House committee advances five measures on business registration, agency names, alcohol enforcement, festival grants and OLCC review

The House Committee on Economic development, Small Business and Trade advanced five bills on April 9, sending four to the House floor with due-pass recommendations and one to the Rules Committee for further review.

Those bills include a directive to the secretary of state to study physical street address requirements for business registration (House Bill 3,588); a request that the Oregon Business Development Department stop using “Business Oregon” as a public-facing name and an appropriation of $100,000 for the change (House Bill 2,274); limits on randomized minor-decoy operations and a retail liquor sales permit (House Bill 2,282); a $10 million appropriation for a revolving festivals-and-events grant program and a study of Tom McCall Waterfront Park with allocations to two Portland organizations (House Bill 2,291); and a committee-requested review of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC), including an amendment related to Measure 119 implementation (House Bill 2,276).

Why it matters: The items affect a range of stakeholders — from businesses that register with the state to festival organizers, liquor-licensees and the cannabis industry — and carry budgetary and implementation implications the committee said it expects Ways and Means and other committees to weigh.

HB 2,291: festivals and waterfront study, largest debate

House Bill 2,291, a committee bill on economic development, drew the most discussion. The bill’s dash-2 amendment replaces the measure and appropriates $10,000,000 for a revolving festivals-and-events grant program and for a study related to Tom McCall Waterfront Park, allocating $8.5 million to the…