The General Government Subcommittee on Tuesday accepted the Legislative Fiscal Office's recommended budget for Senate Bill 5501 and voted to move the bill, as amended, to the Ways and Means full committee with a due-pass recommendation.

The LFO recommended a 2025-27 budget of $1,685,008 General Fund, $25,430 in other funds and four full-time equivalent positions for the Oregon Advocacy Commission's office; the LFO presentation said that recommendation represents a 23.9% decrease from the 2023-25 legislatively approved budget. The subcommittee also approved a dash-1 amendment reflecting the LFO numbers and a separate LFO package to increase other funds expenditure limitation to allow the commission to expend donations.

Why it matters: the vote finalizes the subcommittee's recommendation on the appropriation bill for the Oregon Advocacy Commission and advances the measure to the full Ways and Means committee, the next step in the budget process.

Legislative Fiscal Office analyst: "The 25-27 LFO recommended budget for the board is $1,685,008 general fund, 25,430 2 other funds, and 4 positions for FTE. The recommended budget represents a 23.9% decrease from the 2325 legislatively approved budget," the analyst told members. The LFO analyst said the decrease is primarily due to the phase-out of three limited-duration positions and associated costs tied to work performed under the 2023 session.

Subcommittee members asked for clarification about the limited-duration positions. Co-chair Senator Anderson asked, "So the work's not done?" The LFO analyst replied that the agency is in phase 3 of the recommendations and is compiling the report required under prior legislation.

The LFO also described a small other-funds package: it would increase the commission's other funds expenditure limitation by $14,747 to permit the commission to spend donations for program support and events and increase each commission's other funds expenditure limitation (reported in the hearing record as changing from "200 and 2,671" to "6,358" per biennium).

Performance measures: the subcommittee approved LFO recommendations to change the commission's key performance measures. The LFO proposed consolidating KPMs 3 through 6 into a single KPM (historically tracked separately per commission) and deleting KPM 2 without replacement because the agency indicated the data are difficult to collect. The LFO analyst said the agency plans to revisit and propose additional KPMs in the future.

Formal actions taken: Representative Gomberg moved acceptance of the LFO recommendation for the bill, moved the LFO recommendation on KPMs, moved the adoption of the dash-1 amendment, and moved that Senate Bill 5501 as amended be reported to the full committee with a due-pass recommendation. Each motion was accepted by the subcommittee without recorded objection in the hearing record.

Next steps: Representative Gomberg said he would carry the bill to the floor and the Senate; the subcommittee noted Representative Tran will handle House-side actions. The subcommittee closed the work session and adjourned.

Meeting context: the subcommittee conducted a focused work session on SB 5501; no roll-call vote tallies were recorded in the transcript. Questions from members focused on the status of work tied to earlier bills and on how the commission will report performance going forward.