SALEM, OR -- A bill just introduced in the Oregon Senate would end one Pandemic-era reimbursement. At a recent press conference, Senator Dennis Lenthicum (R-Klamath Falls) said the GOP would hold state employees accountable, "During the COVID era, many employees were working in their new home state of Texas or their new home state of Louisiana, Idaho or wherever and flying back to Oregon, having the Oregon taxpayer pay for the roundtrip fare to get them from their offsite campus or home to their Oregon job." 

Senate Bill 853 would make those travel expenses the responsibility of state employees who choose to live outside of Oregon. It received its first reading on the Senate Floor Thursday.

Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp (R-Bend) is the Chief Sponsor. "This would be high paid state employees - living in Florida, Texas and other locales were being reimbursed with your taxpayer dollars for travel back to the state to do their jobs," he said in a floor speech last week, "I, like many Oregonians, was - let’s just say - less than enamored with that policy."

All 30 Senators and a bipartisan group from Oregon’s House have already signed on to co-sponsor SB-853. "It may turn out to be the most sponsored bill in the legislature," Knopp told reporters last week. 

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