Legislature Passes Bill to Erase School Funding Deficit Student Success: House Bill 3427 was the result of extensive statewide hearings as part of the Student Success effort. This was one of the most complex and controversial bills of the session. HB 3427 creates a new business a tax dedicated to early learning and K-12 education. The bill also addresses school nutrition, equity, safety, summer education, and early learning programs. The revenues are generated by an annual $250 fee plus a 0.57% charge for Oregon taxable (corporate) income greater than $1 million. It includes a tax reduction of 0.25% for most personal income taxes. This measure will generate about $1 billion a year for education. PERS: To ensure long-term viability of the PERS defined benefit and to increase the PERS funding level above the current 80%, the legislature passed SB 1049. Most of the gains come from extending the defined actuarial period, but about 20% will come from redirecting 2% of the employees' contribution away from their Individual Account Program (IAP) - it is currently 6% - and towards their employee pension stability account. This bill also prohibited any community from replicating the funding mechanism used to pass the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF). The PCEF is a 1% tax (passed in 2017) on retail sales for large businesses in Portland. Schools and Vaccinations: A bill (HB 3063) that would have ended all non-medical exemptions to school vaccination requirements did not make it through the Senate. Other Bits of Progress: All these passed - -
HB 2867 - Requires each district to have a coordinated counseling plan -
HB 2191 - Mental health issues become an excused absence -
HB 3165 - Oregon Health Authority will provide school-based health planning grants to 10 districts -
SB 3 - Allows Community Colleges to offer some BA’s -
SB 664 - Requires genocide education in all districts -
SB 52 - Adi’s Act - Support to prevent youth suicide OO Comments: HB 3427 is complicated and may be subject to a referendum but represents the best effort yet to erase the $1 billion per year deficit (identified by the Quality Education Model) in Oregon’s schools. Passage of HB 3427 was tied to PERS reform as provided by SB 1049. Unions may refer PERS reform to the ballot also. The school vaccination bill was controversial and some legislators felt it was not well drafted. The list of smaller tweaks add up to substantial positive change. - All of us at Onward Oregon | |
