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County staff brief commissioners on Oregon’s 2026 short legislative session and local impacts
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Summary
Multnomah County government relations staff summarized the 2026 short legislative session, outlining budget pressures from federal tax changes and highlighting bills affecting homelessness, behavioral health, immigrant protections, housing preservation, and the Moda Center bonding framework.
Multnomah County’s government relations team told the Board of Commissioners on a detailed recap of the 2026 short legislative session, saying a compressed 33‑day schedule forced quick trade‑offs and left a lingering fiscal impact from recent federal tax changes.
“While this short session felt long, the place we started and where we ended was very different,” said Stacy Cowan, the county’s director of government relations. Cowan and Tom Powers, senior state policy manager, said the combined effect of the federal tax changes referenced as HR 1 and Oregon’s subsequent disconnect legislation (Senate Bill 1507) reshaped budget expectations and constrained new investments.
The briefing reviewed bills the county tracked and engaged on. Cowan highlighted homelessness and behavioral health protections as budget priorities and noted several enacted or advanced measures: Senate Bill 1533 to strengthen foster‑youth protections; House Bill 4036, which establishes a statewide Housing Opportunity Longevity and Durability fund (described in the presentation as including $25 million for preservation and $75 million for new units statewide); and bills intended to protect immigrant and refugee communities, including rules for hospital public/non‑public spaces and limits on data sharing for immigration enforcement.
Tom Powers described major economy and infrastructure actions, including Senate Bill 1501, creating a bonding framework for Moda Center renovations and enabling a potential $365 million state general‑obligation bond backed partly by revenues generated at the venue. Powers also said House Bill 4084, described in the briefing as an economic‑development bill, establishes a joint permitting council and expands enterprise‑zone use — provisions the county will monitor for local fiscal and administrative impacts.
Presenters emphasized that some bills that did not pass during the short session — such as bills expanding medical examiner investigations or adding new syringe‑service program requirements — are likely to return in future sessions. Cowan urged commissioners to set clear priorities for the rule‑making stage of implementation where statutory language leaves details to agencies.
Commissioners asked staff to monitor implementation closely. On the CEI/fuel‑terminal bill (discussed as HB 4100 in the briefing), which now imposes statewide financial‑assurance standards for terminals but preempts some local authority, staff said the next step is rule making and recommended the board define objectives for county participation in that process. Commissioners also pressed staff about transportation funding and the rescheduling of Measure 120 to the May primary (noted during the presentation), asking how county priorities for safety programs would be protected as state transportation funding is reallocated.
The county’s government relations team said it will continue interim engagement with legislators and state agencies to translate the county’s priorities into rulemaking input and budget actions for the 2027 session.
