[{"_1":2,"_88":-5,"_89":-5},"loaderData",{"_3":4,"_26":27},"root",{"_5":6,"_17":10,"_18":19,"_20":21,"_22":10,"_23":-5,"_24":-5,"_25":10},"user",{"_7":8,"_9":10,"_11":10,"_12":-5,"_13":-5,"_14":15,"_16":-5},"roles",[],"isAuthenticated",false,"isPremium","planName","subscriptionStatus","featureFlags",{},"insightsBudget","isDevelopmentHost","userPreferences",{},"recaptchaSiteKey","6LcvOJcUAAAAAHsB-gPGfGktcRlKpH7OTIU_dMTD","isImpersonating","impersonation","affiliateStatus","isFreedomPortal","routes/v2/article/layout",{"_28":29,"_30":31},"notFound",true,"relatedArticles",[32,76],{"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":42,"_43":44,"_45":46,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":52,"_53":54,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":60,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},"mediaId",6259386,"mediaKeyId","3141536-f345df452cf0cbee585e6977afacef8a","parentId",3141536,"title","Oregon Secretary of State office outlines small-business casework, data limits in annual report briefing","audioSeconds",2191,"startMs",48000,"endMs",2239000,"viewUrl","/Search/View?dp=1&key=3141536-f345df452cf0cbee585e6977afacef8a&start=48&end=2239","thumbnailUrl","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/3141536-f345df452cf0cbee585e6977afacef8a/thumbnail_48000.jpg","articleUrl","/articles/6259386/Oregon/Oregon-Secretary-of-State-office-outlines-small-business-casework-data-limits-in-annual-report-briefing","mediaUrl","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6259386-02de3abaed3ff83da17aa36c8db4ea4c/orig.mp4?Expires=1770494371&Signature=e6Jsey5pTsLPJ-YZG60hyrdEWfUdJ0PH9QStUfgZw7xKZvWxw4YoF8aRxgkIVp4fhZiXdV5qywqrcGl8RyjKOztBhMSGN~g75YsAnY1JWztycy4de8I0vvKhJ8jVDsP9tjfMOeEQ9Y3wnt3E7KfcrCJBie7JYYXOGHTTHufzVVDcfhC0w23OsaohOokvcvLQl3m0bUwWKCe1N7r6kzmKZ54l4kys1zl5jHVdyW8cIXc29LHwXWB~WM4pKAokfnQMuSjCz398UCe2YQ3DzjnGPdcO3GIp-urmyxM7M35EzRcJ-cVP5ZQ-bICTgB970uh7bz5bqHzJsOck3nAFtcTxSA__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","author","Oregon State Legislature","date","2025-04-28T00:00:00Z","article","The House Committee on Economic Development, Small Business and Trade on April 28 heard the Oregon Secretary of State's Office of Small Business Assistance present its 2024 annual report and explain how the office serves small businesses statewide.

OSBA Small Business Ombudsman Trevor Leahy told the committee the office helps \"improve interactions between small businesses and state and local government agencies\" and operates under statutory authority in ORS 56.2 through 56.209. He described how the office tracks registrations and casework and where gaps in state data limit conclusions about employment or economic impact.

The committee was told the office began in January 2014 with one full-time equivalent employee and has grown to four FTEs. Leahy said OSBA handled 995 customers in 2024; nearly 900 of those had questions about state or federal programs and resources, and 57 were complaints seeking assistance. The office closed roughly 74 percent of cases within 10 days last year.

Leahy and other staff explained that OSBA defines a small business as a for-profit or nonprofit enterprise with 100 or fewer employees and estimates 99.4 percent of Oregon businesses meet that definition based on Secretary of State registrations adjusted by large-employer counts from the Oregon Employment Department. He cautioned the committee that the office's business-opening and -closure counts reflect registrations of all sizes, and that passive closures (businesses that simply do not renew registration) limit the ability to measure employees lost or gained.

\"We consider a new business any new business registration,\" Ricardo Lujan Valerio of the Secretary of State's office told the committee, noting registration may reflect subsidiaries or assumed business names rather than newly created operations.

Committee members asked for more granular data. Representative Rob Osborne urged follow-up to understand closures in specific counties after the report showed Marion County adding about 2,800 registrations between December 2023 and December 2024 while Josephine County lost 75 registrations. OSBA staff said matching registrations to layoffs or employee counts requires coordination with other agencies and local partners.

Leahy described how OSBA triages contacts: many questions are redirected to the Corporation Division contact center or to specialized agencies, while the ombudsman works cases that lack a more appropriate agency. The office receives calls, emails and web-form submissions and attends community events across the state. Leahy said OSBA is not a regulator and cannot compel agencies or businesses to act; its cases commonly end in referrals or redirections.

OSBA highlighted recurring service areas: licensing requirements and tax obligations are the two most common topics; frequent cross-referrals involve the Department of Revenue, the Construction Contractors Board, Business Oregon, and the Bureau of Labor and Industries. Federal matters such as the Corporate Transparency Act and IRS employer identification questions also drove customer contacts in 2024.

Leahy said OSBA plans to expand outreach, publish refreshed handouts in English and Spanish (with additional translations intended), and update the Oregon Start a Business Guide and Oregon Employers Guide. He urged stronger interagency communication so businesses are not surprised by rule changes, citing the January 1 styrofoam-container ban as an example in which multiple agencies coordinated to help affected licensees.

Committee members requested OSBA follow up with agencies such as the Higher Education Coordinating Commission and local partners to try to match registration changes to employment impacts and WARN notices. OSBA staff said they would pursue offline coordination to identify layoffs and better contextualize county-level changes.

Leahy closed by urging continued collaboration and said the office will increase county visits and resource updates this year.

Less critical details: the report is distributed as a two-sided 11-by-17 poster, OSBA publishes quarterly newsletters with about 14,000 subscribers and maintains a legislative-tracking website that lists bills potentially affecting small businesses.

","mediaType","Video","parentTitle","House Committee On Economic Development, Small Business, and Trade 04/28/2025 8:00 AM","oneSentenceSummary","The House Committee on Economic Development, Small Business and Trade on April 28 heard the Oregon Secretary of State's Office of Small Business Assistance present its 2024 annual report and explain how the office serves small businesses statewide.","taxTitle","Economic Development and Small Business, House of Representatives, Committees, Legislative, Oregon","taxId",17512,"location","Oregon","headline","","shortSummary",{"_33":77,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":78,"_41":79,"_43":80,"_45":81,"_47":82,"_49":83,"_51":84,"_53":85,"_55":56,"_57":58,"_59":86,"_61":62,"_63":64,"_65":87,"_67":68,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_75":74},6259383,"Committee hears testimony on bill to allow ID swipes for age checks; privacy concerns and retailer support aired",2499,2344000,4843000,"/Search/View?dp=1&key=3141536-f345df452cf0cbee585e6977afacef8a&start=2344&end=4843","https://assets.pipeline.soar.com/3141536-f345df452cf0cbee585e6977afacef8a/thumbnail_2344000.jpg","/articles/6259383/Oregon/Committee-hears-testimony-on-bill-to-allow-ID-swipes-for-age-checks-privacy-concerns-and-retailer-support-aired","https://secure.pipeline.soar.com/6259383-93be47c34476855f5e4b29b4d4b0c1c7/orig.mp4?Expires=1770494371&Signature=QaGIMOwEB22EEwA2Vn3FSorS124GkmWcG4uodOpZBLhcyk1~TyRjtnPX03GzltyS4X2424MZDQGDFjJeT3jp~~gohE0hJ0Yl22vvIZwutSOuZif0J7ESVkbC1Wd2yFRf1qlF2yupop5nUCbCkEPGwr-qybBLDW~53D1HEosBPeaLBMX4lzeyo4z8pdoDpKGx3ys~Sz7vTwEvZx6Gn7~ZP5JY2qppnDK3Uvx1THO2oMj~Aa~dcKWYSWyTqAjbbGc96ATZMZMD0rNTO--9tX9F2-O6007~-O-xLpn~ut8PE2GVfc7siwsNyPxo~MruA3qS3xyt6vwbpJusM7hBu5Y0gQ__&Key-Pair-Id=KUT5TJCACFTXG","The House Committee on Economic Development, Small Business and Trade opened a public hearing April 28 on Senate Bill 1,005, which would allow private entities to swipe a customer's driver's license or identification card to verify age when selling age-restricted goods, regardless of whether there is \"reasonable doubt\" about the customer's age.

Senator Daniel Bonham, a sponsor of the bill, said the change removes a subjective standard and enables retailers to use point-of-sale card-swiping technology to confirm an ID. \"It says, yes, this is a valid ID and yes, this person's 21 years old,\" Bonham said, describing the devices as a single-pass verification that does not retain customer data.

Representative Emily McIntyre, co-sponsor, emphasized the bill does not create new authority to store or sell swipe data. She noted the bill continues to prohibit storing, selling or sharing personal information collected from swiping except in narrowly defined circumstances tied to fraud prevention or return policies. \"In no way, shape or form does this bill permit any additional storage of information,\" McIntyre told the committee.

Proponents from retail and liquor interests testified in support. Jonathan Polonsky, chief executive officer of Plaid Pantry, which operates more than 100 stores in Oregon, said his company adopted a policy during the COVID-19 pandemic to card every customer and relies on swiping equipment as part of its compliance program. \"Our ID scans are to validate that an individual's identification is authentic, it is not expired, and if they're over the age of 21. 'We do not store any customer information,\" Polonsky said, submitting a written account of a robbery in which a scanned ID did not produce identifying data for investigators.

Marshall Koba of the Associated Liquor Stores of Oregon also urged support, calling the bill a \"simple clarification of current law\" that helps clerks use available technology when concerns about legal age arise.

Members of the committee and other legislators pressed proponents on privacy and data-security risks. Representative Rob Osborne asked whether swipes capture employee or community impacts; others raised scenarios where third-party software used in other states can aggregate scans for uses such as over-service prevention or marketing. Representative Osborne said the potential for future expansion of data collection was a concern.

Supporters and some retailers responded that the card-swiping systems described in testimony are configured to return a yes/no validation and do not retain backend data. Bonham and others said that retailers use different systems (swipe devices for age checks versus larger point-of-sale scanning and customer-account systems) and that ORS 807.75 already prohibits storing, selling or sharing swipe data for age verification.

Representative E. Warner Raschke, another sponsor, said the bill moves an age-check standard from subjective judgment to an objective driver's-license read and encouraged the committee to advance the measure.

Committee members asked clarifying questions about related statutes and agency rules, including OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commission) guidance and federal tobacco-age thresholds; testimony referenced industry practices that verify customers under different age thresholds for different products (for example, some retailers use 26 as an internal threshold for carding and federal tobacco guidance reaches higher ages for certain requirements).

No vote was taken during the hearing. Committee staff and members discussed the need to review related data-privacy guardrails, and the chair noted other bills under consideration that would address data use and artificial-intelligence oversight.

","The House Committee on Economic Development, Small Business and Trade opened a public hearing April 28 on Senate Bill 1,005, which would allow private entities to swipe a customer's driver's license or identification card to verify age regardless of \"reasonable doubt.\"","actionData","errors"]

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Oregon Secretary of State office outlines small-business casework, data limits in annual report briefing

Committee hears testimony on bill to allow ID swipes for age checks; privacy concerns and retailer support aired