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House committee approves plan to route surplus from tax-foreclosed property sales to state unclaimed-property program
Summary
The Oregon House Committee on Revenue adopted an amendment and voted to send House Bill 2089 to the floor after agreeing to a plan that directs surplus proceeds from certain tax-foreclosed property sales into the Oregon State Treasury's unclaimed property program, following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Tyler v. Hennepin County.
The House Committee on Revenue on June 3 adopted an amendment to House Bill 2089 and voted to send the bill to the House floor with a due-pass recommendation. The bill sets a process for handling surplus proceeds from property tax foreclosure sales through the Oregon State Treasury's unclaimed property program, applying to claims where the notice of the redemption period expired on or after May 25, 2023.
The measure responds to the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision Tyler v. Hennepin County and follows prior legislative work including 2024 House Bill 4056 and an interim report from the Department of Revenue. Committee staff said the dash-8 amendment mainly revises notice forms and clarifies procedures for selling property and transferring property for public purposes; it also provides immunity for the State Treasury when processing claims.
LRO staff told the committee the introduced bill would provide a process through the unclaimed property program of the Oregon State Treasury to claim surplus proceeds from real property that has been foreclosed, deeded to the county and sold to pay delinquent taxes. Representative Emerson Levy, who carried the bill, said the proposal reflects more than a year of work "and I just want to thank all the people involved, the counties, the consumer advocates, the Treasury," and described the Treasury's cooperation as essential to arriving at "such an elegant solution."
Committee members praised the cross-stakeholder process. Representative Marsh said the Treasury's offer to use the unclaimed property fund produced what she called "a perfect and elegant solution" and noted that developing sound policy sometimes takes longer than a legislative session allows. The committee adopted the dash-8 amendment and subsequently moved the bill as amended to the floor with a due-pass recommendation. The committee recorded no subsequent referral and named Representative Emerson Levy as the carrier in the House.
The bill applies only to foreclosure sales where the claimant received notice that the redemption period had expired on or after May 25, 2023. The committee record indicates that the dash-8 amendment replaces the introduced bill; committee members said the amendment focuses on technical form and notice changes and clarifies public-purpose retention or transfer of foreclosed property.
