HB 4178
Plain-language analysis
Generated analysis, not an official summary or legal advice. Confirm with linked Oregon documents.
HB 4178 authorizes places of public accommodation and public bodies in Oregon to implement rounding policies that adjust the final digit of in-person cash and mixed-tender transaction totals to the nearest five cents. Entities adopting a policy must apply it consistently, post signs detailing the procedure, and allow customers to pay exact change. The measure exempts compliant rounding from price misrepresentation statutes and unlawful trade practice liability, amends cash acceptance laws to clarify that rounding does not constitute a refusal of legal tender, and takes effect immediately upon passage.
Basis: Bill text · Source: Enrolled
Official sources do not state why this measure was proposed.
Sponsor testimony, staff summaries, committee materials, or statutory findings may explain it.
Inferred from cited text; not a stated purpose.
The measure may address operational costs or logistical challenges associated with handling pennies, potentially in response to reports of rising penny production costs and disruptions in penny circulation.
Basis: Inferred · Sources: Staff Measure Summary A; Staff Measure Summary A
May adopt rounding policies for in-person cash and mixed-tender transactions; must post signs, apply policies consistently, and allow exact change; exempt from liability for compliant rounding; cannot apply policies to online or phone transactions.
Basis: Bill text · Source: Enrolled
May establish rounding policies for fees, taxes, and services; must publicize policies, post signs, and apply consistently; exempt from liability.
Basis: Bill text · Source: Enrolled
May pay transaction totals rounded up or down by up to four cents in cash or mixed-tender payments; retains right to pay exact change; unaffected by non-cash or remote transactions.
Basis: Bill text · Source: Enrolled
Mandated to conduct ongoing advertising and education regarding cash acceptance obligations under amended ORS 659A.410.
Basis: Bill text · Source: Enrolled
Compliance requires businesses and government entities to design signage, train staff, and ensure point-of-sale systems enforce consistent rounding rules across all qualifying transactions.
Basis: Bill text · Source: Enrolled
Mixed-tender transactions have complex enforcement rules: rounding is prohibited if cash is paid first followed by a non-cash payment; rounding applies only to the remaining cash portion if a non-cash payment is made first.
Basis: Bill text · Source: Enrolled
Government fiscal impact is minimal; costs to entities are limited to signage and administrative adjustments.
Basis: Official analysis · Sources: Fiscal Impact Statement A; Revenue Impact Statement A
High-Volume Retailers
A grocery store processing thousands of daily transactions ending in pennies eliminates cash-handling labor and reduces checkout friction, significantly lowering operational costs and improving throughput.
Basis: Inferred · Source: Enrolled
Cash-Dependent Consumers with Limited Funds
A consumer pays a series of transactions where rounding consistently rounds up (e.g., multiple $0.03 items rounded to $0.05), resulting in a cumulative overcharge that functions as a regressive fee, exacerbated if the merchant lacks sufficient small bills or coins to provide change for the rounded amount.
Basis: Inferred · Source: Enrolled
The text permits specific rounding behaviors but does not prevent entities from violating notice or consistency requirements, or from misclassifying transactions to maximize rounding benefits.
Sources · Enrolled
The measure balances transaction efficiency and legal protection for businesses and government against the consumer's right to exact payment, mitigated by notice requirements and the preservation of the right to pay exact change.
The enrolled version incorporates the substantive changes from the House Amendments, adding a definition for 'place of public accommodation' that excludes public bodies and creating a new Section 2 allowing public bodies to establish their own rounding policies. The enrolled text finalizes the mixed-tender rules, liability exemptions, and amendments to ORS 659A.410 as amended.
Added definition of 'place of public accommodation' excluding public bodies; added Section 2 allowing public bodies to adopt rounding policies.
Clarifies jurisdictional scope and extends rounding authority to government entities for fees, taxes, and services.
Sources · Enrolled; House Amendments to Introduced
Public bodies must publicize rounding policies and changes; places of public accommodation must post signs.
Enhances consumer notice requirements for government entities.
Sources · Enrolled
Exempts compliant rounding from ORS 618.236 and ORS 646.605-646.652; amends ORS 659A.410 to clarify rounding does not violate cash acceptance laws.
Provides legal protection for entities adopting policies.
Sources · Enrolled
Tradeoff: The addition of public body authority expands the measure's scope to government services, increasing potential consumer impact on taxes and fees while maintaining the balance of efficiency versus exact payment rights.
high confidence. Analysis is based on enrolled bill text and official staff summaries. Rationale is inferred due to lack of explicit legislative purpose statement in sources.
Possible effects if adopted; not current bill text.
The amendment extends HB 4178’s permissive cash-transaction rounding authority to public bodies, allowing state and local governments to round in-person cash and mixed-tender payments to the nearest five cents, provided they post notice and apply the policy consistently. If adopted, it would legally shield government cash-handling practices from price-misrepresentation claims while creating new administrative compliance requirements for signage and policy standardization across affected agencies.
Basis: Inferred · Sources: Amendment -3 — proposed amendment; Introduced
Official staff analysis cites the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s finding that penny production costs have risen to 3.69 cents, the U.S. Mint’s cessation of penny circulation on November 12, 2025, and a December 2025 National Conference of State Legislatures policy brief addressing the economic and operational implications of eliminating the penny.
Basis: Official analysis · Sources: Staff Measure Summary A; Staff Measure Summary A
Inferred from cited text; not a stated purpose.
The amendment likely aims to prevent operational friction at government service counters by ensuring public bodies are not left without a legal mechanism to handle cash efficiently as federal penny production halts, thereby aligning state-level transaction practices with emerging federal coin policy.
Basis: Inferred · Sources: Amendment -3 — proposed amendment; Staff Measure Summary A
Gains statutory authority to adopt and enforce a rounding policy for in-person cash and mixed-tender transactions, but must draft policies, print and post signs, train staff, and ensure consistent application across all qualifying transactions.
Basis: Inferred · Sources: Amendment -3 — proposed amendment; Fiscal Impact Statement A
Will encounter rounding to the nearest five cents on cash or mixed-tender payments for fees, taxes, or services; must be notified via posted signs but retains the right to pay exact change.
Basis: Inferred · Source: Amendment -3 — proposed amendment
Definition is clarified to explicitly exclude publicly owned or maintained locations and publicly provided services, preventing jurisdictional overlap and ensuring the rounding exemption applies only to private commerce unless a public body independently adopts its own policy.
Basis: Inferred · Source: Amendment -3 — proposed amendment
Administrative obligations require public bodies to formalize rounding policies, install compliant signage at entry/exit points, and standardize staff procedures. The Legislative Revenue Office and Legislative Fiscal Office both classify the direct fiscal impact as minimal, indicating costs will be primarily administrative rather than revenue-altering.
Basis: Official analysis · Sources: Amendment -3 — proposed amendment; Fiscal Impact Statement A; Revenue Impact Statement A
Enforcement falls under the Bureau of Labor and Industries via existing complaint procedures, with rounding explicitly exempted from ORS 618.236 price-misrepresentation violations. Consumers retain the statutory right to tender exact change, preserving access for cash-dependent individuals.
Basis: Inferred · Source: Amendment -3 — proposed amendment
County tax collector or municipal revenue department
A jurisdiction processes tens of thousands of cash payments annually. With rounding authorized, the entity eliminates penny-counting bottlenecks, reduces cash-handling labor and armored transport costs, and streamlines transaction times without net revenue loss, as rounding effects average to zero over high-volume transactions.
Basis: Inferred · Sources: Amendment -3 — proposed amendment; Staff Measure Summary A
Indigent patrons or cash-reliant consumers
A municipal court system implements a rounding policy where signage is poorly placed or staff discretion leads to systematic upward rounding on fees. Over time, this functions as an unannounced surcharge, disproportionately burdening low-income individuals who cannot easily access digital payment alternatives.
Basis: Inferred · Source: Amendment -3 — proposed amendment
The text legally permits permissive rounding with notice and consistency; abuse arises from duty creep, inconsistent application, or misclassification of transaction types rather than the statute itself.
Sources · Amendment -3 — proposed amendment
The measure trades administrative efficiency and alignment with federal coin production changes for new local compliance burdens and potential consumer confusion if rounding is applied unevenly.
Reduces operational friction and penny-handling costs for government cash processing.
Basis: Inferred · Source: Staff Measure Summary A
Provides legal clarity and liability protection for public bodies navigating the post-penny transition.
Basis: Inferred · Source: Amendment -3 — proposed amendment
Creates new administrative mandates (policy drafting, signage, training) for local governments with minimal fiscal support.
Basis: Inferred · Source: Fiscal Impact Statement A
Introduces risk of inconsistent application across jurisdictions, potentially causing consumer confusion or perceived inequity in cash transactions.
Basis: Inferred · Source: Amendment -3 — proposed amendment
high confidence. The amendment text, staff summaries, and fiscal/revenue statements provide direct, unambiguous coverage of the measure’s scope, definitions, obligations, and official impact assessments. No enacted language or prior published version is available for comparison.
28 records currently loaded
Records available in the current snapshot.
Earliest loaded signal
First reading. Referred to Speaker's desk.
Action Feb 16, 2026, 9:56 AM PST
Follow the official text for HB 4178 and every amendment branch. Connections come from each amendment's stated base. Horizontal position shows when each document was first posted, when available.
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Selected document summary
Targeted changes
What the document says to change
On page 1 of the printed bill, after line 16, insert: 2 “(e) ‘Place of public accommodation’ has the meaning given that term in 3 ORS 659A.
Official records (1)
No deeper official pre-number history was found.
Regular sponsors: House Committee on Rules
House carrier
Representative Kim Wallan
Third Reading Of House Bills · Version A
Senate carrier
Senator Bruce Starr
Third Reading Of House Measures · Version A
A carrier presents the measure or report but is not necessarily its sponsor or author.
Records already listed in Activity are not repeated here.
Official origin records are incomplete; missing facts are not inferred.
The artifact has broad business or technology relevance, but it does not identify a concrete effect on Yex Labs LLC.
74% confidence · deterministic fallback
28 events
Full timeline
28 entries shown.
Chapter 126, (2026 Laws): Effective date April 7, 2026.
Governor signed.
President signed.
Speaker signed.
Third reading. Carried by Starr. Passed.
Ayes, 26; Nays, 2--Meek, Taylor; Excused, 2--Drazan, Hayden.
Second reading.
Recommendation: Do pass the A-Eng. bill.
Public Hearing and Work Session held.
IS_Impact HB 4178 A
Revenue Impact Statement
Referred to Rules.
First reading. Referred to President's desk.
Third reading. Carried by Wallan. Passed.
Ayes, 40; Nays, 2--Harbick, Owens; Excused, 17--Boshart Davis, Diehl, Edwards, Helfrich, Javadi, Lewis, Mannix, McIntire, Nelson, Osborne, Pham H, Reschke, Skarlatos, Tran, Valderrama, Wright, Yunker; Excused for Business of the House, 1--Hartman.
Second reading.
House Amendments to Introduced bill text posted
Recommendation: Do pass with amendments and be printed A-Engrossed.
Work Session held.
IS_Impact HB 4178 3
Revenue Impact Statement
Amendment -3 adopted
Public Hearing held.
Referred to Rules.
First reading. Referred to Speaker's desk.
“Digest: The Act allows places of public accommodation and public bodies to round some transactions to the nearest five cents. Says it is an emergency. (Flesch Readability Score: 60.7). [ Digest: The Act allows places of public accommodation to round some transactions to the nearest five cents. Says it is an emergency. (Flesch Readability Score: 63.2). ] Allows [ a ] some [ place ] places of public accommodation offering goods or services to adopt a rounding policy under which the final digit of the total amount due or remaining amount due in certain in-person transactions will be rounded to the nearest five-cent increment. Specifies rounding procedures. Provides an exception for a buyer who pays in exact change. Requires a place of public accommodation to post signs giving notice of the rounding policy. [ Declares that rounding done in accordance with the Act is not an unlawful distinction, discrimination or restriction against United States coins or currency under ORS chapter 659A or price misrepresentation under ORS 618.236. ] Exempts from liability as an unlawful trade or business practice any rounding done in accordance with the Act. Allows a public body to establish a reasonable rounding policy under which the final digit of the total amount due or remaining amount due in certain in-person transactions with the public body may be rounded to the nearest five-cent increment. Requires a public body to post signs giving notice of the rounding policy and publicize the rounding policy. Declares that rounding done in accordance with the Act by a place of public accommodation or a public body is not an unlawful distinction, discrimination or restriction against United States coins or currency under ORS chapter 659A or price misrepresentation under ORS 618.236. Declares an emergency, effective on passage.”
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Supplemental, source-linked analysis from project researchers and community contributors. It is separate from Oregon's official record.