Legislative leaders are thinking of creating a “super committee” to put together the proposed tax on health-care providers, other tax increases and changes to the Public Employees Retirement System. Those apparently are the most difficult issues in the 2017 Oregon Legislature.

The 2017-19 state budget — whose size will be determined by how those issues are resolved — would be handled through the usual Joint Ways & Means Committee process.

The transportation-finance package apparently is coming along, so it is unlikely to be included in the super committee.

A super committee, composed of legislative leaders and other top lawmakers, is not unique. Usually it’s been created for a special legislative session.

• To retire or not to retire: Longtime public employees are wondering whether they should retire before any PERS changes take effect. It sounds as if no one — not PERS, state agencies, public-employee unions or the Legislature — has adequately explained to employees how the potential legislation might affect them. Rumors abound.

• A lack of grace: It is not unusual for some House members to congregate in the lobby outside the House chamber, communing with lobbyists as their colleagues inside debate a piece of legislation.

Such was the case during Tuesday’s debate on House Bill 2004, which supporters called rent stabilization and opponents termed rent control. House Minority Leader Mike McLane of Powell Butte and several other Republican opponents were talking as Rep. Chris Gorsek, D-Troutdale, gave a long speech favoring the bill. McLane posed for a photo in front of Gorsek’s image on the Capitol television as his compatriots laughed and applauded.

HB 2004 would limit “no-cause” evictions and give cities the right to limit rent increases. During a public hearing, some supporters had created “Landlord Excuse Bingo” to mock landlords’ reasons for opposing the bill.

Rep. Duane Stark, R-Grants Pass, was so incensed that he had a copy of the bingo form entered into the legislative record, and he talked about it Tuesday in his floor speech opposing the bill.

• One-vote victory: Several Democrats sided with Republicans against the rent bill. It passed because of an undecided opponent.

Rep. Jeff Barker, D-Aloha, said the bill troubled him. But he voted for it so that his friend and colleague, Rep. Deborah Boone, D-Cannon Beach, would not have to leave her ailing husband and come to the Capitol to cast the deciding vote.

The bill passed 31-27. At least 31 aye votes are needed for passage in the 60-member House.

• What will the Senate do? The rent bill now goes to the 30-member Senate.

When I asked how the bill would fare there, Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, responded with this statement: “Housing is obviously a serious concern in our state. Rising rents are a big issue. I can’t predict what will happen in the Senate. The bill will be assigned to the appropriate committee. I don’t want to pre-judge my chair [referring to the committee chairwoman], but I would expect it to get a hearing. We’ll see where the process takes us from there.”

• Legislature says no to Sudafed freedom: Oregonians will still need a doctor’s prescription to get Sudafed and other cold or allergy medicines that contain pseudoephedrine. Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, had hoped a compromise would be reached in the 2017 Legislature to remove the prescription requirement.

One suggested compromise was to allow pharmacists to write a prescription at the pharmacy, instead of requiring a physician’s prescription.

Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer, and Buehler had proposed House Bill 2128, which would have eliminated the prescription requirement and used a national database to track sales, so as to stop people from buying pseudoephedrine medicines to make meth. But the word is that the bill is dead … at least for now.

In reality, nothing is dead until the Legislature adjourns. Until then, the Legislature can always change its mind.

• Joy of yes, agony of no: A favorite pastime is watching lobbyists’ faces as they emerge from meetings with legislators. They’re happy when legislators seem agreeable, or at least amenable, to their cause. But one lobbyist left a meeting this week muttering, “I might have just ruined everything.”

Dick Hughes has been covering the Oregon political scene since 1976. Contact him at TheHughesisms@Gmail.com or follow him at Facebook.com/Hughesisms.