By Oregon Business & Industry,
Policy and Rulemaking Updates
Moda Center restoration: The city of Portland has posted a survey, not limited to Portland residents, gauging opinion about whether and how to provide local financing to upgrade the Moda Center. In 2026, the Legislature passed, and the governor signed, SB 1501 to provide state support for renovations to the city-owned arena. OBI supported the bill as Moda Center is a publicly owned, 30-year-old statewide asset with widespread economic and cultural importance. Without an adopted financing structure, construction will not start in 2027, and the Trail Blazers’ lease expires in 2030. This is also when the arena is scheduled to host the women’s NCAA Final Four. For these and other reasons, time is of the essence.
The Trail Blazers are currently at the bottom of the NBA in team revenue and receive the league’s highest level of revenue sharing, while the arena still generates hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity and 1.6 million visitors across all events annually. It would be irresponsible to let this publicly owned economic asset further erode and add to Portland’s and Oregon’s competitive disadvantages and poor economic reputation. We encourage OBI members to take the survey.
Economic development legislation: Gov. Kotek’s economic development legislation, HB 4084, took effect on June 5, 90 days after the 2026 legislative session concluded. OBI supported the bill, which provides needed updates to Oregon’s Enterprise Zone property tax incentive program, a new “fast track” permitting approach for large projects and catalogues and reports on permitting that OBI had pursued in 2025. The following are the dates and deliverables of the permitting elements that are now in law:
- The new Joint Permitting Council (mostly state agency personnel) is to be appointed by the governor no later than July 1, 2026, and must produce its readiness criteria for “fast track” permitting no later than Oct. 1.
- Several specifically named agencies will produce a catalog of permits issued as well as a report by Oct. 3, 2026. Named agencies are the Department of Transportation, Department of Land Conservation and Development, Department of Energy, Department of State Lands, Department of Environmental Quality, Water Resources Department, Department of Agriculture and the State Historic Preservation Office. Their report must include identified options for improvements, suggestions from permit applicants and opportunities to provide fee relief for delayed permits. OBI believes that in addition to process improvements and transparency, accountability in the form of fee refunds or reductions is critical to improving Oregon’s notoriously challenging permitting regime. We will be looking forward to these reports.
(One additional note about HB 4084: In the final days of session, the bill was amended to prohibit new data center firms from participating in Oregon’s Standard Enterprise Zone property tax abatement program and to prohibit extensions of existing data center agreements, both until 90 days after the end of the 2027 legislative session (which would be Oct. 2, 2027, at the latest.) OBI opposed this amendment.)
Primary health care: The Oregon Health Authority’s (OHA) Primary Care Strategy Committee met in May to continue discussing possible 2027 legislative concepts. OHA formed the committee in April to tackle Oregon’s current and anticipated primary care shortage, with some estimates projecting the state will need 1,200 additional primary care providers by 2030. At a high level, legislative proposals include changes to primary care reimbursement models, flexibility around staffing and changes to OHA’s internal definitions and processes. OHA’s current proposals can be read more in-depth here.
Jury task force: Throughout 2026, OBI has participated on the Task Force on Removing Barriers to Jury Service, which was created by SB 1175 during the 2025 legislative session. The task force has identified many reasons for low jury participation – including inefficient administration and declining trust in government – but has chosen to focus on jury pay. During the task force’s June 8 meeting, the chair highlighted a new Illinois law that requires employers to pay workers their hourly rate when serving on juries. While OBI supports jury service as fundamental to our democracy, it would oppose requiring employers to pay for jurors to serve. Doing so would create yet another leave law with which employers must comply, and it would place extreme burdens on Oregon’s smallest employers.
Disclaimer: Articles featured on Oregon Report are the creation, responsibility and opinion of the authoring individual or organization which is featured at the top of every article.