ADVOCACY UPDATE

As of this writing, over 2,200 bills have been dropped in the 2023 legislative session. ORLA is currently tracking over 100 of them in support, opposition or monitoring bills due to their relating clause or relevant topic to our hospitality industry.

Here are a few highlights from the session to date:

HB 2536 – Relating to Third-Party Delivery Fees

The Oregon Legislature passed a bill (HB 3361) in 2020 protecting restaurants from third-party delivery companies using their menu, logo, or pricing information without prior written consent. The enforcement mechanism for this bill remains unclear. HB 2536 reinforces those protections and makes it clear the enforcement agency would be the Oregon Health Authority. In addition, it prohibits third-party delivery platforms from charging more than 15 percent for delivery fees.

ORLA testified in support of the bill and the protections it provides for restaurants while representing a fair and equitable approach to setting reasonable standards for third-party delivery companies and their interactions with restaurants.

SB 569 – Relating to Closed Captioning

This bill would require closed captioning on televisions in public areas within places of public accommodation. ORLA testified at a public hearing for the bill and made a request for amendments to cover the following:

• Exempt individual private rooms for rent (i.e., hotel rooms)

• Exempt screens of 12 inches or less (to eliminate having closed captioning on exercise machines)

• Remove a requirement that “Whenever closed captioning is disabled on any of the remaining receivers that are not subject to the requirement, the place of public accommodation shall affix to each receiver, or otherwise display, a notice indicating that the receiver does not output sound or that the receiver is on mute.”

At the time of this writing, those amendments were accepted by the proponents of the bill and should be included moving forward.

HB 3159 – Relating to State Lodging Tax

This bill would increase the state transient lodging tax (TLT) to three percent with 1.5 percent going to the Oregon Tourism Commission and anything over 1.5 percent going to an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife sub-account focused on conservation.

ORLA testified in opposition to the bill and at the time of this writing, had at least eight lodging owners and operators signed up to testify as well during the next scheduled hearing.

ORLA’s testimony focused on the fact that if conservation is important to all Oregonians, then all Oregonians should pay for it. In addition, the TLT was an agreement between lodging properties and the state to support hospitality businesses and our employees, not unrelated causes and issues. ORLA also clarified some of the inaccurate information being put forth by proponents of the bill to help lawmakers on the committee understand the true facts.

HB 3114 – Relating to Transient Lodging

This bill would prohibit a hotelkeeper on innkeeper from requiring a qualified victim services program that facilitates reservation or rental of a guest room in a hotel or inn to disclose personal information of a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking. Essentially, if someone came in to rent a room for a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking and they were with a qualified victim services program, the lodging property could not ask for the victim’s identification to rent the room. The proponents of the bill were looking to protect the identity of the victim from their tormenter.

After talking with the proponents and determining there is no law requiring lodging properties to view a person’s ID to rent a room, they have agreed to drop the bill in favor of working with us and lodging operators to create an agreement between the victim services programs and lodging properties allowing for rental of rooms without ID but devising solutions to problems like lost keys, security, and liability.

House Committee on Gambling Regulation

ORLA Director of Government Affairs Greg Astley was joined by Julie Hoy, owner, Geppetto’s Italian Restaurant and Jerry Scott, CEO of Elmer’s Restaurants, Inc. to speak to the House Committee on Gambling Regulation at a recent meeting of the committee. Both Geppetto’s and Elmer’s are Oregon Lottery retailers and were asked to speak to how retailers were doing as we recover from the pandemic and how their lottery operations were faring.

Julie and Jerry spoke to concerns retailers have about employee safety, availability of machines for retailers and the benefits and challenges being a Lottery retailer entails. In addition to their testimony, Greg spoke to hearing from other retailers about safety when it comes to the fact that lottery machines are cash only and that payouts are made in cash or slips of paper equivalent to cash that can be turned in by anyone in possession of the slip. He also mentioned the ongoing communication between ORLA and the Oregon Lottery and discussions around engaging retailers more directly with Lottery staff through forums and in-person meetings.

Natural Gas Bans

The Eugene City Council, in a surprise vote, approved an ordinance to prohibit natural gas hookups in new residential construction –the first city in Oregon to pass such a measure. It will affect newly built single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes, quadruplexes, cottage clusters and any residential structure of three stories or less.

Other cities in Oregon, such as Bend, Corvallis, and Milwaukie, are said to be considering similar bans on natural gas hookups. In all cases, ORLA’s concern is when bans on natural gas begin in residential construction, the natural progression for those in favor of such bans is to ask for bans on new industrial and commercial construction. In fact, in future months, the Eugene council plans to consider separate ordinances to prohibit fossil fuels in new the decisions they make. Below are some of the ways you can get engaged and help make a difference.

Sign Up as a Hospitality Advocate – If you haven’t signed up yet, join over 2,000 of your colleagues and peers and be part of our Phone2Action network. This is our grassroots activation network of owners, operators and supports of the hospitality industry. We use Phone2Action to alert you to important legislation, provide talking points about the legislation and offer direct contact with those legislators all with a few simple clicks on your phone or computer. We encourage you to personalize your testimony and it’s easy to do. Simply sign up by texting “ORLA” to 52886.

Join Us at the National Conferences in D.C. – ORLA is fortunate to work with several national partners on advocacy issues at the federal level. This year, Jason Brandt, ORLA President & CEO and Harish Patel, ORLA Board Chair, will be attending the American Hotel & Lodging Association Hotels on the Hill event in Washington, D.C. May 15-17. If you’re a lodging operator and are interested in joining Jason and Harish, please email Jason at JBrandt@OregonRLA.org.

ORLA Director of Government Affairs Greg Astley will be leading the contingent of restaurant operators to Washington D.C. for the National Restaurant Association’s Public Affairs Conference June 19-21. If you’re a restaurant operator and are interested in joining Greg and the Oregon contingent, please email Astley@OregonRLA.org.

Support One Big Night Dinner & Auction – One Big Night is ORLAPAC’s biggest fundraiser of the year, helping us raise money to back candidates and elected officials who understand the importance of the hospitality industry in Oregon. Your support of the event is critical to our success. There are a few ways you can help including:

• Be a sponsor.

• Donate auction items / packages.

• Buy tickets to attend or fill a table.

• Bid on items in the auctions.

With both a silent and live auction, we are accepting donations from gift cards to lodging packages to almost anything you can think of to help raise money for our advocacy efforts. If you can attend, please bring some friends or fellow staff to help bid up the items and support ORLAPAC. This is one of most enjoyable, fun events we have during the year, don’t miss it!

For more information on tickets or donating items, contact Lauri Byerly at LByerly@OregonRLA.org. For more information on becoming a sponsor, contact Marla McColly at MMcColly@OregonRLA.org.

Looking for more ways to participate in the advocacy process? Visit OregonRLA.org/Advocacy and make sure you are subscribed to ORLA’s emails at bit.ly/ORLAsubscribe

GREG ASTLEY, ORLA