Broadly speaking, the 2024 session yielded a lot of success for our state. Important work was done in addressing Oregon’s addiction crisis, adding funds for childcare for working folks, funding for housing, and long-awaited changes to land use to make more land for housing available.  This session was set up to help address the housing crisis. But Bend will not be the recipient of many of this year’s advances.  

Governor Kotek’s housing agenda was robust, and we began the session with high hopes of funding to address both Oregon and Bend’s housing shortage. The Governor’s agenda also included modest expansions of the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) and funds for needed housing infrastructure.   

However, early in the session the Senate split much of the Governor’s agenda into several bills and significantly reduced the amount of funding. Language for potential UGB expansion was modified and ultimately limited the possibility of expanding the UGB so that many communities, including Bend, who need land to expand housing, will likely be unable to utilize the new legislation. 

SB 1537, the Governor’s Housing Production bill, was amended to remove $200M in infrastructure funding. That funding reappeared in another bill but at less than half the amount. The bill also reduced the requested one-time UGB expansion for cities above 25,000 people from 150 to 100 acres and made the requirements so prescriptive as to be potentially unachievable for Bend. Additionally, the bill reduced the moderate-income housing revolving loan funding from $200 million to $75 million. 

SB 1530, the Omnibus Housing Funding Bill was replaced by specific allocations for projects that were decided by legislative leaders in the final moments of the session. Nearly $90 million was allocated to Oregon cities, including Redmond, Madras, Prineville, and Culver collectively receiving a little under $6 million. Bend’s funding request for water infrastructure projects that serve much-needed residential lands with a wide variety of multi and single-family housing was not included. Bend’s unfortunate outcome wasn’t for a lack of trying. The City of Bend, the Bend Chamber, housing advocates, builders, and others all joined hands to advocate on our community’s behalf.  

On the plus side, the Governor’s housing bill created a Housing Production Accountability Office (HAPO). This new office is charged with holding cities accountable for their housing need projections, as well as providing technical assistance and grant funds to assist communities in creating housing. While we are usually skeptical about creating new layers of bureaucracy, the HAPO will serve an important role and provide coordination among the various state agencies that touch housing development. The hope is that the new agency will remove obstacles and allow for real progress in keeping the state on track with housing production goals.  

There were other bright spots from this year’s legislative session, including around childcare. The Employment Related Day Care fund that subsidizes childcare for thousands of working families across the state was passed with an all-time high of $86 million to help address the current waiting list for eligible families. Some of these funds will reach Central Oregon and provide much-needed assistance for working families to offset the cost of childcare.                                     

One of the state’s few tools to attract industrial jobs was re-established through the end of 2029 in the form of HB 4042. The bill which incentivizes industrial development and job generation ended up being amended into an omnibus tax bill (SB 1526) but ultimately was not funded. The legislature supported the idea, but they weren’t ready to pay for it. Those who are advocates of job generation and economic diversity will seek the missing funding in the 2025 session. 

Another marque piece of legislation in 2024 was Measure 110 reform. This was a contentious, complicated modification to the voter-approved measure passed in 2022 that decriminalized hard drugs and offered the promise of improved access to treatment. Central Oregon’s Representative Jason Kropf was tasked with leading this bi-partisan legislation forward. Senator Tim Knopp as minority leader also weighed in on HB 40002, ultimately landing on modifications to Measure 110 by putting in place a new level of misdemeanor charges for drug possession and increasing penalties for drug dealing. The bill encourages drug treatment as an option to jail time while giving law enforcement more tools for public safety.  

These are just a few highlights of this year’s legislative session. While much was accomplished, we are disappointed that Bend was left out of critical housing legislation and infrastructure funding. We plan to take this up in the 2025 legislative session.