2023 CCC Priority Legislation Outcomes
In the 2023 legislative session, the Coalition of Communities of Color advocated for bills to increase opportunity and advance racial justice for communities of color. The outcomes for each of our legislative priorities are below. You can read our detailed reflections on the 2023 legislative session on our blog here.
Learn more about CCC’s endorsement process and what it means here. The positions on our agenda represent only the position of CCC as a coalition and not individual members. Read our original 2023 legislative agenda here.
PRIORITY ISSUE AREAS:
Economic Justice
OREGON KIDS’ CREDIT
House Bill 3235 - PASSED
The Oregon Kids’ Credit will help families make ends meet by providing a refundable state tax credit per child calculated based on the number of dependents of taxpayers that are qualifying children with respect to taxpayer and are under six years of age at close of tax year. The credit will be available for families with children under six years of age and with income of no more than $30,000. The Oregon Kids’ Credit could help some 55,000 children, disproportionately Black, Latino, Indigenous, and children in rural areas.
Food for All Oregonians
Senate Bill 610 - Did Not Pass
This legislation would have created an inclusive state-funded food assistance program to help all Oregonians put food on the table, no matter where they were born or their immigration status. Our state must take action to increase access to food assistance for the 62,000 Oregonians who are currently excluded from federal programs based on their immigration status.
Oregon INDividual development accounts
Budget request - No Additional Funding
IDAs are a powerful tool for financial development and asset building in communities of color. However, this session, no new funding for IDAs was included in the 2023-25 biennial budget, meaning that many eligible Oregonians will not be able to create an account and receive matching funds for their savings.
Child Care
CCC was proud to endorse Child Care for Oregon’s comprehensive package to help every family have quality, affordable childcare. Oregon continues to experience a childcare crisis that disproportionately affects the Black, Indigenous, and women of color who make up the childcare workforce, low-income and families of color who struggle to access the quality care they need, and children, whose developing brains make early childhood a critical window for eliminating inequity. This session saw significant progress to improve access to child care with the passage of the following bills:
Child Care Infrastructure Fund (HB 3005 PASSED) - $50 million in Lottery Bonds were allocated to Business Oregon to fund projects, $5 million was allocated to the Department of Early Learning and Care to contract for technical assistance to support providers to access the fund, and more than $11 million in shovel ready early childhood projects were funded.
Review Zoning, Building code, and Permitting Impact on Child Care (HB 2727 PASSED) - $225,000 was allocated to the Department of Land Conservation and Development to bring together stakeholders to identify challenges, best practices, and make recommendations for improvement at the city, county, and state levels addressing how state and local zoning, permitting, and building codes inhibit or support childcare facilities.
Protect Child Care Providers in Rental Homes (SB 599 PASSED) - With passage of SB 599, landlords can no longer prevent licensed child care providers from operating in rental homes. They can, however, require liability protection to be in place.
Create Clear and Equitable Workforce Pathways (HB 2991 PASSED) - $300,000 was allocated to the Department of Early Learning and Care for community partners to gather input and craft recommendations for workforce pathway improvements.
Legislation to create incentives and assistance program for those entering the childcare field (HB 3029) and to create child care navigation services to increase access to care (HB 3027) did not pass.
RACE & ETHNICITY DATA COLLECTION ON INCOME TAX FORMS
SENATE BILL 1 - PASSED
Taxpayers will now be able to voluntarily self-identify race and ethnicity information on their income tax form, providing critical information to inform our state’s policy decisions. Disaggregated racial and ethnic data on our income tax forms will enable us to better understand the racial equity—and racial injustices—in our revenue system, including policies such as tax breaks.
Housing
Eviction Reform & Reduction
HB 2001 - PASSED
This legislation will give people more time after receiving a notice of rent non-payment before being taken to court to ensure they are better able to access rent assistance. It also requires that landlords accept payment at any point in the process and requires that eviction cases are dismissed if payment is made. While this legislation did not secure all of the protections that Oregon’s renters need, it will make a meaningful difference to increase housing stability. (HB 2001 was introduced as a companion bill to SB 799; SB 799 was used as the vehicle for these policy changes.)
Reasonable Rent Limits
Senate Bill 611 - PASSED
The legislation caps rent increases at 10 percent. Existing law limits annual rent increases to 7 percentage points above inflation; in 2022, this meant that landlords could raise the rent by an extreme 14.6 percent. While not as strong as the limits proposed in the original bill, it will help prevent extreme price increases during times of significant inflation. (HB 2733 was a companion bill to SB 611 and did not move forward.)
Rent Assistance Investments
Budget request - $80 million allocated
The legislature allocated $80 million in funding for culturally specific programs and community action agencies across the state to provide emergency rent assistance and prevent evictions.
Rental Market Data COLLECTION
House Bill 3169 - Did not pass
This legislation would have helped local communities know more about local housing needs by developing a statewide central registry of rental units, information that is needed to understand our housing market. Households of color are more likely to rent their homes than white households, so access to data and an understanding of how to reach owners and landlords when needed must be a component of our state’s housing strategy.
Advancing Democracy
Statewide Ranked Choice Voting
House Bill 2004 - PASSED
HB 2004 refers a November 2024 ballot measure to Oregon voters to decide whether to use ranked choice voting in future primary and general elections for statewide and federal congressional races. The Coalition of Communities of Color looks forward to supporting passage of this ranked choice voting ballot measure in November 2024 alongside other organizations such as Oregon Ranked Choice Voting Advocates.
Guaranteeing the Right to Vote
Senate Bill 579 - DID not pass
This legislation would have guaranteed the right to vote for Oregonians who are incarcerated. Right now, 12,000 people are currently denied their right to vote because they are incarcerated, leading to more low-income, Black, Indigenous, and communities of color being disproportionately disenfranchised. Oregon must build on its track record as a leader in democracy and ensure everyone has a voice in our government.
Opportunity to Serve
Ballot Measure Referral
In practice, serving in the Oregon Legislature is a full-time job, but our state lawmakers are paid only $34,000 per year. As we work to increase diverse representation in the legislature, we face a fundamental barrier: many BIPOC leaders of color, who are less likely to have access to wealth or passive sources of income, cannot support themselves or their families on this salary.
To address this issue, the Opportunity to Serve Coalition worked tirelessly to champion SB 786. This legislation would have tied the salary for legislators to the mean occupational employment and wage estimate for Oregon. Despite the best efforts of the coalition advocates to address this issue through SB 786, the legislation did not move forward. Instead, the Oregon Legislature decided to punt on this issue by through Senate Joint Resolution 34, leaving voters to decide on whether to approve the creation of an Independent Public Service Compensation Commission to determine the salaries for public officials. This result is disheartening to the Opportunity to Serve Coalition given the urgency to ensure people of color and low-income candidates have an equitable opportunity to serve in office that could have been directly enacted into law by the legislature.
Equitable Workgroups FOR EQUITABLE OUTCOMES
House Bill 2650 - Did not pass
Legislative workgroups and task forces are a major part of policy development and shape legislative decisions. Oregon makes better policy when the voices of impacted people are centered in policy-making conversations; however, the legislature failed to take action this session. HB 2650 would have established requirements for workgroups and task forces to ensure there is more inclusive and equitable representation. Oregon must shift toward a more inclusive lawmaking process and set thresholds to ensure those who are most impacted are centered in policy proposals.
Education
PREPARE OREGON EDUCATORS TO TEACH ETHNIC STUDIES
House BilL 1050 and budget - PASSED
With Oregon’s new ethnic studies standards, all students will be able to learn about the history and contributions of the diverse communities in our state. Teachers will receive the support and training they need to enrich all students’ learning as Oregon implements new K–12 ethnic studies standards. This legislation would allocate funding to ensure educators have access to the resources they need to successfully implement ethnic studies standards and develop an inclusive curriculum. Between this bill and the budget, $7 million was secured to provide K–12 educators with the professional training for ethnic studies.
SUCCESS FOR PACIFIC ISLANDER STUDENTS
House Bill 3144 - PASSED
This legislation directs the state to create a Pacific Islander Student Success Plan to set our education system on a path toward supporting all students. Pacific Islanders are some of the fastest growing communities in Oregon, and this plan represents an opportunity to identify strategies for the educational attainment and wellbeing for these students.
Standardize Student Race & Ethnicity Data Collection
House Bill 3288 - DID not pass
Accurate racial and ethnic data for Oregon students is essential to close racial disparities in eduction. Oregon’s school districts are required by law to collect data on race and ethnicity, but there is no standard approach among the state’s 197 districts. We continue to risk collecting inaccurate data that can cause communities to miss out on critical funding and supports for underserved students of color. We must standardize data collection so that policymakers, educators, and communities can make better decisions to advance equity in education and close racial disparities.
Criminal Legal Reform
Public Defense Funding – IN DEFENSE OF HUMANITY
We are currently failing to provide people of all backgrounds with their constitutional right to legal representation. This upholds systemic racism and classism and harms our communities and families. To meet this obligation, we must take comprehensive action to build a robust public defense system. While the Oregon Legislature made some progress on this issue, there is much work ahead to address issues with both the system and shortage of lawyers for those in need of a public defender.
SB 337 PASSED - This legislation will provide the Office of Public Defense Services clear direction, oversight and timelines needed to align Oregon’s public defense services with national best practices. Additionally, it will create a division of state trial public defense attorneys who will help bridge staffing shortages and allow the state to collect more accurate and reliable compensation standards for nonprofit, contract attorneys.
HB 2467 and SB 413 DID NOT PASS - Given the ongoing workforce issues that public defense is experiencing, both of these bills were aimed at improving workforce recruitment and retention by establishing a loan repayment program through the Oregon State Bar that would have allowed attorneys and staff of public defense services to apply for grants to cover the costs of student loans during their 10 years of service needed for federal loan forgiveness. Given the high costs of a legal education and relatively low wages for a public defender, this legislation would have made public defense a feasible career option.
SB 817 DID NOT PASS - This legislation was aimed at reducing the need for public defense attorneys by expanding the eligibility to pre-plea probation and diversion and would have allowed more Oregonians accused of low-level crimes a pathway to work towards charge dismissals through counseling or community service. Failing to pass this legislation is a missed opportunity both for our legal system and for true community safety that is focused on both accountability and repairing harm.
Transforming Justice
ConsistenT SUPERVISION FOR SAFER COMMUNITIES
Senate Bill 581 - Passed
Community safety depends on people’s success during their community supervision. With SB 581, eligibility requirements for earned discharged will be consistent for everyone who is on parole, probation, and post-prison supervision, regardless of when they were convicted.
Invest in Victims’ Healing and Gun Violence Prevention - Funded
$750,000 was allocated to the Healing Hurt People program which provides immediate support to survivors of intentional trauma such as gunshot or stab wounds. This culturally specific, evidence-based approach connects survivors at the hospital with trusted advocates who work to prevent retaliation, and connect victims with a range of supports including medical care and substance use treatment. An additional $3 million was allocated for a statewide violence prevention program through POIC.
Environmental Justice
Climate Resilience Hubs
House Bill 3409 - PASSED
The Oregon Legislature passed the Climate Resilience Package, HB 3409, to help build out the infrastructure necessary to mitigate the harmful impacts of the changing climate. HB 3049 will create climate resource hubs (originally HB 2990) across the state to support climate preparedness, emergency response, and disaster recovery. The package includes the TREES Act (originally contained in HB 3016), which establishes a green infrastructure grant program for local investments in green infrastructure and urban tree canopy improvements as well as water infrastructure and water quality improvements.
Legislation to support community-benefitting water infrastructure (HB 2988) and to reform renewable energy and transmission siting (HB 2989) did not pass. As the impact of climate heating accelerates and puts lives at risk, Oregon must invest in every opportunity available to build climate resilience.