Restore Oregon Works with Rep Nosse on HB 3190 to Bring Back Financial Incentive
The Oregon Legislature’s 2025 “long session” officially begins Tuesday January 21, 2024 but there are already over 2,000 bills introduced with many more anticipated.
We have a big and important legislative agenda to share. Let’s start with Restore Oregon’s effort to bring back the Special Assessment for Historic Properties program, or HB 3190, under the leadership of Rep. Robb Nosse, the co-chair of the Arts & Culture Caucus.
Our Policy & Advocacy Committee is finalizing a few other items on our legislative agenda but any advocacy will once again be aligned with our Strategic Framework and focused on:
- Housing production (better ways to add housing through adaptive re-use, conversion of existing buildings, ADUs, etc.)
- Funding for the arts and culture sector, which includes historic preservation, funding for Main Streets, and any funding that supports critical nonprofits working in heritage
- Climate resilience and carbon reduction strategies
Between staff and our expert volunteers on the Policy & Advocacy Committee, we are starting to review all the bills available to track and monitor as much as we can. We likely will actively participate in testimony on quite a few that look both promising and not in the best interests of historic preservation goals and needs in our State.
Here are the bills we’re already tracking:
Pictured Above: Merwyn Apartments in Astoria created critical housing by reusing a historic property. This project utilized the Special Assessment for Historic Properties financial incentive before the program expired in 2024. Photo courtesy of Innovative Housing Inc.
HB 3190 (Rep Nosse): Special Assessment for Historic Properties Program – RO SUPPORTS. We actively began working between legislative sessions on a way to bring any financial incentive for historic preservation back to Oregon. After many discussions with partners, the State Office of Historic Preservation which administers the program, and elected officials, we asked Representative Nosse if he would sponsor this bill to reauthorize the program for commercial or income-producing properties. He agreed and pulled together a great group of co-sponsors! This is the first step in a longer-term vision to work to bring a robust package of tools and incentives for heritage and cultural preservation in the future. Our priority is to get a critical financial incentive back in place and this bill will do just that when passed!
HB 3190 is also a legislative priority for the Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon (we are a member) so we are building a wider coalition to get this bill passed. We will need all of you to help with public testimony at hearings, so get ready for some “Advocacy Alerts” in your inbox: Coming Soon!
Pictured Above: Elsinore Theatre in downtown Salem is one of the 14 projects requesting capital funding in HB 3191; photo courtesy of Elsinore Theatre.
HB 3191 (Rep Nosse) - RO SUPPORTS – this bill would secure $9.325 million in capital funding for 14 “shovel-ready” projects that have been reviewed and vetted by the Cultural Advocacy Coalition of Oregon in consultation with the Oregon Cultural Trust and Oregon Arts Commission. Many of these projects are historic preservation projects or support renovations, expansions or new construction for important cultural projects throughout Oregon. For instance, the Elsinore Theatre in Salem is restoring its grand exterior signage. The Baker Orpheum Theatre renovation in Baker City is another project. Restore Oregon has been working on historic theaters as a threatened resource for over a decade now, with emphasis on providing technical assistance through our Most Endangered Places program. Let’s support these two theaters as well as the 12 other important projects.
The Legislative session hasn’t begun, but we are working hard to review and decide which bills we will take a position on and testify about. Please stay tuned for more action alerts and any requests for your help in providing testimony or contacting your legislators – as you know sometimes we only have less than 24 hours notice for important hearings.
If you’d like to learn more about what’s happening in the 2025 Legislative Session, “OLIS” is the online system used by the Oregon Legislature that provides the public access to explore, track and participate in the process.