The Portland Business Alliance's Sit-Lie Bill Appears Dead

Portland Mercury:

Last we checked in on the Portland Business Alliance's legislative attempt for looser sidewalk rules—maybe something like Portland's unconstitutional sit-lie rules, which disproportionately affected the homeless—HB 2963 had been placed on today's Senate Judiciary Committee agenda for a vote that would send it to the Senate floor. But the bill was removed from the agenda yesterday, and now legislative sources say the bill is likely dead. Tomorrow is the last day for bills to move out of policy committees, and it's "unlikely" the bill will be restored to Judiciary's agenda later today or if there will even be a meeting tomorrow. Judiciary Chairman Floyd Prozanski had been notably skeptical of the bill. And now it seems there were enough concerns the bill would fail on the Senate floor—despite passing with all but two "no" votes in the House—that HB 2963 will be quietly put out to pasture. "It appears to not be moving," says Tom Powers, communications director for Senate Democrats. "it may not be able to receive further action. There were a few no votes on the floor. It wasn't clear it had the votes to pass." Powers says the PBA met with Senate Majority Leader Diane Rosenbaum a couple of days ago. By then, the writing was likely on the wall. Senate Democrats paid keen attention to the fact that the bill didn't pass unanimously in the House. Representatives Michael Dembrow and Sara Gelser, two Democrats, both said no. Dembrow wrote in a statement posted by Right 2 Survive, a homelessness advocacy group, that he often worked with the PBA but that "I am concerned about potential discrimination against the homeless. I want to make sure that any local ordinances are fair and balanced to the greatest extent possible. HB 2963 does not guarantee this." "People here noticed, once it passed, that two Democrats voted no," Powers says. "That brought the bill some closer scrutiny." He also said the House Judiciary panel—which I'll note has many suburban and rural members and is chaired by Jeff Barker, a retired Portland cop—has a "different" makeup than the Senate panel, which is led by Prozanski, from Eugene, and has other Portland-area senators. "That's another reason that it ran into some bigger resistance over here," Powers says of the Senate. As for concerns of spurning the PBA, he pointed out: "It was really just one group's bill. The larger business community is focused on other issues." [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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