: Well, I want to, I want to. [01:02:37] Speaker C: Say thank you to Representative Elmer, Representative Scharf, Senator Starr, for being here tonight, taking the time to come, and thank you for your continued partnership with your local chambers and the communities that you represent. I also want to thank you, thank you for coming and being a part of the dialogue. Thank you for coming to listen. We know that our communities are better when our chamber members and our citizens show up and get connected, speak up and collaborate in forums just like this. When we have local voices in the conversation, our community thrives. So thank you for your care. Thank you for your passion. Thank you for staying engaged and informed, and we look forward to working with you and for moving our community forward into the next year. So thank you so much for being here tonight. [01:03:28] Speaker A: Thanks so much much for tuning in to this episode of Life and Legislation with Lucetta. We hope you learned some new things and hopefully had some questions answered. Once again, if you've got further questions, we'd love to hear from you. We want to thank stillwater and the McMinnville Chamber of Commerce for hosting this legislative forum. And again, thank you to McMinnville Community Media for providing the recording of the event. Be sure to join us next time for some important updates from Representative Elmer on Life and Legislation with Lucetta.