Today marks the first day of Oregon’s 2026 legislative session and the short session is shaping up to be a busy one. Although short sessions traditionally focus on budget adjustments and policy fine‑tuning, the combination of a challenging fiscal outlook and urgent policy needs ensures that lawmakers will have a packed 35 days ahead of them.
According to a recent Oregon Business and Industry (OBI) voter poll[1], the public has historically low confidence heading into this short session:
- Overall sentiment: Only 26% of voters believe Oregon is headed in the right direction.
- Pro-growth path forward: To close budget gaps, 52% prioritize reducing regulations and creating incentives to grow jobs/wages (over 27% for spending cuts and 12% for tax increases). This preference generally holds across party lines.
- Pause on new regulations: 76% prefer pausing new regulations until businesses can comply and the state verifies what works; according to OBI, this sentiment has been stable since 2021.
- Cost passthrough of regulations: A near consensus of 93% believe businesses pass tax/regulatory costs to consumers as higher prices.
- Overregulation: When considering the environment, health and workplace, 46% of voters say Oregon businesses are over regulated, versus 27% who say regulation is “about right” and 15% who say “under regulated.”
The Governor has made building Oregon’s economy her top priority for the 2026 Session – whether the Legislature charts a path that addresses the concerns of voters and the Governor’s top priority, remains to be seen.
What to expect
We anticipate that the Legislature will be heavily focused on the expected budget deficit – the extent to which will be largely determined on Wednesday, February 4 when the next forecast from the State Economist will be released.
In addition to the budget, it is widely anticipated that the Legislature will focus on “federal response” legislation – that is, new laws responding to ongoing federal actions, as well as transportation funding, which once again appears to be on the docket.
Finally, there is an effort to change both the “kicker” tax rebate and decouple from the federal tax code – actions that may help with future budgets but which will undoubtedly be controversial, as they will ultimately result in more money out of the pockets of Oregonians.
Asante’s legislative priorities
Asante’s legislative priorities aim to slow down ballooning costs associated with Oregon’s hospital staffing law, preserve critical funding for key services and for a pause in new regulations, while health care systems adjust to the slew of significant, expensive laws currently impacting the financial sustainability of hospitals across Oregon.
- Amendments to Oregon hospital staffing laws – as we’ll document in much greater detail in a later post, the changes made in 2023 to Oregon’s hospital staffing law have left hospitals in an unsustainable situation. We’re supporting common sense changes to the Oregon hospital staffing law as proposed in both Senate Bill 1558 and House Bill 4074.
- State investments in health care – we’re supportive of critical health care investments, including funding for hospital services for low-income and vulnerable Oregonians, training dollars for Oregon providers and supporting post-hospitalization recovery.
- Preserve the integrity of Oregon’s financial assistance laws – Asante supports targeted changes to eligibility criteria to ensure financial assistance resources are used responsibly and remain accessible to patients with legitimate financial need.
- Pause in new regulations – like other health care systems, Asante is facing unsustainably low margins, caused in no small part by continued unfunded mandates from Salem.
Combined with the substantial financial hit that will come with the implementation of recent federal legislation, health care is at a tipping point and cannot continue to sustain new costly regulations if it is the Legislature’s goal to keep intact a system of independent, mostly non-profit health care systems.
What this means for southern Oregon
While we’re unabashedly biased towards wanting to keep a sustainable, independent health care system in southern Oregon, we also remain very concerned about the overall economic climate in Oregon.
Decoupling Oregon from the federal tax code or continuing to push for new tax increases are likely to further entrench Oregon’s reputation as being bad for business, hampering the hard work southern Oregonians are doing to attract business and keep the region vibrant and prosperous.
The strong voter frustration reflected in the recent OBI survey, paired with the Governor’s renewed emphasis on economic growth, underscores that Oregon needs course correction. We’re encouraged by any steps that move the state toward a more competitive and business‑friendly future, and we believe southern Oregon stands to benefit significantly from a more intentional focus on economic stability.
