How may nurseries be affected by the 2011 Oregon Legislature and its revised political landscape? Mitch Lies of the Capital Press (Salem, Ore.) takes a look. Among the legislative priorities for the Oregon Association of Nurseries are protecting the Oregon Department of Agriculture against budget cuts, preventing attempts to regulate immigration (properly a federal matter) at the state level, and seeking a repeal of Oregon’s gross receipts tax, which charges businesses based on gross receipts regardless of profitability. According to OAN Executive Director Jeff Stone, the latter is particularly harmful to high-volume, low-margin businesses — a category that includes most nurseries. The legislative session begins Monday, Jan. 10. As noted here previously, the OAN goes into battle with a new director of government relations, Patrick Capper.