One Salem lawmaker wants the public to have a say before a local transit board can raise taxes. Another wants to make sure patients aren’t left in the lurch when insurance companies and large health care providers can’t agree on contracts. State Rep. Kevin Mannix, a Republican representing no rth Salem and Keizer, and state Sen. Deb Patterson, a Democrat who represents south Salem, shared their plans for the 2026 short legislative session during a Thursday event hosted by the Salem City Club. The session begins Feb. 2 and runs 35 days. Each lawmaker can introduce two bills. Both lawmakers took to the podium to preview the bills they will bring before the legislature, then took questions from an audience of over 50 citizens and other local politicians.  Patterson plans to introduce two bills, alongside three others being brought forward by the Senate Committee on Health Care, which she chairs.  One of the committee bills would require mediation between insurance companies and providers in contract disputes. It’s an effort to avoid situations like the failed negotiations between Salem Health and Regence BlueCross BlueShield that fell through last January. That’s left people with Regence insurance unable to get care from Salem’s largest health care provider. “In many areas, including in Salem … the health system owns most of the physician practices too,” Patterson said during the meeting. “If you … have that insurance that the system won’t take, you can’t see the doctors in town either. So that is really an issue we have to address.” State Sen. Deb Patterson answers a citizen’s question during a preview of the 2026 short legislative session, hosted by Salem City Club on Thursday, Jan. 8. (HAILEY COOK/Salem Reporter) Mannix’s proposal would change the state law allowing the board for the Salem Area Mass Transit District, better known as Cherriots, to levy a wage tax on businesses without a public vote. He supports either restructuring the board as an elected body or requiring that any tax it proposes be referred to voters for approval. The Cherriots board introduced a 0.7% wage tax on local businesses this summer to fund expanded bus hours and transit centers in east and south Salem. After pushback from local business organizations, the board tabled the decision and convened a task force with business leaders to discuss a path forward. Under state law, mass transit district boards are appointed by the governor, not elected. They have the ability to impose payroll taxes.  “I’m opposed to an unelected board having the power to tax,” Mannix said. Mannix’s bill will only address Cherriots in light of the recent public outcry against the tax. He said he wasn’t familiar with how the state’s other mass transit districts, TriMet and Lane County, operate. His second bill is named Kristil’s law, in honor of a Colorado woman who was killed by her husband in 2023. The bill would require communication companies to respond to warrants within 48 hours in domestic violence and stalking cases. Mannix thinks it has an “extraordinarily good chance of passage.” The health care committee Patterson chairs is introducing two other bills: one requiring insurance companies to cover follow-up tests for abnormal pap smear results and another aimed at expanding the affordability of expensive mediations. Patterson’s bills include one that would require more wheelchair-accessible units in new apartment buildings. Another proposal, called the Protecting the Dying Act, would strengthen regulations for hospice care facilities and establish minimum qualifications for operators, including requiring background checks.  “Here in Oregon, we don’t even require a background check for the owner of a hospice organization. We don’t even look for whether they’ve been involved in fraud or abuse. So you can see that there is potential and there has been fraud and abuse in California and in Washington. We want to be sure it doesn’t happen here,” Patterson said at the meeting. Have a news tip? Contact reporter Hailey Cook: [email protected] . LOCAL NEWS DELIVERED TO YOU: Subscribe to Salem Reporter and get all the fact-based Salem news that matters to you. Fair, accurate, trusted – SUBSCRIBE The post Salem lawmakers want to change Cherriots board, require mediation over health insurance contracts appeared first on Salem Reporter. ...read more read less