Legislative Update: A Signature and a Move to Rules

Yesterday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed the coalition bill (HB 3016).  The abandonment/past due tax portion of the bill will go into effect on January 1, 2016. MHCO has already been working with Phil Querin and Diane Belt (Oregon Tax Assessors) to create the forms necessary to take advantage of the new law.  Those forms will be uploaded to MHCO.ORG at the end of the year.  Phil Querin will do an article later this year on the changes in abandonment law that will go into effect in 2016.  MHCO is also planing a seminar with Phil Querin reviewing the other portions of the new law at the MHCO Annual Conference at the end of October in Eugene.   This is a bill that MHCO has worked for over the last decade and we are very pleased that this onerous tax policy is now part of Oregon's past.  Thank you to everyone involved in this process, especially Diane Belt (Oregon Tax Assessors). As many of you know the other issue  MHCO has been monitoring is Inclusionary zoning" (HB 2564).  Yesterday HB 2564 passed out of the Senate Committee on Human Services and Early Childhood Development to the Senate Rules Committee.  The rent control amendment (dash 5) was not adopted.  At this point in the legislative process it is unlikely (but not impossible) a new amendment on rent control will be added to the inclusionary zoning bill.  MHCO had hoped that the bill would either die in the Human Services Committee or move to the Senate floor without the dash five amendment.  The move to Rules simply drags the process out longer for further debate and negotiation.