91ÊÓƵ

Legislators in Salem were scheduled to adjourn last week. Then the 2013 session went into extra innings.

The session isn’t over yet, but state Rep. Vicki Berger, R-Salem, said it has already left a bad taste in her mouth.

“We certainly did very little support (for) private industry and the creation of jobs,” said Berger, who is vice chairwoman of the House Revenue Committee. “We may have turned the corner on the recession, but we’re still a long way from home.”

Jon Chandler, CEO of the Oregon Home Builders Association, said lawmakers could step on the economy on their rush out their door.

“It’s a tad chaotic,” Chandler said. “One of the concerns we’ve had is that they have a tax package and a PERS (Public Employees Retirement System) package, and if the PERS package is thrown out by the courts, we’re left with just the tax package.”

Reducing the cost of PERS was a major priority for legislators going into the session.

“Did we get any kind of significant PERS reform? The answer is no,” Berger said.

There may be some 11th-hour action on PERS, she added, but no one should count on it. That 11th hour is almost at hand – possibly as soon as today. At press time, it remained unclear exactly how long the session would continue.

Legislators were supposed to go home on Friday. Now they face a July 13 deadline, according to the Oregon Constitution. Tom Powers, communications director for the Senate Majority Office, said the actual adjournment will be somewhere in between.

“There are some people who want to get out of here on July 3,” he said. “There are other people who want to keep going and make sure they do things right. Predicting sometime between July 3 and the following week would be fair game.”

If lawmakers fail to adjourn July 3, they will have to meet Friday – or perhaps even Sunday. That can be problematic on a holiday weekend with many of them out of town with personal plans. However, just enough of them need to convene to push the session into next week.

Powers said it shouldn’t be a problem getting the session wrapped up.

“It’s nothing that couldn’t be completely cleared up in a marathon session,” he said. “We’re clearing the calendar every day. It’s a matter of the paperwork getting from the committee to the president’s desk to the floor.”

Mike Salsgiver, executive director of Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter, said keeping up with the Legislature in the final days of a session is tricky.

“I know there are things on the watch list, but it’s changing by the hour,” he said.

The 2013 session was extremely problematic, Chandler said.

“It was a very poorly managed session, I think,” he said. “People are still getting used to annual sessions. There were 14,000 bills introduced this session. Many of them weren’t ready. They hadn’t had the proper work done on them.”

Chandler said he would like to see lawmakers consult more with industry professionals while bills are being drafted between sessions.

“It’s pretty simple,” he said. “If you’re dealing with residential buildings, call me up.”

Berger said it was a frustrating session on many levels.

“I am disappointed that things like the CRC (Columbia River Crossing) died,” she said. “That wasn’t our fault. Washington legislators failed to come through. Nonetheless, the impact of that is going to be monumental for an exporting state like us.”

In addition, Berger said the status of state construction dollars has become a last-minute nail-biter.

“One of the things we’re waiting for with bated breath is the bonding package,” she said. “It’s been sitting in a black box in the Ways and Means process. It might show up on the last day, but we don’t know.”

The package will determine how the state goes about funding construction projects.

Chandler said there will definitely be unfinished business come the abbreviated 2014 session.

“One of the things they’re talking about is to create, in essence if not in fact, a statewide community development department,” he said. “It could be pretty dramatic just to have someone at the table talking about the economy and jobs. There really does need to be a state agency to counterbalance the environmental/conservation side.”

Following is a list of some of the industry-related bills that are living, dead or missing as the session draws to a close:

The living

• Senate Bill 253 requires the Oregon Business Development Department to create a program to assess regionally significant industrial sites and keep an inventory of the sites. The bill was waiting for a vote by the full Senate as of July 2.

• Senate Bill 498 gives money to the Department of Education to pay for vocational training. The bill was waiting for a vote by the full Senate as of July 2.

• Senate Bill 540 establishes the Task Force on School Capital Improvement Planning. The bill was waiting for a vote by the full Senate as of July 2.

The dead

• Senate Bill 240 would have required the director of the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services to adopt standards for rating workers’ permanent disabilities for the purposes of workers’ compensation claims. The bill has not surfaced since a public hearing before the Senate Business and Transportation Committee on Feb. 14.

• Senate Bill 250 would have authorized city governments to include land in their urban growth boundaries that was consistent with their local economic development projections and public facilities plans. The bill has not surfaced since a public hearing before the Senate Rural Communities and Economic Development Committee on Feb. 26.

• Senate Bill 251 would have let the governor convene a meeting of federal, state and local permitting agencies to streamline proposed land development that addressed significant regional priorities. The bill was sent to the Joint Ways and Means Committee on April 11 and has not been seen since.

• Senate Bill 273 would have allowed the state treasurer to issue bonds to provide matching funds for construction projects at local school districts. The bill was sent to the Joint Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 27 and has not been seen since.

• House Bill 2255 would have limited the planning period for including land within urban growth boundaries from 20 years to 15 years. The bill died after a hearing before the House Land Use Committee on April 4.

• House Bill 2425 would have issued bonds to finance the capital costs of the educational technology initiative. The bill died after it was referred to the Joint Ways and Means Committee on April 9.

• House Bill 2617 would have required that city and rural voters be counted separately when more than 100 acres is being annexed. The bill had a hearing before the House Land Use Committee April 29 and has not been seen since.

• House Bill 2619 would have required people operating a landscape maintenance business to register with the State Landscape Contractors Board. The bill died after a public hearing before the House Business and Labor Committee on March 24.

• House Bill 2674 would have required public bodies to set aside 1 percent of their construction budgets for building projects to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The bill died after a hearing before the House Human Services and Housing Hearing Committee on Feb. 28.

• House Bill 2793 would have required the Housing and Community Services Department to adopt criteria for assessing energy efficiency in residential buildings. The bill died after hearing before the House Energy and Environment Committee on March 5.

• House Bill 2907 would have required the Bureau of Labor and Industries to hire investigators to investigate the misclassification of employees as independent contractors. The bill died after a hearing before the House Business and Labor Committee on March 4.

• House Bill 2923 would have extended workers’ compensation statutes to include partners, limited liability company partners, general partners, limited liability partners and limited partners. The bill died after a hearing before the House Business and Labor Committee on April 24.

• House Bill 2967 would have issued bonds to match money spent by the Oregon University System to build a chemical, biological and environmental engineering building on the campus of Oregon State University. The bill died after a hearing before the House Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee on Feb. 19.

• House Bill 2976 would have placed more regulations on businesses that provide labor. The bill died after a hearing before the House Business and Labor Committee on March 13.

• House Bill 3024 would have directed the Oregon Business Development Department to conduct a study of sites ready for industrial development. The bill died after a hearing before the House Transportation and Economic Development Committee on March 11.

• House Bill 3115 would have required state contracting agencies to set aside a certain amount of contract prices to provide apprenticeships during construction projects. The bill died after being sent to the Joint Ways and Means Committee on April 18.

The missing

• Senate Bill 618 imposes requirements for disciplinary hearings conducted by the Appraiser Certification and Licensure Board. No action has been taken since a hearing before the Senate Business and Transportation Committee on April 1.

• Senate Bill 644 permits contracting agencies to directly appoint consultants to provide architectural, engineering, photogrammetric mapping, transportation planning or land surveying services if estimated value of services is less than $100,000. No action has been taken since the House Consumer Protection and Government Efficiency Committee engaged in a work session on May 30.

• House Bill 2028 authorizes taxing districts to require annexation of land to the district before providing it with services. No action has been taken since April 29.