Story by Rodger Nichols for Gorge Country Media
With the brand new year comes brand new laws for both Oregon and Washington.
OREGON
Oregon lawmakers introduced 3,466 bills, resolutions and memorials during the 2025 legislative session. Only 633 were finally signed by the governor. Some took effect immediately, some after 91 days, and 282 on January 1. Here are some of the highlights.
The most hotly debated bill of the session was Senate Bill 916, which makes Oregon the first state in the nation to allow both public and private striking workers to collect unemployment benefits – up to 10 weeks of them.
Senate Bill 548 raises the legal age for marriage in Oregon from 17 to 18 years old. Before that, 17-year-olds could marry with permission of one parent or guardian, and, importantly, the 17-year-old’s permission was not required, which would technically allow parents to sign the child into marriage without their consent. It also allowed adult men to obtain marriage licenses to teenage girls.
House Bill 3865, the Telemarketing Modernization Act, added texting to the definition of “telephone solicitation,”prohibits solicitation after 7 p.m. and limits it to three times per day. Now if they could only do the same to emails…
If you’ve ever got caught with “convenience charges” or “service fees,” that show up as a surprise at the end of an online transaction, you’ll appreciate Senate Bill 430 that requires all such fees to be included in the advertised price. The only exceptions are postage and sales taxes.
One that might catch a lot of people unawares is House Bill 2982 which requires anyone that paddles a non-motorized boat on Oregon waters to get a Waterway Access Permit, for $20 a year. Previously, they were only required for boats 10 feet or longer.
House Bill 2463 gives defendants 30 days to respond to a small claims court summons instead of 14. The Oregon Judicial Department actually testified in favor of the bill, noting that a full half of small claim case end up in default judgement because the defendant doesn’t file an answer or appear in court. When it comes to debt collection cases, which make up some 78 percent of small claims filed, the department said only 4.4 percent of defendants responded.
And our legislative hero award goes to Rep. Bobby Levy, R-Echo, who sponsored what became Senate Bill 9, which requires DMV offices in 20 counties to prioritize applicants in rural Oregon for behind-the-wheel tests. She said rural Oregonians have been forced to wait months or drive hundreds of miles round-trip to other DMV offices. That specifically applies to field offices in all counties east of the Cascades except Deschutes, plus Clatsop and Tillamook on the north coast and Curry on the south coast.
WASHINGTON
By contrast, only 24 Washington House and Senate bills took effect on January 1 of the more than 3,000 that were introduced and the 422 that passed.
Minimum wage for Washington went up to $17.13 an hour. That puts it ahead of New York’s $17.00 and makes it the highest state in the nation. Only Washington, D.C.’s $17.95 is higher. Highest local rates in the nation are $21.30 for Seattle, $21.63 for large employers in Burien, and $21.65 an hour in Tukwilla. That’s not quite three times the $7.25 in Idaho.
Senate Bill 5486 requires all movie theaters open to the public to offer closed captioning, which is delivered through an accessible device or glasses that show the captions. And for movies that offer open captioning, which is always in view on the screen and can’t be turned off, companies that operate five or more theaters must offer a certain number of screenings during the first two weeks of a movies release and during peak business hours that have open captioning. And they must advertize those times the same way as for other screenings.
Of local interest, House Bill 2003 requires a Columbia River salmon or steelhead endorsement for any person 15 or older fishing recreationally for steelhead or salmon in the Columbia and its tributaries.
Many of the bills passed in the session raised taxes.
Senate Bill 5814 adds all nicotine products— vapes, pouches and e-cigarettes — to the 95 percent excise tax currently used for cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco, effectively doubling the price.
Buying a luxury vehicle? Be prepared for a luxury sales tax, thanks to Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 5801. For cars, it adds an 8 percent surcharge on any amount over $100,000. That threshold will go up annually every July 1 by 2 percent. There are exemptions for commercial vehicles, farm vehicles, off-road and non-highway vehicles. By comparison, it’s a modest 0.5 percent on recreational watercraft 16 feet or over. And for the very wealthy among us, it will be 10 percent on the amount over $500,000 for noncommercial aircraft.
Senate Bill 5794 removes the sales tax exemption on silver, gold and other precious metals. If you’re buying that ounce of gold in Klickitat County at spot price, which was $4,386.60 on January 1, you’d be paying $4,726.46, an extra $339.75. Closer to home for most of us, an ounce of silver, $73.83 at spot on January 1, would go to $79.37, another $5.54.
And the minimum fee for plastic bags film carryout bags takes a 50 percent hike from 8 cents to 12 cents per bag. Paper bags stay at 8 cents, and the thicker 4-mil plastic bags double to 16 cents. This is a legacy increase from Senate Bill 5399 that passed in 2020.