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By Oregon Farm Bureau [6]
HB 2960 passed out the Joint Ways & Means Committee; it is headed to the House floor for a vote. HB 2960 would require all employers who do not offer a retirement plan to enroll all employees in a state-run retirement plan; employees could then choose to opt out of the state plan. Unfortunately, HB 2960 fails to provide appropriate sideboards or legislative oversight of the new program. It also is a mandated burden on large and small employers for compliance, reporting, and potentially fiduciary responsibility without a study of the impact of the proposed legislation. No other state has successfully implemented a state-mandated retirement plan.
Farm Bureau and the business community asked legislators to consider the -17 amendments, which would have provided much needed clarity to the Legislature regarding whether or not employers or the state would be in violiation of federal law and at risk for a class action lawsuit. Unfortunately, the committee did not adopt the amendments. Farm Bureau opposes the bill without appropriate sideboards or adoption of amendments that provide critical clarity to the state and small business community.