Rep. Cate: Resuming the Fight for Volunteer Firefighters

By Oregon State Representative Jami Cate.

Click here to watch myself and others testifying in support of SB 545 in front of the committee.

I had the honor of testifying in support of Senate Bill 545 in the Senate Finance & Revenue Committee on Wednesday morning, which would provide a $1,000 tax credit to our volunteer firefighters, who make up a majority of Oregon’s firefighting force. This bill may sound familiar to you, it’s a cause I’ve been fighting for since 2022! But it’s worth the persistence, as these real-life heroes are truly indispensable to our rural districts, and this tax credit would be a small thank you for their extraordinary sacrifices, as well as hopefully improving volunteer retention rates.

Senator Janeen Sollman (D-Hillsboro) spoke first as this was her bill, though my identical bill (HB 3150) will also have a hearing next Tuesday in the House Committee on Emergency Management, General Government, and Veterans Committee. If you feel so inclined, please consider registering to testify or submitting written testimony on OLIS with this link! It’s exciting to once again see such a bipartisan, bicameral group of legislators pushing to make our volunteer firefighters a priority, and we’re hopeful this will finally be the year to make it happen!

Senator Jeff Golden (D-Ashland), Rep. Boice (R-Gold Beach), Genoa Ingram, and Fire Chiefs Ben Stange and Brian Stewart also testified in favor of SB 545, and there were quite few others who took the time to submit written testimony in OLIS. All in all, a rousing success! We hope it will swiftly move out of this committee and onto its next hurdle, the Joint Committee on Tax Expenditures.