There may not be a more bipartisan bill — nor many as short — this session than Senate Bill 853 introduced by state Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend.
All 30 senators have signed on as cosponsors. We’d hope there will be similar support in the Oregon House.
“The state may not pay the costs of travel to or from Oregon for an employee in state service who telecommutes, as defined in ORS 240.855, from a principal work site outside of this state.”
That is basically the whole text of the bill. (We should note the bill text was not available when we wrote this Thursday morning. That language is from the legislative concept.)
Want to live in Dallas, St. Petersburg, Hilo, on the road in an RV or anywhere else you can dream of and work for the state of Oregon?
Maybe you want to take advantage of lower income taxes or no income taxes? Maybe you want to live somewhere warmer or cooler? Be close to family?
The state of Oregon will let remote employees do that.
What got Knopp’s attention was that the state of Oregon will pay the travel expenses of the workers to come back to Oregon for meetings that require their presence. State workers who do live in Oregon and pay taxes here don’t get any similar benefit. It’s almost like the state is incentivizing people not to live in Oregon.
The policy got noticed thanks to the reporting of Willamette Week. It wrote there are 29 such state employees in Texas and 12 in Florida, four in Hawaii. Of course, Texas and Florida have no income taxes.
We should also point out that state Treasurer Tobias Read did want his remote employees to come to the office once a quarter — and pay their own travel expenses.
The state employees are just following what was allowed under state policy. It was a new policy for remote work.
We do wonder, if this legislation passes, what would happen to workers that bought a home somewhere else based on this policy and assumed that the state would be paying for their travel when necessary. Is it fair to yank that out from under them?
The state also does have an interest in making itself attractive to workers. Some people will obviously find this a very attractive arrangement.
They should pay the expenses for travel to and from Oregon.
If they were hired specifically to work remotely then the state should pay. If allowed to work remotely at a place of their choosing, then they pay the way.
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They should pay the expenses for travel to and from Oregon.
If they were hired specifically to work remotely then the state should pay. If allowed to work remotely at a place of their choosing, then they pay the way.
Easy peasy. Tax savings more than offsets travel for most.
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