Oregon lawmakers are exploring strategies to support people during the coronavirus pandemic, from changing health insurance rules to expanding who qualifies for unemployment insurance and suspending some loan repayments.

Lawmakers on the Joint Special Committee on Coronavirus Response spent more than four hours Friday discussing potential legislation. They plan to reconvene Monday and Tuesday mornings to continue discussing how to respond to the state’s needs. With the Capitol closed to the public, a handful of the committee members assembled in a hearing room in the building with plenty of distance between them. Other lawmakers participated by phone and video conference.

It would take a special session to enact most of those ideas, and lawmakers signaled they hope to call one or have the governor call one in the coming weeks. Gov. Kate Brown has also said she wants a special session soon to respond to the coronavirus public health crisis and economic repercussions.

The ideas lawmakers are looking at include:

A moratorium on all for-cause residential and commercial evictions

An increase in rental and mortgage assistance

Approving more spending on food stamps, grocery assistance for mothers and young children, and the Oregon Food Bank

Increasing “financial assistance directly to utilities” in exchange for those utilities charging less to low-income residential customers and small businesses

Requiring health insurance companies doing business in Oregon to extend the grace period for customers to pay premiums and allow payment plans

Redirecting the corporate “kicker” tax rebate from the state school fund to the unemployment insurance fund

Amending the Oregon Family Leave Act “to cover leave for parents during statewide public health emergencies”

Requiring all state-chartered banks and other lenders to accept interest-only payments for the duration of the state’s emergency declaration and 30-days after.

Lawmakers also touched on the financial straits the state government could eventually find itself in, as the severity of the sudden economic slowdown becomes clearer.

For example, Sen. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay, said the corportate “kicker” tax rebate the Legislature might considering moving from the state school fund to the unemployment insurance fund would be the rebate from the last biennium, rather than the current two-year budget.

“The other one, we can’t expect that it’s gonna be there,” Roblan said, referring to the likelihood corporate tax receipts could plummet.

Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, said state revenue from capital gains could surge as it did around the time of the Great Recession more than a decade ago, due to stock selloffs as the market plunged. “Last time, it was about $900 million,” Boquist said.

-- Hillary Borrud; hborrud@oregonian.com; @hborrud

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