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Oregon News
POLITICS
Divert $1 billion of kicker rebates from taxpayers to wildfire efforts, Gov. Tina Kotek urges lawmakers
Oregon Live | By Carlos Fuentes, Sami Edge
That would require a major, virtually unprecedented diversion of the state’s unique personal income tax kicker rebate, which returns money to taxpayers following two year budget periods in which income tax collections exceed projections by more than 2%.
“Hands off my kicker,” Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham of the Dalles said in an interview Tuesday. “Historically, it’s been very consistent from the Republican caucus: That’s a hard pass.”
Bonham said he hasn’t talked to his full caucus about Golden’s kicker idea, but said it would be “unprecedented” for Republicans to consider diverting the refund from Oregonians: “I cannot see it happening."
In a clear bid for Republican support this session, Kotek noted that withholding kicker rebates in favor of wildfire suppression would redistribute money from Oregon’s relatively wealthy cities and suburbs to financially pinched rural areas.
“Look, if you take a billion dollars and dedicate it to suppression and mitigation, that would be very helpful for the state,” Kotek said. “And most of the folks who are going to be paying that are folks who do not live in fire prone areas.”
Gov. Tina Kotek re-emphasizes priorities in budget process
KOIN | By Ken Boddie
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek admits she may not get everything she wants in her proposed budget, but she re-emphasized her priorities — housing, behavioral health, education — in a press conference Monday.
“My message to lawmakers is, let’s work on this together. I know you can’t do everything in my budget. But the priorities have not changed, and I would argue, they are going to make hard choices to find other resources to get to funding those priorities at the highest level they possibly can,” Kotek said.
At this point, legislators have about $37.5 billion in general fund revenue to work with.
Kotek urges wildfire aid, backs school accountability in Oregon
Jefferson Public radio | By Roman Battaglia
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek warns that gaps in federal support could complicate Oregon’s wildfire response during what’s expected to be a severe summer.
Kotek also raised concerns about the slow pace of the legislative session, which ends in a month. She said lawmakers haven't done enough, particularly when it comes to schools.
Despite increased spending on public schools, test scores in Oregon continue to decline.
Kotek's recommended budget calls for a $500 million boost for public schools — and more oversight. She says a lot of districts are struggling in the post-pandemic era and need extra support.
Lawmakers may revise Oregon forestland estate tax exemption
Capital Press | By Mateusz Perkowski
Changes to an estate tax exemption for Oregon forestland owners will be voted on by the Senate after existing record-keeping requirements have proven troublesome. In 2023, lawmakers approved a bill exempting up to $15 million worth of a family’s natural resource assets from the estate tax. The bipartisan legislation was praised for simplifying Oregon’s inheritance tax provisions for farming, timber and fishing families, but small woodland owners have since run into problems with the documentation involved. “We discovered it really didn’t work for them because of the criteria for the management activities on their lands,” said Sen. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, who introduced Senate Bill 485 this year to correct the issue.
Bill to fight wage theft moves in Oregon Legislature
OPB | By Bryce Dole
A bill is moving through the Oregon Legislature that aims to combat wage theft by allowing unrepresented construction workers to sue property owners and contractors for unpaid work — not just the subcontractor who pays them directly.
Lawmakers in the House Committee on Labor and Workplace Standards voted along party lines Monday to send Senate Bill 426 to the floor of the Oregon House of Representatives. Oregon Senators already passed the bill 18-11 in April. The bill would also allow the state’s Attorney General to file such lawsuits on behalf of unpaid workers.
As Oregon seeks to fix an ongoing housing crisis, the bill has emerged as one of the most contentious pieces of construction legislation during this year’s session, sparking partisan debate. Among the bill’s proponents are powerful unions like Oregon AFL-CIO, which represents more than 300,000 workers. Its opponents include business leaders and groups representing realtors, developers and contractors.
Take It Down Act, Oregon bill criminalize revenge porn, deepfakes
Statesman Journal | By Maria Francis, Anthony Robledo
Days after the Oregon Senate unanimously passed a bill adding deepfakes into criminal statutes on revenge pornography, President Donald Trump has signed the bipartisan Take It Down Act into law in an effort to combat nonconsensual intimate imagery, including deepfakes and revenge porn.
All 30 Oregon Senators voted in favor of House Bill 2299 on May 14. The Oregon House passed the bill on April 15. The bill changes Oregon's "revenge porn" law to include "a digitally created, manipulated or altered depiction that is reasonably realistic" to the definition of "image."
Head of Oregon’s child welfare agency resigns
OPB | By Lauren Dake
Child Welfare Director Aprille Flint-Gerner announced Tuesday she was resigning after two years leading Oregon’s beleaguered child-welfare system.
During her tenure, the number of children in Oregon’s foster care system declined from a high of 7,908 in 2018 to 4,481 at the end of 2024, according to information from the state.
Oregon bill, headed to governor, sets homeownership goals by 2030
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Mia Maldonado
Saying homeownership is crucial to building wealth and stability, Oregon lawmakers want more than 30,000 more Oregonians to own homes by 2030.
The Oregon Senate on Tuesday in a 23-6 vote passed House Bill 2698, which would create a state goal to increase homeownership rates to 65% by 2030 – followed by an additional 1.65% for the next five, 10 and 15 years. It also mandates the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department create a dashboard tracking progress on homeownership rates across the state that include race and ethnicity data.
Doing more good: why Oregon needs to rebuild its civic information infrastructure
Oregon Capital Chronicle | Commentary by Andrew Devigal, director of the Agora Journalism Center, the forum for the future of local news and civic health at the University of Oregon. Oregon stands at a pivotal moment in reimagining how we sustain local news and strengthen our civic life.
Senate Bill 686, now advancing through the legislature, has catalyzed a critical conversation about the future of journalism, democracy, and public trust.
Some have expressed concern about Senate Bill 686, which would require dominant tech platforms like Google and Meta to fairly compensate local news outlets for the content that helps make their platforms useful. The worry is that if the bill passes, companies like Meta could follow through on threats to block news links, potentially cutting off a significant channel for audience reach at a time when many outlets are already struggling.
Rather than debate whether tech giants should be protected from public policy because they might retaliate, let’s focus on what this framing overlooks: it narrows our collective vision for what Oregon’s news and civic information ecosystem could become.
It’s not enough to avoid harm, not when communities across our nation already suffer from a lack of trusted, accessible information.
This is a moment to do more good.
Weed samples at industry events? Oregon bill heading to Kotek's desk
KOIN | By Jashayla Pettigrew
A bill that would allow Oregon weed brands to offer “trade samples” is headed to Gov. Tina Kotek’s desk.
Senate Bill 558, first approved by the Oregon Senate on Apr. 17, passed the Oregon House with a 40-10 vote on Monday. If Kotek signs the measure, marijuana-licensed businesses could give other licensees samples of their products at trade shows permitted by the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. The legislation would expand the current threshold for how many samples industry workers can receive as well.
State Senator’s Office Gets Stern With Made in Old Town, Calling Project’s Request “Inappropriate”
Willamette Week | By Sophie Peel
Backers of a proposed shoe manufacturing campus called Made In Old Town are asking state lawmakers for more money as they struggle to finance an ambitious plan to jump-start economic development in the gritty urban core.
And on the heels of WW‘s reporting that showed the project’s principals were using little private financing and relying heavily on public financing to get the project up and running, emails between a top state senator and one of the project’s principals would suggest the project is on increasingly shaky financial ground.
In a series of emails this month between Made In Old Town principal Elias Stahl and the office of Sen. Kate Lieber (D-Portland), Stahl repeatedly asked Lieber to help Made In Old Town secure another $5 million from the state legislature in the current session, which ends June 29.
The email exchange shows how a once-promising project that received full-throated support from Sen. Elizabeth Steiner (D-Portland) may be getting a frostier reception now from public officials.
Amid citywide budget crunch, Portland council offices are flush with cash
Oregon Live | By Shane Dixon Kavanaug
Members of the Portland City Council have publicly floated cuts to police, economic development programs and city administration as they grapple with Mayor Keith Wilson’s proposed budget and the large deficit it attempts to close.
Only a few, however, have suggested shrinking their own enlarged coffers, even as some hire more staffers than expected, transfer cash to their colleagues or cut six-figure checks for pet projects in their districts.
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
Portland mayor, city councilors clash over police spending in proposed budget
Oregon Live | By Zaeem Shaikh
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson pledged to prioritize public safety in his proposed $8.5 billion “back to basics” city budget, but at least three city councilors are raising questions about that approach as the city seeks to bridge a $150 million budget gap.
Historically, Portland’s mayor and City Council have agreed to protect the Police Bureau’s budget, even as other core city services have faced cuts.
Both Avalos and Morillo would like to move about $2 million from police, earmarked by the mayor for hiring more officers, to parks so it can avoid a portion of the mayor’s proposed $6 million in maintenance cuts.
At a separate meeting, Councilor Dan Ryan likened the trio’s proposals to the moment in 2020 when the public and members of the City Council called for deep cuts to Portland policing.
“Why when the city has made gains in the past four years to stabilize the public safety ecosystem, why is defunding the police rearing its head again on this dais?” Ryan asked.
A separate Portland Insights Survey, cited by the mayor, said 62% of 4,000 Portlanders said public safety services — like police, fire and 911 — are the most important city services.
ECONOMY
Federal judge strikes down Oregon pot labor law as unconstitutional
Oregon Live | By Maxine Bernstein
A federal judge on Tuesday barred enforcement of Measure 119 passed by Oregon voters last year to require cannabis businesses to set up labor agreements for their workers as a condition of licensing or a license renewal.
U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon found the measure violates the free speech of cannabis business owners and is preempted by federal labor law.
Measure 119, which went into effect Dec. 5, directs cannabis retailers and processors to remain neutral regarding a labor organization’s communications with their employees yet would punish the business owners if an agreement isn’t executed.
State lawyers who defended the measure had argued that new law doesn’t curb employer speech because employers can still express opinions about unions as long as they’re “neutral.”
Wheat, coffee, computer chips: How Trump’s tariffs could affect Oregon’s key exports and imports
OPB | By Krya Buckley
Tariffs are making imports more expensive, and retaliatory moves from other countries are causing international buyers to skip Oregon.
Businesses and manufacturers in the state rely on imported goods and parts to run companies ranging from furniture shops to computer chip factories. Meanwhile, Oregon farmers, fishers and manufacturers rely on international buyers’ interest in their products. And shipping and storage companies generate business by helping move these imports and exports around.
All told, last year Oregon imported more than $28 billion worth of goods, and sent more than $34 billion worth of stuff to global markets.
Nearly every industry is touched in some way by international trade. The semiconductor industry is by far the state’s largest importer and exporter. It buys parts and machinery to design and build computer chips, which are then sent all over the world.
Big Pink Becomes Lightning Rod in Portland Budget Drama
Willamette Week | By Anthony Effinger
The building, where tenants have complained in court papers about fentanyl smoke and human feces in public areas, is “a warning for what can happen to once-bustling downtowns if they get caught in the doom loop of losing business,” the Journal said.
In a Tuesday email to constituents, Wilson said the paper had overlooked Portland’s progress. “I wish they’d covered our rapid improvements in public safety, new residents, business opportunities, regional destinations, and creatives,” Wilson wrote.
HOUSING
OR housing crisis: Housing discrimination ban based on immigration status passes
KOIN | By Michaela Bourgeois
After passing the Oregon House on Monday, a bipartisan bill that would ban housing discrimination based on a tenant’s immigration status is heading to Governor Tina Kotek’s desk to potentially be signed into state law.
Senate Bill 599 has several provisions. This includes banning landlords from inquiring about or disclosing the immigration status of housing applicants, tenants or household members.
HEALTH CARE
Opinion: A proposed medical school can help mend rural Oregon’s health disparities
The Oregonian | Guest Column by David Cauble, Cauble is president and CEO of Sky Lakes Medical Center in Klamath Falls and a trustee for the Oregon Institute of Technology.
And every year, rural Oregon communities experience 2,700 more premature deaths than urban population centers – a stark reminder of the human cost of health care disparities.
As a health care leader serving rural communities, I’ve witnessed how geography too often determines unfavorable health outcomes across our state. Oregonians living in rural areas die on average four years earlier than those in urban areas. Today, 2.5 million Oregonians live in areas designated as “health professional shortage areas.”
There simply are not nearly enough health workers to provide essential care to people living in rural Oregon. And we cannot pin our communities’ health on the hope that medical schools, largely in urban areas, will dramatically increase the number of health workers coming to serve our towns.
This is why I firmly believe a proposal to open Oregon’s first public College of Osteopathic Medicine at Oregon Institute of Technology represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform health care delivery for Oregonians.
'Shell-shocked': Samaritan Health considering shutting down 2 rural Oregon birth centers
KOIN | By Joelle Jones
Nurses told KOIN 6 News they were notified last week that maternity services at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital and Samaritan North Lincoln Hospital were currently on the chopping block.
EDUCATION
Voters approve $1.83 billion Portland Public Schools bond
Oregon Live | By Julia Silverman
Voters handily approved Portland Public Schools’ proposed $1.83 billion bond to rebuild or modernize three high schools and carry out seismic retrofits and other upgrades at its aging middle and elementary schools.
The last time Portland voters weighed in on a school construction bond, in 2020, it passed by a 3-to-1 margin.
PPS Is Expanding Its Partnership With an Early Literacy Organization. But Some At-Need Students Will Lose Those Services.
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
It’s success stories like these that have led Portland Public Schools to expand its partnership with Reading Results from 18 schools (four from a district partnership, and 14 from partnerships with individual schools) to a districtwide contract serving 30 schools in the upcoming 2025–26 school year. “We’re going big with PPS!” Reading Results executive director Jennifer Samuels wrote in an email to tutors on April 22.
But next year, Reading Results won’t be at Abernethy. That’s because in selecting the 30 schools that would qualify for the programming the organization provides, the district targeted schools with the highest percentages of historically underserved students and the greatest need.
The decision has raised questions about who falls through the cracks when Oregon’s largest school district chooses to direct its limited resources toward schools with the most need. In this case, parents are concerned that some at-need students who attend more affluent schools will lose out on the resources they also require, simply because of their geographic location.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
The Snow Monkeys of Hillsboro Appear to Be Underemployed
Willamette Week | By Anthony Effinger
Research at the center is outdated and cruel, critics say. Many experiments could be done on human organs grown in a lab, or with computer models. Too much of the research being done in Hillsboro is make-work for monkeys that seeks to clear up questions long since asked and answered in humans, they say, like whether smoking cannabis during pregnancy affects a fetus.
In many ways, animal rights groups say, the Japanese macaque troop in Hillsboro most clearly illustrates the folly of the seven remaining national primate centers (Harvard closed its center in 2015). Most researchers prefer rhesus macaques, a species from South Asia, because they are more plentiful and much more is known about them. Japanese macaques aren’t in demand, but OHSU keeps its colony going. They numbered 446 as of Sept. 30, according to state records. Most of them—332—lived in a breeding colony, producing 44 offspring in the year to that date.
Whether the increasingly lonely experiments OHSU performs on Japanese macaques are necessary is a matter of some debate. Westergaard suspects that OHSU conducts the experiments to justify keeping the macaques around. Animal rights advocates agree.
Judge halts controversial proposed chicken farm east of Salem - OPB Judge halts controversial proposed chicken farm east of Salem
OPB | By Alejandro Figueroa
A Linn County judge has invalidated a permit for a proposed chicken farm that would have raised over three million chickens per year east of Salem.
The decision, issued Tuesday, follows years of push back from a coalition of local farmers and residents concerned the farm would pollute local drinking water and the nearby North Santiam River.
J-S Ranch is the last of three large chicken farms the coalition, Farmers Against Foster Farms, has fought against for almost five years. The other two, which had each proposed to raise over four million broiler chickens per year for Foster Farms, have already scrapped plans to develop in the area.
‘Like turning off the headlights’: Pacific Northwest braces for ocean-monitoring blackout in federal budget slash
OPB | By Todd Richmond
President Donald Trump wants to eliminate all federal funding for the observing system’s regional operations. Scientists say the cuts could mean the end of efforts to gather real-time data crucial to navigating treacherous harbors, plotting tsunami escape routes and predicting hurricane intensity.
Cruise ship, freighter and tanker pilots like Enos, as well as the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard, use the information directly to navigate harbors safely, plot courses around storms and conduct search-and-rescue operations.
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