Lawmakers talk business, politics in Chamber forum

Rachel Thompson/News-Register##“(Businesses) are being courted by other states, because other states know that we are on the wrong side of this,” Rep. Lucetta Elmer (R-McMinnville) said at a legislative forum hosted by the McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce. Joined by Sen. Bruce Starr (R-Dundee) and Rep. Ann Scharf (R-Amity), she said recent legislation, taxes and costs are driving workers and businesses out of the state.

Rachel Thompson/News-Register##Business owners and Chamber members attend a legislative forum Thursday, Oct. 23, at the Stillwater Event Space. The McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce hosted the event.

Sen. Bruce Starr announced he plans to refer taxes from the transportation bill to the ballot box during a legislative forum hosted by the McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, Oct. 23.

Rep. Lucetta Elmer (R-McMinnville), Rep. Anna Scharf (R-Amity) and Starr (R-Dundee) discussed taxes, partisan stonewalling, successes from the 2025 session and concerns for next year’s short session during the event held with business leaders at Stillwater Event Space in McMinnville.

John Olson, CEO of McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce, emceed the event.

The three Republicans shared frustrations with the majority party’s ability to push through legislation without compromise or partisan votes. The prime example was the $14.6 billion Transportation bill, passed last month in special session, which increased the gas tax by six cents, public transit payroll tax from 0.1% to 0.2% and increased title and registration fees, with surcharges for fully and partially electrically powered vehicles.

Starr said entering the session he expected to vote on a comprehensive bipartisan transportation funding bill crafted through a collaborative process, as had been the case in the past.

He was in favor of many pieces of the proposed transportation bills, such as reforming how trucks are taxed and simplifying the weight mile tax. Both are elements of the current bill.

“There’s some accountability measures in those pieces of legislation that we very much agree with,” he said. “If you’re driving an electric vehicle today, you’re really not paying your fair share of damage to the road. So, that remedy in this transportation package, those were things that were generally agreed upon.”

However, when each party placed a proposal on the table, he said, “every kind of policy reform that the minority put on the table that actually would make your tax dollars go further” was denied by the majority party.

“Ultimately, it became a non-negotiation where the majority just said, ‘how big of a tax are (you) Republicans willing to vote for so we can move on?’” he said. “And honestly, that’s not how the Republicans are going to approach this conversation.”

He said the Democrats tried to pass the bill with only partisan votes which caused it to fail, forcing the Governor Tina Kotek to call a special session.

When Kotek informed Starr of the impending special session, she asked if he would show up to vote.

“She didn’t ask, ‘what do we need to do to give Republican support?’ She asked Republicans to show up. The wrong approach, unfortunately,” he said.

Elmer added, “The tone just was so offensive and not collaborative at all. I truly believe that there is value in the minority’s voice ... our job is to continue to elevate that voice, but our democracy depends on it. You know, it isn’t just about dictatorship. It is about two different perspectives coming together to the table and working out the team.”

Citing a KATU poll, Scharf noted 98% of Oregonians wanted to vote on the Transportation bill.

“That tells me that the wrong decision was made, and that Oregonians deserve to have their voices heard,” she said.

She added Kotek’s project labor agreement executive order and bills introduced by the labor and business committee increased the cost of state projects and deliverables.

“As we try to also address those safety concerns, there are policies that we have put into place that drive up those costs,” Scharf said. “So, there’s a gamut of things that must be addressed within the world of transportation.”

Starr has joined Rep. Ed Diehl (R-Stayton) and Jason Williams of the Taxpayers Association of Oregon as co-petitioners to refer the transportation bill to the ballot.

The trio will refer to the ballot specific elements — the gas tax, title and registration fees and the transit payroll tax — rather than the bill in its entirety.

Kotek has until Nov. 12 to sign the bill, which has sat on her desk since passing on Sept. 29. Once the bill is signed, petitioners must gather enough signatures to refer the added taxes to the ballot.

Starr hopes to collect 100,000 signatures by Dec. 20.

He said once the funding is on hold because of the measure, Kotek will realize “she’s got a crisis on her hands. My hope is she calls and says, ‘how do we solve this problem?’”

Elmer said even if the transportation bill had not passed, drivers would not have seen bigger potholes on the way to work. Her slogan has been “it’s not a revenue problem, but a priority problem.”

At the forum, she said transportation funding could have been found in the state’s budget.

“The challenges are real,” Starr said, noting 2026 is an election year. “Oregonians are 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 great additions to not just the Senate Republican Caucus, but to the Oregon State Senate, where balance is important. Balance is needed.”

Starr added the tide might be turning, and Democrats will no longer have a super minority in Oregon. Elmer and Scharf are also optimistic about Republican candidates in 2026.

Starr said this past session Republicans stood strong for accountability in government, safer communities, building a business environment conducive to growing and having a successful business.

“I will tell you that we introduced a lot of bills 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 need. But we continue to show up, we continue to advocate, we continue to work hard to represent.”

Since the forum was hosted by the Chamber, the conversation focused on taxes, retaining business and workers in Oregon.

Starr sits on the Senate’s Finance and Revenue Committee and said based on the September Economist report, “Oregon is not in a recession, but is close.”

However, he highlighted investments are being made outside the Portland Metro Area, in the Willamette Valley, Southern and Central Oregon.

Building on Starr’s comment about super majority in both chambers, Scharf said “the long session is not about what happened, but what didn’t happen.”

She had expected an increase in business and corporate activity taxes from the other side of the aisle.

“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,” she said. “But we didn’t see any (tax) relief either. Republicans introduced a whole slew of tax relief bills that we couldn’t get through, such as our own version of no tax on tips and lowering the corporate activity tax.”

Scharf said she is also focused on state 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,” she said. “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.”

Scharf introduced a bill to change the rulemaking power. It did not make it out of committee, but she plans to try again in the 2026 spring short session.

Reflecting on the last session, legislatures were asked what the most important outcomes were affecting Yamhill County.

Elmer noted the $3 million funding to McMinnville Fire and the recognition of Youth Suicide Awareness Day, which was inspired in part by the 2024 death of McMinnville High School student Mikalynn Morris.

Starr highlighted the repeal of parts of the wildfire hazard map, which had been “very damaging to rural landowners.”

The panel was asked what legislators do can to help create an environment that retains, attracts and supports the businesses in Oregon.

Elmer, vice-chair of the Labor and Workforce Development Committee, said business is declining because of legislation, such as allowing public employees to strike. She noted the long list of businesses that have moved headquarters or offices out-of-state, including REI, Adobe, Dutch Bros and others.

“(Businesses) are being courted by other states, because other states know that we are on the wrong side of this,” she said.

Olson piped in, “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.”

To attract, keep and grow businesses, Scharf said, Oregon must prove to employers it can maintain its workforce and safe communities to live in.

“We’re seeing the mass exodus from the state of both, not just employers, but employees,” she said. “Because, let’s all face it, it’s expensive to work here.”

She said the state owns many empty office buildings in Salem and other cities that should be renovated into apartment buildings. However, she said, the past session didn’t do anything to improve house stock or loosen building code regulations.

“If you look at the lumber market right now, it’s in the tank,” she said. “We are still not cutting down trees. We still don’t have a lumber market that supports building houses.”

She argued the state must deregulate some requirements to increase housing, such as a required EV charger at some apartment complexes.

Starr chimed in that increasing the supply of developable land is key to creating more affordable housing.

“Wholesalers and developers want to develop,” Starr said. “They want to build homes, but you’ve got to have the ground to do it on. One-point-two percent of Oregon is urbanized. We’ve created these urban growth boundaries, and it constricts the supply.”

Starr called for a state focus that encourages private development instead of “taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of the back pockets of Oregon taxpayers, filtering it through state government agencies, and then doling out monies to nonprofits.”

“Instead, you just let the market work, and the market would work again if the next election cycle brings balance to this process,” he said. “I believe that the commonsense proposals that Republicans put on the table this last session will find the light of day ... because the data is the data. Numbers are numbers. They’re not Republican or Democrat, they’re not conservative or liberal.

Starr added, “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.”

The panel shared their expectations and priorities for next year’s short session, which will last a maximum of 35 days.

Starr said Oregon needs to disconnect its tax code from the federal code, as Oregon lost out on $880 million in tax revenue because of federal changes.

He noted every state agency has been asked to propose a 5% reduction to their budgets.

“I think that’s a good start,” he said. “I served in the Legislature in the recession in ’01 and ’08, and we cut a whole lot more than that in those recessions.”

He knows every state agency will say it’s not doable, but it can be done.

Scharf added that citizens have had to tighten their belts and so should state agencies.

“We’re going to have to do what every person in this room has had to do over the last few years,” she said, adding the state government must reevaluate its wants and needs.

However, she expects resistance and knows the short session can turn into the “lobbying Olympics” as special interest groups try to get funding and bills passed.