Hearing: Paid holiday for Lunar New Year? (HB 3595)

HB 3595 gives government employee time off for Lunar New Year
By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

House Bill 3595 will be having a hearing in House Committee On Rules. Monday 03/24/2025 8:00 AM, HR C, State Capitol

House Bill 3595 would make a Lunar New Year a state legal holiday and injects this day in the Oregon statute that governs the 10 other state holidays that are paid time off for government employees, so we assume this is indeed a new paid off holiday for government employees.  You can testify online here (hit submit testimony tab)

Honoring Lunar New Year is wonderful … but … a new government paid time off time is vexing for several reasons.

• Oregon public schools have one of the shortest schools years in America!  As a result they are among the very bottom of test scores.  How does pulling children away, even more from a  short school year going to help these students?

• Oregon has an 18,000 sex offender backlog of unprocessed rapists and a continual backlog of rape kit processing.  How does more paid days off for government employees going to help get sex offenders and rape kits processed on time?

• Our government pensions (PERS) is $28 billion in debt!  How does giving the entire government workforce a paid day off when we cannot even afford to pay them right now?  Our state is $28 billion in debt and the politicians are rolling out paid holidays.

• DMV has been closing nearly a dozen offices during summer.  How does fewer DMV open days help drivers who struggle to get appointments?

• The State’s Corporation Division has been faulted for not being open on Fridays.  How does another paid day off for government employees help businesses register in Oregon?

• Government workers like Portland’s public employee unions are already required to work a only half-week in the office.  How does giving a paid day off to one of the most casual workplace rules in the nation help Portland get out from its government services crunch?

• Our government employees make 20% more than private sector Oregonians.  Yet this bill gives all the paid benefits of a lunar new year to government employees while private sector workers lose access to government services and has to pay for child care when schools send their kids home.

• Lawmakers are advancing a bill to pay workers to strike.   The bill along with the lunar new year bill are more ways our tax dollars are paying people to not work.

• The list of extreme delay scandals in Oregon state agencies include; Employment Department, Housing Department, Oregon Health Authority and the Department of Transportation.  How does adding more paid days off help struggling Oregonians get the services they pay for?

You can testify online here (hit submit testimony tab)

HB 3595 summary, “The Act makes the Lunar New Year a state holiday”.  Here are the other legal holidays that Lunar New Year would join, New Year’s Day, MLK, Jr.’s Birthday , Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas. HB 3595 sponsors, Representative Chaichi, Dobson, Nguyen D, Nguyen H, Pham H, Sanchez, Walters, Senator Jama, Pham

—  Contribute online at OregonWatchdog.com (learn about a Charitable Tax Deduction or Political Tax Credit options to promote liberty).