|
Oregon News
POLITICS
Key Oregon Democrats pledge to push through a transportation plan by end of June
Oregon Live | By Carlos Fuentes
Top Democratic lawmakers say they remain confident they can push through a major transportation funding package with some bipartisan support by the end of June.
Their pledge comes amid growing speculation in the Capitol that lawmakers won’t be able to finalize a bill in the next six weeks to secure more funding for road maintenance and major transportation programs across Oregon.
Republicans have been at the negotiating table, but it’s unclear how much say they will have on the final package. While some House Republicans have loudly denounced the Democrats’ framework and its array of tax increases, other members of their party in both chambers have quietly shown some willingness to negotiate with Democrats.
Five sources with knowledge of the negotiations said the Republicans at the table include Reps. Kevin Mannix of Salem and Jeff Helfrich of Hood River and Sens. Bruce Starr of Dundee and Suzanne Weber of Tillamook.
And every lawmaker has their own opinion as to which tax increases should be put forward or cut back. Some Democrats are pushing to raise the state’s payroll tax fivefold to 0.5% to help fund public transit programs statewide, while some Republicans say the payroll tax should be diverted to support basic road maintenance and operations.
Oregon Democrats advance scaled-back gun control measure
Oregon Live | By Maxine Bernstein
A stripped-down gun control bill is headed to the Senate floor after lawmakers voted to drop provisions to raise the age for gun possession and extend Oregon’s waiting period to buy a gun.
The Senate Rules Committee voted along party lines to forward a much narrower Senate Bill 243 to the full Senate.
Democrats Kayse Jama of Portland, Jeff Golden of Ashland and James Manning Jr. voted in favor of the bill. Republicans Daniel Bonham of The Dalles and Kim Thatcher of Keizer voted against it.
But Bonham, Rules Committee vice chair, and Thatcher argued that building restrictions could put others at risk because concealed gun license holders will have to leave their guns at home and won’t be able to defend themselves or others if needed.
“Criminals don’t give a rip what a sign says,” Thatcher said. The bill requires off-limits buildings to be posted with notices about any gun prohibitions.
Bonham argued that such local restrictions would infringe on Oregonians’ right to bear arms under the state and federal constitutions in public, taxpayer-funded buildings.
Bonham, though, said he was pleased by the removal of the clause that would have allowed local governments to ban guns on “adjacent grounds” of public buildings.
He took a dig at the backers of the omnibus gun bill, noting that the Legislature a year ago passed a bill intending to study gun-related suicides, the leading cause of firearm deaths in Oregon. Yet, he said, the proposed amendment took out the 72-hour waiting period to address that problem.
“And, here we are, ironically, a year later, amending out the only aspects of this bill that were supposedly related to suicide,” he said.
Oregon lawmakers grapple with lower-than-expected funds as budget deadlines near
KATU | By Vasili Varlamos
General fund dollars are down 2% from a revenue forecast released in February. This could mean trouble for several spending bills, but according to a framework released by the budget committee chairs in March, it likely will not result in cuts to state agencies.
Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham, R-District 26, said in a statement, "Instead of addressing their own failures, they deflect to D.C. while pushing policies that drive jobs and investment out. Oregon’s anti-business climate, high taxes, and housing restrictions—especially over the last six years with the hidden sales tax and Portland’s layered income-based taxes—are strangling opportunity. It’s time to stop blaming D.C. and start fixing what Democrats broke here at home. Oregon’s problem isn’t a lack of money. It’s a lack of leadership. Families are learning to live within their means. It’s time state government did the same.”
Oregon's latest economic forecast shows declining revenue
KGW | By Anthony Macuk, Celine Stevens
The ending balance for the current biennium has been revised downward by $162.3 million, and projected General Fund revenue for the 2025-27 biennium has decreased by $337 million, according to the May report from the state Office of Economic Analysis. The 2023-25 decrease is primarily due to decreases in personal and corporate income taxes.
"Oregon’s anti-business climate, high taxes, and housing restrictions — especially over the last six years with the hidden sales tax and Portland’s layered income-based taxes — are strangling opportunity. It’s time to stop blaming D.C. and start fixing what Democrats broke here at home," Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham said in part. "Oregon’s problem isn’t a lack of money. It’s a lack of leadership. Families are learning to live within their means. It’s time state government did the same.”
Oregon economists forecast $500 million less state revenue amid uncertainty, sluggish growth
KTVZ | By Barney Lerten
The quarterly revenue forecasts serve to open the revenue forecasting process to public review and is the basis for much of the Oregon state government budgeting process.
“The May revenue forecast confirms that Oregon has enough money to meet its obligations and that Oregonians are already taxed enough. The real issue isn’t revenue. It’s the stagnant economy created by years of Democrat policies.”
Oregon gun bill outlawing rapid-fire firearms advances to Senate
Statesman Journal | By Dianne Lugo
An Oregon Senate committee advanced a bill on May 14 outlawing devices like bump stocks to fire bullets more rapidly, and allowing city, county or district governments to ban concealed handgun carriers from possessing firearms within buildings owned by them and used for official meetings.
A report released in January said the recovery of machine gun conversion devices that transform a semiautomatic firearm into an illegal machinegun in seconds increased 784% between 2019 and 2023.
Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, voted against the bill, saying he was concerned it would create a "patchwork" of rules across the state.
Bonham said local control was generally a "tenet" of his ideology, but he believed the bill was too vague about what constitutes an "official meeting."
"There are fundamental constitutional rights that exist and I don't believe a local government should violate the constitution," Bonham said.
Sen. Kim Thatcher, R-Keizer, also opposed the bill.
Bonham said Senate Republicans would submit a minority report on the Senate floor, or a substitute proposal, to replace what the committee adopted on May 14.
The Downfall of Shemia Fagan Comes to a Quiet End With an Ethics Fine
Willamette Week | By Sophie Peel
Disgraced former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan took a big step May 9 in getting out from under the scandal that flattened her promising political career in May 2023.
Fagan agreed to settle three cases with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, which determined she had violated a number of state ethics rules stemming from her time in office, including using her public position for private gain by signing a $10,000-a-month consulting contract with the troubled cannabis company La Mota.
Though Fagan denied the commission’s most serious finding—that she had used her position as a top elected official to gain private employment—Fagan settled with the commission, saying in documents that she no longer wished to pay steep legal fees to fight the allegations.
Fagan, Elkanich and commission staff left the room to negotiate a new dollar figure. No more than 10 minutes later, they reentered the room and commission executive director Susan Myers offered a new penalty for consideration: a $3,600 fine, $2,500 of which was for the violation of using a public position for private gain stemming from the consulting contract.
Commissioners, after little discussion, approved the settlement by a 7–1 vote. Even after the increase, Fagan’s penalty was less than half what she would have received for a month’s work for her political donors.
“I don’t think any reasonable Oregonian would look at that number and, on the face of it, believe it was adequate,” Mason says. “At the same time, this has cost her a political career which, by all accounts, was pretty bright. She was probably on track to be the next governor of Oregon.”
Oregon construction companies band together for mental health as industry faces high suicide rates
KOIN | By Joey Vacca
Eight different local construction companies, normally competitors, are banding together to address the industry’s high suicide rates.
The CDC reports that the construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates of any industry in the United States. Industry leaders said changing that starts with shifting how people view mental health.
The group has also launched the Construction Care Line— a free crisis and support line tailored to construction workers.
New crisis line launched for construction workers, part of collaboration among Portland area building firms
Oregon Live | By Kristine de Leon
Eight major construction companies in the Portland area have partnered with Lines for Life, the Portland suicide prevention nonprofit, to launch a crisis line for workers in the high-stress industry.
The “Construction Care Line” is part of the companies’ broader joint initiative aimed at improving mental health and reducing suicide rates among construction workers.
Head of troubled Oregon liquor commission abruptly retires
Oregon Live | By Noelle Crombie
Craig Prins, the state administrator tapped by Gov. Tina Kotek to steady the beleaguered Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, announced Thursday his abrupt retirement after two years on the job.
Prins leaves at a critical time for the agency as it shepherds a major new warehouse project in Clackamas County and rebuilds its ranks after the departures of top managers.
The agency regulates the sale of liquor in Oregon, generating a projected $576 million for the current two-year budget.
Sourcing the news: Oregon bill opens discussion about paying for journalism
Oregon Capital Chronicle | Commentary by Randy Stapilus
No easy or obvious solution will resolve one of the top and less-acknowledged crises in America, the collapse of local and regional news reporting. Whether Oregon Senate Bill 686 passes or fails, it should at least open a discussion about improving the ability of Oregonians to get the information they need to govern themselves.
This would be only a business problem except that it means we’re not getting the information about our government, our politics, our society, our problems and our successes as we did not long ago. That gap, and the rise of misinformation to massive levels, has become one of our great national crises.
Enter SB 686, which intends to at least provide some help.
The bill, which at this writing seems to be progressing steadily through the legislature, has understandably drawn lots of testimony. Critics, including the social media platforms, have raised legal questions about it, and the tech giants have suggested that Oregon news reports might be restricted or even banned on places like Facebook or Google. Other questions include how much money might be involved, and exactly how it would be spent. ($122 million has been one estimate noted, but that’s not at all definitive.)
Outside medical expert calls departure of Oregon State Hospital head destabilizing
Oregon Live | By Lillian Mongeau Hughes
The former acting head of the Oregon State Hospital, Dr. Sara Walker, resigned last month in the wake of questions surrounding the death of a patient and apparent pressure from Gov. Tina Kotek.
A report out this week from an outside expert said Walker’s departure could hurt the hospital’s efforts at remedying ongoing institutional problems.
Pinals provided a glowing description of Walker, saying she was well-known, accessible to patients and staff and continued to serve as a treating psychiatrist while leading the agency in an interim role. Walker began her career at the state hospital in 2006 and became chief of psychiatry in 2020. She was asked to take on the role of acting superintendent in 2024.
Little is known about the circumstances surrounding the patient death at the state hospital in March. Documents reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive indicate that the patient was in seclusion, was not checked frequently enough and died due to injuries sustained in a fall. However, the reports reviewed by the newspaper were significantly redacted and could be missing important details.
A total of 21 patients have died at the Oregon State Hospital since 2020, nine of whom died unexpectedly, according to the agency. This latest death placed the hospital’s accreditation in jeopardy, which is not the first time the troubled institution has been at risk of losing a national endorsement in recent years.
Portland councilor erupts over homeless budget, looming layoffs: ‘I can’t even look at this with a straight face’
Oregon Live | By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
A Portland City Council meeting turned tempestuous Wednesday after a council member relentlessly hammered a top bureaucrat over portions of Mayor Keith Wilson’s proposed budget and tangled with a pair of her colleagues who later criticized her conduct.
The dustup began when Councilor Loretta Smith unleashed a torrent of barbed questions and biting commentary at City Administrator Michael Jordan regarding the nearly $100 million Wilson wants to spend next year on homeless services while he eyes job cuts across bureaus.
'Vulnerable people' in jeopardy due to Multnomah County budget cuts, public defender says
KOIN | By Ariel Jacobazzi
During a packed public hearing on Wednesday night, critics brought their concerns about a proposed Multnomah County budget that is grappling with a $77 million shortfall.
This comes after County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson’s proposed $4 billion budget that put a number of programs either on the chopping block or facing major reductions.
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
Multnomah County to limit tent distribution to severe cold weather events
KOIN | By Aimee Plante
“Our goal is to make sure people in our community are safe and housed,” Vega Pederson said. “As we build more shelter beds and place more people in housing, our need to hand out supplies that help people survive outside will decrease — which is a good thing — and this rule reflects that.”
However, the new plan shared on Wednesday will impose further limits on the gear bought and distributed by the county. Under the new rule, tents will be limited to cold weather events, but other items — including hygiene kits, basic first aid supplies, water, clothing, sleeping bags and blankets — will still be offered to those who need them.
Multnomah County chair’s homeless services budget prioritizes shelter over other interventions
Oregon Live | By Lillian Mongeau Hughes
After sounding the alarm about a huge gap in homelessness funding for the upcoming fiscal year, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson presented her fellow commissioners with a proposed homeless services budget Wednesday that has fewer holes in it than expected.
The chair’s proposed budget prioritizes maintaining and growing the county’s homeless shelter system, while trimming several longer-term efforts aimed at helping people transition out of homelessness. It also pulls $19.5 million from reserves to cushion the combined blow of evaporating pandemic relief funding and lower than expected revenues from the regional homeless services tax.
Addiction experts raise alarm about cannabis use among Oregon’s youth
OPB | By Joanne Zuhl
High-potency cannabis use among Oregon’s adolescents is putting them at risk of psychosis and other mental health problems, according to mental health and addiction experts who want the state to adopt policies that will curb underage use.
That lack of awareness combined with marijuana’s accessibility, low prices and positive image — make it particularly appealing to children and young adults. According to the Oregon Student Health Survey, 32% of 8th graders and 45% of 11th graders believe that regular marijuana use carries little to no risk of
Rivers referenced an investigation by The Lund Report that detailed public schools’ lack of science-based educational programs around drug use and addiction. Oregon law requires every public school district to have a robust substance use prevention strategy based on research. Yet 60% of Oregon schools do not use evidence-based prevention curricula or programs at any grade level, according to the nation’s top prevention and curricula clearinghouses.
Police arrest Clackamas County city councilor in theft investigation
Oregon Live | By Tatum Todd
Police arrested a Molalla city councilor on Tuesday after a months-long theft investigation, the Clackamas County town said in a statement.
Officials said that last August the Molalla Police Department identified RaeLynn Botsford, a city council member since 2022, as a suspect in a theft and handed the case to the Canby Police Department to avoid any conflicts of interest.
Clackamas County shows progress despite rise in homelessness, in point-in-time count
KATU
According to the latest biannual point-in-time count, 568 people were counted as experiencing homelessness in the county. That's up by more than 150 people from 2023 but nearly 600 fewer than in 2019.
HEALTH CARE
We're rural Oregon doctors. Medicaid cuts will disproportionately hurt rural Oregonians
Oregon Capital Chronicle | Commentary by Evan Saulino
The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, including Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Oregon, voted Wednesday to potentially slash Medicaid coverage and vital rural health care funding. After significant pushback by constituents, more draconian cuts to Medicaid were avoided for now, and some Republicans are claiming the proposals still in play don’t cut Medicaid. However, as Bentz and other Oregon Congress members consider their vote, we doctors and health care providers who serve rural Oregon would like to set the record straight.
If as projected, nearly 9 million Americans — more than twice the population of Oregon — lose Medicaid coverage through these cuts in order to achieve more than $900 billion in budget “savings”, with additional cuts in rural funding looming, the consequences will be catastrophic nationally. Here at home, according to estimates from the Oregon governor’s office, as many as 30-40% of Oregon’s children, families and individuals may be disenrolled from Medicaid as a result.
Rural community health centers and hospitals face the very real threat of closure. Cuts like these will shatter health care access in rural areas, decimate local economies and eliminate essential jobs, leaving more Oregonians without insurance.
ECONOMY
Rite Aid plans to close 115 more U.S. stores. Heres' the complete list
Oregon Live | By Veronica Nocera
More than 100 Rite Aid pharmacies nationwide — including 12 in Oregon — are on the chopping block.
Census reports razor-thin growth in Portland after years of declines
Oregon Live | By Jonathan Bach
Portland added residents for the first time since 2020, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau, welcoming a little more than 1,400 newcomers.
The city grew by 0.2% to a population of 635,749 in 2024, the Census Bureau reported Thursday in a data release highlighting population change in U.S. cities.
HOUSING
Deschutes County approves RV rentals amid Central Oregon housing shortage
OPB | By Kathryn Styer Martinez
Roughly 7,500 properties could host RV rentals.
Until last week, it was illegal to rent a recreational vehicle for housing in Deschutes County.
County commissioners lifted that prohibition from many properties in a unanimous vote May 7.
The change leverages a recently enacted state law. Supporters of the ordinance are hoping it will help Central Oregon deal with a housing affordability crisis. Last month, the median single-family home price in the Bend area reached a record high, topping $830,000.
NATURAL RESOURCES & WILDFIRE
State forestry officials face backlash over Astoria timber sales, board member resigns in wake
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhardt
But the letter from Bangs became the first of several communications, and miscommunications, between the forestry department and its Astoria office about two planned timber sales to concerned neighbors over the course of a year. The communication breakdown would send those residents, along with community and environmental groups, into a frenzy, eventually leading one timber sale to be paused indefinitely and a Board of Forestry member to resign.
The fallout over poor communication surrounding the sales led to an investigation by the Department of Forestry’s interim director, who has since changed the agency’s policy around contacting residents living near a state logging site.
Oregon’s Department of Forestry relies on timber sales to private companies in state forests for the bulk of its budget needed to manage those forests. Michael Wilson, state forests division chief at the Oregon Department of Forestry, told the Capital Chronicle that a lot of the communication breakdown from the agency comes down to a lack of staff and a sense of urgency in getting timber sales underway after the 2024 fire season delays.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Oregon landfill north of Corvallis seeks air pollution permit renewal
Statesman Journal | By Tracy Loew
Coffin Butte Landfill would be allowed to emit higher levels of some pollutants, including nearly three times as much particulate matter, under a proposed renewalof its air quality permit.
Limits for some other pollutants, including carbon monoxide, would decrease.
And, for the first time, the proposed permit would cap the amount of greenhouse gases the 178-acre landfill, located north of Corvallis, can release.
Coffin Butte’s air quality permit expired more than a decade ago. It has been allowed to continue operating under its previous permit because its owner, Phoenix-based Republic Services, filed a timely renewal application with DEQ in 2014.
Aging tide gates threaten Oregon’s coast, but replacing them isn’t cheap
OPB | By Justin Higginbottom
Coos County is home to about a third of the tide gates in Oregon. Most were put in around 70 years ago, quickly and cheaply, so that families like the Messerles could use the coastal land for pasture or crops. The original tide gate on Palouse Creek was built in the 1950s, Messerle said, and was starting to fail. The gate was leaking, putting upstream pastures at risk.
The tide gate on Palouse Creek cost around $3 million, which was paid for by state conservation grants. But that’s just the start. There are ongoing costs, too. “These systems are pretty complex,” Messerle said. You can’t just build it and walk away without maintenance, he explained. “It’s got a whole bunch of different facets to it.”
Installing new tide gates doesn’t just take money, it takes time and patience. “We were working for, well, almost over 30 years to try to get a new structure built,” Messerle said.
One reason for that is the daunting regulatory process.
National News
House Republicans propose cuts to federal food benefits, Gov. Kotek and Senator Merkley protest
Oregon Live | By Eddy Binford-Ross
Currently, more than 700,000 Oregonians, or one in six, rely on the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Kotek said. This program provides food benefits which low income people, particularly families with children, use to help purchase groceries.
The entire annual cost of those food benefits — $1.5 billion in Oregon — is currently paid by the federal government, according to Merkley’s office. The Republican proposal would push 5% to 25% of the cost onto states, beginning in 2028
Oregon leaders said it’s “harmful” for the federal government to pass the responsibility for food benefits onto states, given how necessary it is for humans to eat.
Oregon does a particularly poor job of that, with federal monitoring detecting an error rate above 16% for the fiscal year of 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As a result, Oregon would be among the states required to pay the biggest share, Merkley’s office said.
A once-fringe theory on birthright citizenship comes to the Supreme Court
OPB | By Nina Totenburg
The Supreme Court hearshistoric arguments on Thursday, as the Trump administration seeks to challenge the constitutional provision that guarantees automatic citizenship to all babies born in the United States.
Challenges to birthright citizenship have long been considered a fringe legal theory. That’s because 127 years ago, the Supreme Court ruled to the contrary by a unanimous vote. Moreover, as if to put icing on the cake, Congress in 1940 passed a statute codifying birthright citizenship for any child born in the U.S.
President Trump, however, has long maintained that the Constitution does not guarantee birthright citizenship.
RFK Jr. stands by deep cuts to health budget during contentious hearings
OPB | By Selena Simmons-Duffin
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says that Elon Musk’s DOGE effort drew up the blueprint for spending cuts that are reshaping the Department of Health and Human Services — and Kennedy and his team implemented them. Kennedy also said he pushed back on some cuts and has reinstated a few programs cut mistakenly.
The official topic was President Trump’s budget for fiscal year 2026, but many other issues came up including the autism research Kennedy has launched, the measles outbreak in west Texas and the massive overhaul of HHS, where 20,000 employees have been fired or taken a buyout or early retirement.
Under attack, public media makes its case to Congress and the courts
OPB | By David Folkenflik
Public broadcasting officials from across the country plan to descend on Capitol Hill today in hopes of convincing lawmakers to preserve their federal funding despite pressure from President Trump and his allies.
|
