TO: Mayor and City Council
THROUGH:
FROM: Legislative Committee
SUBJECT:
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Recommended response to League of Oregon Cities (LOC) survey on priorities to inform the LOC’s legislative priorities during the 2025 Oregon Legislative Session.
Ward(s): All Wards
Councilor(s): All Councilors
Neighborhood(s): All Neighborhoods
Result Area(s): Good Governance; Natural Environment Stewardship; Safe Community; Safe, Reliable and Efficient Infrastructure; Strong and Diverse Economy; Welcoming and Livable Community.
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SUMMARY:
summary
During the interim between State legislative sessions, the City Council’s Legislative Committee meets monthly to consider priorities to guide Salem’s Federal and State agendas. On September 13, 2024, the City Council Legislative Committee met to consider a response to League of Oregon Cities (LOC) survey on priorities to inform the LOC’s legislative priorities during the 2025 Oregon Legislative Session. The Legislative Committee is comprised of Mayor Hoy and Councilors Stapleton, Nordyke, and Nishioka, with Councilor Phillips serving as alternate.
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ISSUE:
Shall City Council approve the response to League of Oregon Cities (LOC) survey on priorities to inform the LOC’s legislative priorities during the 2025 Oregon Legislative Session?
RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
Approve the response to League of Oregon Cities (LOC) survey on priorities to inform the LOC’s legislative priorities during the 2025 Oregon Legislative Session.
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FACTS AND FINDINGS:
The Legislative Committee meets monthly during the interim between State legislative sessions to receive updates and consider priorities for the City’s State and Federal agendas. The Legislative Committee is comprised of Mayor Hoy and Councilors Stapleton, Nordyke, and Nishioka. Councilor Phillips serves as the alternate.
On September 13, 2024, the Legislative Committee considered 23 priorities among seven broad categories from the League of Oregon Cities (LOC) survey. The LOC uses responses from Oregon cities to inform its legislative priorities for the 2025 Oregon Legislative Session. Salem’s response, should the City wish to participate, is due by September 27, 2024.
The Legislative Committee recommended the following top 5 Salem priorities be forwarded to the City Council. Additional detail on the priority, featured below in italics, is drawn from the LOC on-line summary of the primary policy issues <https://www.orcities.org/application/files/7417/1898/7165/2024_Legislative_Voter_Guide_FINAL.pdf>
1. Shelter and homeless response
“SHELTER AND HOMELESS RESPONSE RECOMMENDATION: The LOC will support a comprehensive homeless response package to fund the needs of homeless shelter and homeless response efforts statewide. Funding should include baseline operational support to continue and strengthen coordinated regional homeless response and include a range of shelter types and services, including alternative shelter models, safe parking programs, rapid rehousing, outreach, case management, staffing and administrative support, and other related services. The LOC will also support capital funding for additional shelter infrastructure and site preparation. Oregon’s homeless response system must recognize the critical role of cities in homeless response and meaningfully include cities in regional funding and decision-making, in partnership with counties, community action agencies, continuums of care, housing authorities, and other service provider partners. Background: The LOC recognizes that to end homelessness, a cross-sector coordinated approach to delivering services, housing, and programs is needed. Despite historic legislative investments in recent years, Oregon still lacks a coordinated, statewide shelter and homeless response system with stable funding. Communities across the state have developed regional homeless response collaboratives, beginning with the HB 4123 pilot communities funded by the Legislature in 2022 and the more recently established Multi-Agency Collaboratives and Local Planning Groups created by Governor Kotek’s Executive Order on Affordable Housing and Homelessness. As Oregon continues to face increasing rates of unsheltered homelessness, the LOC is committed to strengthening a regionally based, intersectional state homeless response system to ensure all Oregonians can equitably access stable housing and maintain secure, thriving communities.”
2. Behavioral health enhancements
“BEHAVIORAL HEALTH ENHANCEMENTS RECOMMENDATION: The LOC will introduce and support legislation to expand access to behavioral health treatment beds and allow courts greater ability to direct persons unable to care for themselves into treatment through the civil commitment process. Background: While Oregon has historically ranked at or near the bottom nationally for access to behavioral healthcare, the state has made significant investments over the past four years. It will take time for investments in workforce development and substance abuse treatment to be realized, and areas for improvement remain. The standard for civilly committing a person into treatment remains very high in Oregon, and as a result, individuals who present a danger to themselves or others remain untreated, often producing tragic results. Additionally, the number of treatment beds for residential care does not meet demand, with services unavailable in multiple areas of the state.”
3. Marijuana tax
“MARIJUANA TAX Legislative Recommendation: The LOC will advocate for legislation that increases revenue from marijuana sales in cities. This may include proposals to restore state marijuana tax losses related to Measure 110 (2020), and to increase the 3% cap on local marijuana taxes. Background: The state imposes a 17% tax on recreational marijuana products. Until the end of 2020, cities received 10% of the state’s total tax revenues (minus expenses) on recreational marijuana products. Measure 110 largely shifted the allocation of state marijuana revenue by capping the amount that is distributed to the recipients that previously shared the total amount (the State School Fund, the Oregon Health Authority, the Oregon State Police, cities and counties) and diverted the rest to drug treatment and recovery services. Starting in March of 2021, quarterly revenue to cities from state marijuana taxes saw a decrease of roughly 74%. Marijuana revenue has also been on a downward trend because the market is oversaturated, which has continually reduced sale prices (high supply, steady demand). Marijuana is taxed on the price of the sale and not on volume.”
4. 2025 Transportation package
“2025 TRANSPORTATION PACKAGE RECOMMENDATION: The LOC supports a robust, long-term, multimodal transportation package focused on: stabilizing funding for operations and maintenance for local governments and ODOT; continued investment in transit and bike/ped programs, safety, congestion management, and completion of projects from HB 2017. As part of a 2025 package, the funding level must maintain the current State Highway Fund (SHF) distribution formula and increase investments in local programs such as Great Streets, Safe Routes to Schools, and the Small City Allotment Program. In addition, the package should find a long-term solution for the weight-mile tax that stabilizes the program with fees that match heavier vehicles' impact on the transportation system. The funding sources for this package should be diverse and innovative. Additionally, the package should maintain existing choices and reduce barriers for local governments to use available funding tools for transportation investments. Background: Oregon has one of the country’s most transportation-dependent economies, with 400,000 jobs (1 in 5) related directly to transportation via rail, road, and ports. The State Highway Fund (SHF) is the primary revenue source for the state’s transportation infrastructure, and comes from various sources, including gas and diesel tax, weight mile tax, vehicle registration fees, vehicle title fees, and driver’s license fees. These funds are distributed using a 50-30-20 formula, with 50% to the state, 30% to counties, and 20% to cities. Continued investment in transportation infrastructure is critical for public safety objectives such as “Safe Routes to Schools” and the “Great Streets” program. The Legislature must develop a plan to match inflationary costs and a plan to transition from a gas tax to an impact fee based on miles traveled to stabilize transportation investment.”
5. Infrastructure funding
“INFRASTRUCTURE FUNDING (CO-SPONSORED BY COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE) RECOMMENDATION: The LOC will advocate for a comprehensive infrastructure package to support increased investments in water, sewer, stormwater and roads. This includes: funding for system upgrades to meet increasingly complex regulatory compliance requirements; capacity to serve needed housing and economic development; deferred maintenance costs; seismic and wildfire resiliency improvements; and clarity and funding to address moratoriums. The LOC will also champion both direct and programmatic infrastructure investments to support a range of needed housing development types and affordability. Background: Cities continue to face the challenge of how to fund infrastructure improvements - to maintain current, build new, and improve resiliency. Increasing state resources in programs that provide access to lower rate loans and grants will assist cities in investing in vital infrastructure. Infrastructure development impacts economic development, housing, and livability. The level of funding for these programs has been inadequate compared to the needs over the last few biennia, and the funds are depleting and unsustainable without significant program modifications and reinvestments. This priority will focus on maximizing both the amount of funding and the flexibility of the funds to meet the needs of more cities across the state to ensure long-term infrastructure investment. The 2024 LOC Infrastructure Survey revealed the increasing need for water and road infrastructure funding. The results show $11.9 Billion of infrastructure funds needed ($6.4 billion for water and $5.5 billion for roads). Combined with federal-cost share decline on water infrastructure projects - despite the recent bi-partisan infrastructure law investment - cities face enormous pressure to upgrade and maintain water infrastructure. At the same time, cities across the state are working urgently to address Oregon’s housing crisis. To unlock needed housing development and increase affordability, the most powerful tool the Legislature can deploy is targeted investments in infrastructure to support needed housing development.”
BACKGROUND:
The Legislative Committee will provide the City Council with regular updates. To continue a coordinated and unified response during the upcoming session, and in accordance with Council Policy No. G-1, the Mayor and Councilor are asked to communicate the nature of their legislative contacts to staff via an email to Courtney Knox Busch (cbusch@cityofsalem.net <mailto:cbusch@cityofsalem.net>). Staff will forward the communication to the City’s lobbyist, the Legislative Committee, and City Council as appropriate.
Courtney Knox Busch
Strategic Initiatives Manager
Attachments:
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