Gov. Tina Kotek led testimony on Thursday for her proposal to jump-start housing production with several policies folded into a $500 million spending request.

The Democratic chief executive spoke as the Senate Housing and Development Committee began hearings on the proposal, which is Senate Bill 1537. Kotek has said it is her priority in the 2024 session, which is scheduled to close by March 10.

She has listed four dozen groups that have endorsed it.

“This coalition has spoken loud and clear,” she said. “The status quo is not working for Oregon families, workers, employers and households that are struggling with housing insecurity.”

After she praised legislative leaders and supporters, she added: “I am resolved to see progress for Oregonians this session.”

Business groups, labor unions and housing advocates are among the 48 groups that the governor’s office listed in a release.

Not among the groups endorsing the bill: Environmental advocates, which have sounded caution about a provision that would allow cities to expand beyond their urban growth boundaries without the extensive justification required by Oregon’s land use planning laws.

At the close of the 2023 session, a stand-alone bill with a similar intent passed the House narrowly but died in the Senate by one vote. All 10 dissenters were Democrats. But at a press conference by Senate Democrats on the session’s opening day Feb. 5, some of them said the new version that Kotek and her staff developed in the past several months has come closer to allaying their concerns – though none has committed to voting for it yet.

The new version in SB 1537 would require consent from property owners, exclude farm and forest land from any extension, and 30% of the housing units on the new acreage would have to be “affordable,” which under federal definition is 30% of the area’s median household income.

Sen. Kayse Jama, a Democrat from Portland who leads the housing committee, said this at the press conference: “We have to produce housing and we cannot do business as usual.”

Kotek’s request is for $500 million in one-time funds already in the state’s current two-year budget. The components are infrastructure needs by local governments, $200 million; financing for moderate-income housing, $200 million; site acquisition, $40 million; energy-efficiency and other measures to adapt new housing for climate change, $20 million; site mitigation and readiness, $10 million; technical assistance for local governments, $10 million; infrastructure planning for local governments, $5 million; a new Housing Production Assistance Office to ease barriers to construction, $5 million.

Though land supply may be the most debated point, Kotek has said that among the barriers to housing construction are a lack of local money for the water and sewer lines and other public works required for development — and an overly complex permit process within cities and counties.

She said her proposal seeks to deal with those issues as well.