2009 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

By Cindy Robert
AMTA-OR Lobbyist

Taxes…Taxes…Taxes…A billion dollar session! While the current biennium shortfall in revenue to achieve a Constitutionally required balanced budget was filled with grabs from various pots of money, agency cuts and federal stimulus dollars, the projected shortfall of approximately $4 billion in the next biennium led to revenue raising measures that were passed with the help of Democrat super-majorities in both the House and Senate.

To balance the general fund budget:
Corporate Tax
HB 3405 raises business taxes for profitable companies from the current rate and also creates a sliding scale increase to the alternative "corporate minimum tax" now set at $10. Currently 6.6%, the corporate tax rate will be raised to 7.7% in 2009-2010, then adjusted down to 7.6% for 2011-12. After 2012, the rate will return to 6.6% for taxes on profits under $10 million, but the rate will remain 7.6% for all profits over $10 million and revenue will be dedicated to the Rainy Day Fund. The sliding scale for the alternative corporate minimum tax (for those companies that are not profitable) will be a minimum tax of $150 for companies under $500,000 in annual sales revenue, up to $100,000 for companies with sales of $100 million or more. HB 3405 also alters corporate filing fee structures to garner $325 million for Oregon.

Personal Tax
HB 2649 raises personal income tax rates for individuals who earn $125,000 per year, or households that earn $250,000, to 10.8 percent. This increase means that Oregon will be tied with Hawaii for having the highest personal income tax rate in the nation. HB 2649 also increases the rate of taxation on S-corps and LLCs. This tax is retroactive to the beginning of the current tax year.

Together, these bills are expected to raise $733 million in the next biennium.

To pay for health care:
HB 2009 establishes universal health care for Oregon. It establishes the Oregon Health Authority and transfers health functions to Authority from the Department of Human Services, Oregon Health Fund Board and Oregon Health Policy Commission. The plan is to be paid for with HB 2116 revenue.

HB 2116 creates a tax on insurance premiums, increases hospital provider tax, creates a tax on medical claims received by the Public Employees Benefit Board (PEBB), and creates a tax on capitation payments to Medicaid managed care plans. The Act is expected to raises $433 million in increased and new taxes. The taxes are designed to help bring into Oregon an additional $2 billion in federal Medicaid matching money over the next few years in order to pay for the expanded public health insurance coverage established in HB 2009.

To improve the transportation infrastructure:
HB 2001 (Jobs and Transportation Act) increases dedicated gas tax and automobile fees to improving our transportation infrastructure. Understand that the Oregon Constitution does not allow these taxes and fees to be placed in the general fund to be used for such things as schools and public safety. Any auto related revenue must be used for transportation related purposes.

To raise almost $300 million in the next biennium and $600 in the subsequent 2011-13 biennium, the Act increases vehicle title fees (from $55 to $77), vehicle registration fees (from $27 to $43), motor fuel taxes (from 24 cents to 30), weight-mile taxes, identification card renewal and replacement (plus $10), replacement registration plate fees, temporary permit fees and customized registration plate fees.

Advocates say the bill will create 4,600 new construction jobs, reduce road congestion, improve safety, enhance freight mobility, and modernize Oregon's transportation system.

The Jobs and Transportation Act allocates $300 million per year for road maintenance, preservation, safety, and modernization. Thirty percent of those funds will go to counties and twenty percent will go to cities for local streets. In addition, $100 million in bonds will fund Connect Oregon 3 multi-modal projects including rail, marine, air, and transit. The Act also includes an additional $3 million per year for bike-pedestrian projects and $24 million per year for other non-road multi-modal projects.

AMTA Oregon at the Legislature

SB 146
Brought by OBMT, this bill cleaned up Licensed Massage Therapist statute and included housekeeping, grammatical and technical revisions to statutes and re-ordering of the definition of massage. It made only two significant changes to policy relating to aiding and abetting language in disciplinary authority and educational requirements based on coursework approval rather than individual classes

Due to legislators’ angst over the modality issues (see below), this bill was held up on the Senate floor after passing out of the Senate Human Services Committee.

Semi-independent Boards
During the interim, the House Health Care Committee began a concerted effort to standardize health regulatory boards. From board membership and terms to disciplinary action, from budgeting/auditing to authority over executive directors, Chair Mitch Greenlick sought to make targeted health related boards have continuity. For the three health regulatory boards that have semi-independent status, he sought to take it away and bring them back into the complete fold of state government. With arguments on the success of OBMT, their customer service, their low fees and their fair regulation of the profession, we were able to defeat this bill.

Modalities
Just as in the 2007 legislative session, multiple modalities came to the 2009 legislature asking for exemption from LMT statute and oversight by the OBMT. This caused much uproar among legislators and much mayhem among those in opposition and support. Three different legislators offered bills relating to Bowenwork therapy, polarity, and reflexology (already exempted in 2007, they sought a broader definition for reflexology). Then, Feldenkrais therapists attempted to be added to one of the bills.

As a member of the Federation of Therapeutic Massage, Bodywork and Somatic Practice Organizations, AMTA supports language exempting certain professions from licensure. Included in the AMTA supported exemption language are polarity and Feldenkrais practitioners. In the end, in order to stop further consideration of all of these pieces of exemption legislation and, hopefully, preempt the continued confusion among legislators as to “who, what, when and where” of modalities under OBMT regulation, the Senate Human Services Committee instead sent a directive to the OBMT. This results of this directive should be two-fold: 1) to keep OBMT from having to defend itself and exemption bills in future sessions, and 2) to lay a foundation for the work that the OBMT is involved with that justifies it not being absorbed by another regulatory board (see following OBMT vs. The Governor article).

The Senate Human Service Committee directive is as follows:
Prior to the 2011 Legislative Session, the State Board of Massage Therapists shall contract with a private consultant who will provide a report to the appropriate interim committee. Report shall detail:
a) The modalities licensed by the Board, number of providers within each mode, and why it is in the public’s best interest for those modes to be regulated by the State Board;
b) A comparison of how other states regulate different modes;
c) A plan for regulating some modes as distinct and different from licensed massage therapists, with separate education and exam requirements; and
d) Suggested changes to administrative rule that will establish a clear delineation of what providers and techniques are and are not regulated by the Oregon Board of Massage Therapy.

Exam
Prior to the 2009 legislative session, the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork hired a lobbyist in Oregon to look into OBMT’s decision to have MBLEx be the exam of choice for licensure in Oregon. Near the beginning of this year, the lobbyist provided to the Governor a report detailing what NCB considered egregious errors in OBMT’s rulemaking process that was used to adopt MBLEx. The result was an amendment to HB 2059 allowing a massage therapists sitting for the exam to choose NCB or another test approved by OBMT. The amendment also stated that foreign language exams must be provided. Here is the pertinent text with new language in bold: The examination [shall] must be administered in the English language or another language approved by the board and may be in written, oral or practical form and may test the applicant for the required level of knowledge and skill in any subject related to massage and bodywork. The board [may] shall accept passage of [a] the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork examination or another board-approved national standardized examination as meeting the written examination requirement contained in this paragraph.

OBMT vs. The Governor
Within his May 15 City Club address, the Governor stated:
Some government functions have to go – at least for the foreseeable future. Oregon state government can no longer be all things to all people. That’s why I am asking the Legislature to suspend a wide variety of agencies, boards and commissions. These include: The Board of Occupational Therapy, the Board of Massage Therapists, the Consumer Advisory Council, the Commission for the Blind, the Board of Licensed Dietitians, and the Advocacy Commissions – among others.
Needless to say, this put AMTA Oregon and LMTs statewide in a panic. Too late to introduce a bill this session and outside the Governor’s authority to amend a bill, we worked to make sure no legislator picked up the cause and tried to make such a change. Talking with the Governor’s office, we determined that such a change is more likely to occur in the 2010 supplemental session, when the Governor will be able to pre-file legislation.

As we move toward 2010, AMTA Oregon will build a strategy to defeat dissolution of OBMT and absorption of our oversight into another regulatory board. One of the cornerstones of our defense will be the results of the modality study required by the Senate Human Services Committee this session (see previous article). Armed with the information on OBMT licensee demographics, number of modalities, how other states oversee massage, and the possibility of new more appropriate and varying degrees of modality certification, we will better be able to argue the need for our own Board. These indisputable facts, as well as testimonials and a letter writing campaign we will ask your help with, will lead to our success at maintaining the OBMT.