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To contact me, please click here: Rep.BoomerWright@oregonlegislature.gov
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The DuneFest 2025 in Winchester Bay Oregon has been cancelled due to the US Forest Service failure to issue required permit for the event secondary to the Humboldt Marten and a litigation that occurred in 2024 DuneFest. |
Rep Wright SB 147.mp4
SUMMARY Senate Bill 147
Digest: The Act renames a state forest and transfers the running of the forest to a different state agency. The Act makes the forest a research forest and sets forth the duties, powers and conditions for managing the forest. (Flesch Readability Score: 60.6).
Renames the Elliott State Forest as the Elliott State Research Forest. Authorizes the State Land Board to manage, control and protect the forest as a world-class research forest. Restricts the ability of the board to sell land in the forest but authorizes the board to expand or exchange land or timber to further the purposes of the forest as a research forest.
Authorizes certificates of participation financing to finance capital projects or purchases related to the forest.
Transfers the duties, functions, powers, rights and obligations related to the forest from the State Board of Forestry to the State Land Board
Rep Wright SB 916.mp4
- Will cause serious financial strain and add a confusing administrative burden for school districts all across Oregon. Dollars received by school and used for paying unemployment benefit will not improve outcomes and will not directly benefit students.
- Last year school districts in District 9 had to reduce or eliminate multiple positions. The cost of paying benefits for striking workers will further impact staffing necessary programs.
- SB 916 adds uncertainty to federal education funding.
- Oregon schools cannot risk additional budget uncertainty or divert limited state resources away from our classrooms.
- SB 916 will create new financial pressure on school districts as the unemployment benefits will have to be repaid on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Dollar-for-dollar basis will force school districts to pay employees while not serving students. The district will now be paying for striking employees and any substitutes, in essence paying twice for regular classroom coverage.
- Dollars received will no longer be used for their original intent - providing educational services and teaching of students.
- Oregon is now the only state to create an imbalance for collective bargaining. SB 916 introduces a new uncertainty into challenging contract negotiations. The threat of a strike will force districts to agree to contracts they can’t afford to avoid the negative impacts on students.
- SB 916 lessens the urgency to sit together at the bargaining table and do the hard work to reach a compromise that centers the needs of our students. If districts are covering unemployment costs for striking workers, there is no sense of urgency to reach a reasonable negotiated settlement.
- SB 916 will seriously impact the ability of our school districts to serve Oregon students and maximize the Legislature’s investment in schools.
 Last week, my colleagues and I forced a vote on the House Floor on Senate Bill 83, a bipartisan and bicameral effort to lift costly and burdensome regulations imposed on communities by the Statewide Wildfire Hazard Map.
The motion to withdraw the bill from the Rules Committee failed despite receiving bipartisan votes. Only seven House Democrats were allowed a Hall Pass by Democrat Leadership, resulting in a 29-22 vote.
Once again, Speaker Fahey is weaponizing the democratic process and playing politics with Oregonians’ lives so they can leverage stealing their kicker.
This bill matters to Oregonians and should not continue to be held hostage. SB 83 has been heavily vetted through an open public process that included multiple hearings, stakeholder input, and thousands of emails from Oregonians harmed by these flawed maps.
Tell Speaker Fahey today to stop holding the repeal of the costly wildfire maps hostage and bring SB 83 to a Floor vote TODAY: rep.juliefahey@oregonlegislature.com
On Wednesday May 28th 2025, Senate Bill 5516, which allocates $11.4 billion to the State School Fund, the state’s primary funding source for school districts, was voted out of committee.
This is a sizable increase from the last biennium’s budget of $10.2 billion, despite Oregon showing student test scores below the national average, one of the lowest graduation rates in the nation, and one of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism in the nation.
The data shows that our schools are not adequately meeting the needs of our kids. The solution is not more money from the hands of taxpayers.
We must reduce the regulatory burden on our schools and dramatically reform public education to give more options - and return more control - to the families of students who are not getting the education they deserve.
The bill now heads to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means for final committee approval before consideration on the Senate and House floors.
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