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The 80th Legislative Assembly adjourned on June 30, 2019, only hours before the constitutional deadline. The 2019 legislative session will go down in history as one of the most challenging sessions for businesses in Oregon and one of the most contentious sessions between Republicans and Democrats. Both parties maxed out their political capital and exhausted parliamentary procedures to further their legislative agendas. Hard at work for home builders, the Oregon Home Builders Association (OHBA) spent much of its time running defense and working hard to mitigate increasing costs to the housing industry. OHBA’s most significant win this session was the legislature’s consideration of how the new gross receipts tax would impact the cost of single-family residential construction. OHBA was able to secure a special exemption of sales passed through to subcontractor labor for single family residential development, which is estimated to save millions under the new tax. This exemption plus the 35 percent exemption in the original bill resulted in a 50 percent exemption on labor for our industry. Importantly, home builders were the only ones to receive this protection. To learn more about OHBA’s work in Salam, contact Jodi Hack. Next Article Previous Article