Good things can happen when those in the equipment and event rental community, in cooperation with key allies, band together to stop onerous legislation in its tracks. Such was the case this spring when a team of watchful industry professionals ensured the defeat of proposed amendments to an Oregon House bill that would have ramped up taxes for equipment rental operators.
In February, amid ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns, wildfire recovery and damaging ice storms, amendments were proposed to Oregon House Bill 2674 that included several new taxes to fund diesel engine retrofits and replacements. The proposed taxes included new levies on heavy rental construction equipment, light and medium duty vehicles, tires, diesel fuel and rentals of certain types of equipment.
Shannon Botten, president, Botten’s Equipment Rental, McMinnville, Ore., and an ARA of Oregon board member, learned of the pending amendment through her local Chamber of Commerce only three days before the bill was to be deliberated in an Oregon House committee. Recognizing how it would harm small businesses during such challenging times, Botten immediately went into action to rally her peers toward countering the bill and its imposition of the new taxes.
“This was an instance where our association played a huge role,” says Tim Allen, owner, Roseburg Rental, Roseburg, Ore., and American Rental Association (ARA) Equipment Rental Shared Interest Group co-chair. “The proposed amendment maneuver was an example of ‘gut and stuff,’ where the bill appeared to be nothing more than an emissions research topic. With 48 pages of new language put in place of the one page that was there — and only three days to build a coalition — things had to move fast.”
Allen wasted no time in enlisting help from an influential legislator as well as from ARA’s government affairs team.
“I contacted a House member who was on the committee in charge of the bill and requested a Zoom meeting so we could discuss how to defeat it. With that meeting locked in, ARA jumped in with both feet and went to work to get the right people invited. Between that effort and a relationship with a local grassroots group that is active here in the state, we were able to field a large room for the call. ARA and the ARA of Oregon board also immediately put together a legislative alert that went out to all members in the state. All of these efforts in such a short amount of time were enough to overwhelm the people pushing the legislation and at the end of the day, when we met with the House rep., the bill was dead.”
“This is how a lot of legislation is defeated or dies — the committees involved realize the opposition and just drop it, which is a win for us,” says Alysia Ryan, ARA director of state government affairs. “With help from Josh Nickell [ARA vice president — equipment segment] and working with a sympathetic state legislator as well as affected industries like timber, agriculture and tourism, we prepared to mount a call to action and testify in opposition to this bill. Shortly thereafter, it disappeared from the committee schedule, which means it is dead.”