Nine Oregon counties prevailed in a challenge of Oregon’s new paid sick leave requirements Thursday when a Linn County judge ruled the 2015 law is an unfunded mandate.

The ruling allows those nine counties to opt out of providing paid sick leave to employees, but counties could use the new case law to challenge other legislatively-approved measures, such as minimum wage increases.

“It was a good day yesterday,” said Roger Nyquist, chairman of the Linn County Board of Commissioners who spearheaded the legal challenge.

Linn County Circuit Court Judge Daniel R. Murphy based his ruling on a 1996 amendment to the Oregon Constitution that prohibited the state from forcing local governments to adopt new programs without providing funding. The ruling does not relieve the private sector from the paid sick leave mandate.

The state had argued that the constitutional amendment does not apply to wages and benefits.

It’s unclear whether the Department of Justice will appeal the ruling.

“We are still considering our options,” said Kristina Edmunson, a DOJ spokeswoman.

Gov. Kate Brown is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, but the Department of Justice will ultimately decide whether to appeal the ruling, said Chris Pair, a spokesman in the Governor’s Office.

“Gov. Brown carefully reviewed the paid sick leave bill before signing it and disagrees with the court’s decision,” Pair said in an emailed statement.

The law, passed in the 2015 legislative session, requires employers with at least 10 employees to offer 40 hours of sick leave each year. Employers with fewer staff members are required to provide the same amount of unpaid sick time.

Linn, Douglas, Jefferson, Malheur, Morrow, Polk, Sherman, Wallowa and Yamhill counties challenged the requirement in May. Linn County already provides paid sick time to more than 95 percent of its employees, Nyquist said. County commissioners, however, objected to providing the benefit to temporary and seasonal park and fair employees. Doing so would have cost the county on order of $40,000 per year, Nyquist said.

Nyquist said he hopes the ruling will give lawmakers pause when they consider passing future measures that would cost counties more money.

“The is a comprehensive effort on our part to proactively manage our budget going forward,” Nyquist said. “You get to that place where you have that gap, and you are cutting positions or asking taxpayers for more money. We think the taxpayers are not in the mood to be receptive to those requests, and we have had for a number of years, the legislature introducing and sometimes passing measures that had financial consequences and didn’t’ track with the constitutional amendment.”