OTA Dispatch Issue 2 2019

4 Oregon Trucking Associations, Inc. Oregon Truck Dispatch FROM THE PRESIDENT Jana Jarvis OTA President/CEO P olitics has always been in my blood. It probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that my path to President & CEO of a major Oregon trade association was sprinkled with stints in student government, hours of campaign volunteerism, and years of professional experience as a paid lobbyist for other business interests. The art of negotiating to advance an industry’s interests has always been an important part of the skill set required to participate in that great experiment called democracy. And success was always dependent on taking that first step by showing up. Trade associations were created for that very purpose. Groups of like-minded individuals invested in creating organizations where they volunteered countless hours in developing priorities to advance their mutual interests. They hired staff, they sat on boards, they invested in programs, and they showed up! OTA was created for the purpose of protecting your business interests—whether it is by providing the training you need to succeed, scheduling the events you need for networking, offering the programs you need to supplement your business, or by investing in the advocacy you need to protect your business interests in Oregon. The 2019 Legislative session has been no exception. Results of the 2018 election predicted a difficult session for business interests here but we prepared by showing up and engaging in discussions about new environmental policies, labor policies, and tax policies that will have a tremendous impact on your bottom line. Hopefully you have been following these efforts as we highlight them every week in the Weekly Express. And if you have been following this, you will know that the 2019 legislative session is unlike any session in recent history. At the start of this session, the business community was alerted that leadership had four priorities and that they intended to move these issues quickly. We saw that they meant business when rent control moved quickly through both chambers and Results of the 2018 election predicted a difficult session for business interests here but we prepared by showing up and engaging in discussions about new environmental policies, labor policies, and tax policies that will have a tremendous impact on your bottom line. was signed by the Governor within the first few weeks. And then they moved on to solving the looming PERS crisis. It has been a widely held belief by the majority party that business in Oregon “doesn’t pay its fair share” so a number of proposals were launched early in the session and the negotiating began. Business taxes are a tough thing—they impact different businesses differently—so as time went on leadership turned to a couple of trade associations to speak on behalf of all business interests in this state. The result? A new tax on business! A gross receipts tax that taxes all levels of business whether they are profitable or not. A new tax that will significantly raise the cost of goods produced and distributed in Oregon. A new tax that will impact the trucking industry right along with all the other goods and services (with a few exceptions). A new tax that is predicted to raise $2.8 billion over the coming biennium which is touted to go to Oregon classrooms but will likely help buy down the pending PERS debt. A new tax that will make Oregon less competitive once again. And once this business tax was passed and signed into law, the Legislature turned its sights on addressing environmental concerns. HB 2020, commonly referred to as Cap and Trade legislation, was moved by the Joint Carbon Committee recently to the Ways and Means Committee for further refinement. Again, this legislation was highly negotiated and compromises were reached— for all but the transportation sector! Numerous hearings were held for the utility and industrial sector—but not one hearing was held in the Joint Carbon Committee for the transportation sector. The Joint Transportation Committee held the only transportation hearing on carbon but since this bill was not assigned to them it was an informational hearing only. And why was that? Because the goal of this legislation is to price Oregonians out of the use of fossil fuels to accomplish their environmental agenda. They want to make fossil fuels so expensive that mass transit, electric vehicles, and bicycles will be the preferred option of moving people. They recognize that these alternatives are not commercially available in the freight industry but they believe that forcing this issue, and raising the cost, will create these new business opportunities. Never mind the additional cost of distribution and the potential for Oregon-based trucking companies to go out of business as they try to compete. They