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Oregon News
POLITICS
Oregon tax increases could be on the way under new transportation bill
Statesman Journal | By Anastasia Mason
After months of lead-up, the Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment announced a major transportation package on June 9 that calls for tax increases, including a 15-cent per gallon increase to the gas tax, and the creation of a fund for major projects.
The committee voted along party lines to bring House Bill 2025 forward, with Republicans saying they had been left out of the process of creating the legislation.
Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, who is a co-vice chair of the committee and was selected to lead the creation of accountability measures for the bill, said he could not support the bill because it was not created collaboratively with Republicans as had been promised.
"It's unfortunate to be here this morning with a product in front of us that is not a product that ultimately has engendered strong collaborative bipartisan agreement and compromise," Starr said. Some aspects, he said, like the accountability sections, were bipartisan.
Starr was selected to lead the creation of accountability measures in the 2025 transportation package following a Statesman Journal investigation that found the ones in the last major transportation bill fell short.
The proposed bill calls for annual audits of ODOT's work on large projects and a biannual audit on spending. The bill also directs an external performance audit of ODOT to examine its management and response to recommendations from a management review.|
Lawmakers set aside $50,000 in the March budget rebalance to fund a management review of the department that Starr requested.
New Oregon transportation funding package proposed by Democrats: What increases could you see?
KTVZ
Oregon Democrats released their plans for the state's 2025 transportation package, with the Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment introducing their proposal Monday morning.
House Bill 2025, or the Oregon Transportation Reinvestment Package (TRIP), would include a 15-cent increase to the state's gas tax, already at 40 cents. It includes a 10-cent increase in January 2026 and another 5-cent increase in 2028.
It comes as the Oregon Department of Transportation continues to struggle with funding. It is facing funding issues that are so bad, non-interstate routes like U.S. Highways 97, 20, and 26 could see little to no paving after 2027.
Oregon Democrats transportation bill officially unveiled: How you can weigh in
KATU | By Vasili Varlamos
Oregon Democrats officially introduced a 102-page bill on Monday that aims to improve transportation infrastructure, support city and county transportation needs, and increase oversight at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT).
A summary of the bill released on Friday included several new tax increases on gas, vehicle fees, and electric vehicles.
New fencing to prevent homeless camping at 1 site in Portland will cost $900K
Oregon Live | By Lillian Mongeau Hughes
The Oregon Department of Transportation is spending nearly $900,000 to erect permanent wrought iron fencing alongside Interstate 405 in Southwest Portland in an effort to prevent homeless camping near the freeway.
“We have been installing fencing along areas of urban state highways, including bridges and overpasses, for decades in Portland for safety,” said David House, a spokesperson for the state transportation agency, in an email. “We have also been installing fencing in Salem and Eugene. It is dangerous and illegal to camp on state highway right-of-way – it’s dangerous to walk in some locations close to highway traffic.”
Editorial: Blinders on, legislators press on with SB 916
The Oregonian Editorial Board
Last Wednesday, all but one Democrat in the Oregon House voted yes on SB 916, the most expansive initiative of its kind in the country. The bill, pushed by Democrats’ union donors, allows striking public and private employees to collect up to 26 weeks of unemployment pay after two weeks on the picket line. The bill now goes back to the Oregon Senate on Monday to vote on the House-amended version.
Unfortunately, we fully expect a majority of Senate Democrats to push it through and for Gov. Tina Kotek – who recently bequeathed her own huge gift to union donors – to sign it.
But we are writing again to highlight for Oregonians the unintended consequences that are likely coming our way, courtesy of Democrats who claim to support public education. While lawmakers cavalierly dismiss the risks, they are ignoring the good faith warnings issued by those who know their operations best. It is legislative actions like these that directly bleed dollars from K-12 schools and other public agencies, leaving fewer and poorer services for the Oregonians who depend on them.
This bill goes far beyond policies in New York, New Jersey and Washington, the only other states to extend unemployment pay to strikers – though none provide public employees with a legally protected right to strike as Oregon does. Rather than tread cautiously, House Democrats went big, rejecting a counterproposal from Republicans to mirror Washington’s new law, which limits the benefit to six weeks, adds a 10-year expiration date for the policy and requires annual reports on the number and duration of strikes.
Another unknown: whether this bill will embolden bigger asks that employers, particularly public agencies, can’t meet. The 2023 Portland Public Schools teachers strike is a case study of a union making exorbitant demands that the school district – which depends on the state for its funding – could not begin to afford. Even the contract that eventually ended the strike has forced layoffs and tens of millions of dollars’ worth of cuts.
That bears keeping in mind as the state negotiates the range of demands with its own unions. AFSCME, which represents about 7,000 state workers, is seeking 24 extra hours of paid leave for those workers whose positions cannot be done remotely. It also is arguing that data security should not be a legitimate reason for denying remote work, according to a May bargaining update. Is it truly unreasonable for an employer to expect workers to show up at the jobs that they were hired for? Or for a state, which has exposed Oregonians’ information through multiple data breaches, to require employees to work in offices that can be more capably secured? If an employer rejects demands like these, do legislators believe they are refusing to bargain in good faith?
Opinion: Why we need SB 916 – unemployment insurance for striking workers
The Oregonian | Opinion by Representative Dacia Grayber
This opportunity comes at a time when the national political landscape is openly putting workers at a disadvantage. President Donald Trump took the unprecedented step of firing a member of the National Labor Relations Board and income inequality is soaring. States must step up and be leaders while the federal government is rolling back worker protections.
When a best and final offer – one that is fair to both sides – is reached between the employer and the workers, we see movement quickly made and strikes conclude. This is the outcome we all want - and it’s to the benefit of workers, employers, and our economy at large to reduce incentives for procedural delay tactics in getting to resolution.
However, recognizing that much of the current discourse on this bill is about the potential impact on schools, let’s address some assumptions being made:
Since 2000, there have been only eight school strikes, representing less than 0.5% of all Oregon Education Association union bargaining contracts in the state. A majority of those strikes ended in under two weeks, meaning nearly all strikes would never be eligible for benefits under SB 916. State law mandates that public employees bargain for at least 210 days before a strike can occur, a timeline likely to increase with recent mediator layoffs at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. Finally, judges can enjoin public sector strikes if they pose a public health or safety risk.
Let’s remember what the oft-mentioned Portland Public Schools strike was about. Yes, wages, but teachers were also fighting for students: the mold in classrooms, no air conditioning, rats, and more. School districts attempting to skirt accountability for fiscal missteps and lack of results by focusing their lobbying ire at this policy is deeply alarming at a time when we stand on the cusp of allocating historic (and badly needed) education dollars. Accountability is a two-way street.
Does Oregon’s cherished Bottle Bill compound Portland’s fentanyl crisis? Beat Check podcast
Oregon Live
Lawmakers in Salem recently enacted a series of substantive tweaks to the state’s beloved Bottle Bill, which allows residents to return cans and bottles for 10 cents apiece.
Those changes have helped amplify a growing and complicated debate about Oregon’s first-in-the-nation program, now more than 50 years old.
OLCC Ratifies Bottle Bill Changes
Willamette Week | By Nigel Jaquiss
The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission today ratified changes to the Bottle Bill enacted by Senate Bill 992, which Gov. Tina Kotek signed into law earlier this week.
The legislation, aimed at quelling pushback against the Bottle Bill, came in response to concerns from grocers, convenience stores and Oregonians who live or work near places where people return empty containers.
Governor Kotek Signs Bill To Expand Oregon Plastic Bag Ban
KXL News
On Thursday, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed into law Senate Bill 551, which is intended to eliminate use of all plastic bags during checkout at restaurants, grocery stores, and other retail businesses in Oregon starting January 1, 2027. The bill had bipartisan support in the Oregon legislature.
Oregon education accountability bill passes Senate. What’s next?
OPB | By Natalie Pate
The bill meant to hold Oregon and local school districts more accountable for student outcomes passed the state Senate on Thursday.
Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 141 almost entirely on party lines, with Sen. Suzanne Weber, R-Tillamook, being the lone Republican voting in support.
Lawmakers on the Senate floor Thursday also advanced the proposed $11.4 billion education budget package for the State School Fund. That means Oregon is on track to invest a record-high K-12 education budget at the same time it works to set up a firmer statewide accountability system.
For some, there are concerns that the bill will limit local control, though proponents of the bill have emphasized that superintendents and school boards will still make the vast majority of decisions about their local schools.
Sen. Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, supported a lot of the components of the bill. But he was ultimately a “no” vote on the Senate floor this week because it remains to be seen whether some of the bill’s steps, such as the coaching programs, will be effective.
“We have, since COVID specifically, really been in a rate of decline,” Bonham said Thursday. “And I fear, even with record investment, that the investment is going to the wrong place.
“I read this bill, and I see the intent, and I appreciate the intent,” he added. “I am nervous about the outcome and whether or not this truly will have the impact that we say it will.”
Sen. Noah Robinson, R-Cave Junction, also had mixed feelings about SB 141 and ultimately voted against it.
“The Department of Education has let us down before,” Robinson argued. “I hope that changes. I don’t have any confidence in it. I’m a ‘no’ for that reason, but I’m really worried about the education of children in this state.”
Portland mayor stands by improbable pledge to end unsheltered homelessness this year
Oregon Live | By Lillian Mongeau Hughes, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
Throughout his first five months as Portland mayor, Keith Wilson has taken nearly every opportunity to tout his plan to end unsheltered homelessness by Dec. 1 and insist that his ambitious goal to have a shelter bed available for every person on the street who wants one is eminently achievable.
He said he invited Mitch Landrieu, the former New Orleans mayor and adviser to President Joe Biden, to speak to local officials several weeks ago. Landrieu, he said, told the group, “You must have and hold an unrealistic goal, but then you and your team must work in a relentless fashion to make sure you achieve it.”
The mayor is now less than a fifth of the way to his goal with just six months left to accomplish it.
‘Embarrassed for our city’: Prosper Portland board’s fissure with City Hall widens amid leader’s controversial exit
Oregon Live | By Jonathan Bach
The fault line between Prosper Portland’s board of commissioners and City Hall widened Friday, as commissioners for the economic development agency apologized to a departing leader who had upset a crop of newly elected City Council members.
Shea Flaherty Betin, Prosper’s interim executive director since September, last month blasted a proposal by Councilors Mitch Green and Jamie Dunphy to cut all $11 million of Prosper’s general fund dollars from the upcoming fiscal year budget. He also rallied local business owners to lobby against the Dunphy-Green proposal, which ultimately failed.
But in the aftermath of the combative budget fight, Mayor Keith Wilson told Prosper Board Chair Gustavo Cruz that Flaherty Betin needed to step down as Prosper’s leader but should remain with Prosper in some other role. Flaherty Betin said he was also given the option to leave the agency altogether, which he took.
Prosper Portland Executive Director Will Receive $212,992 in Severance
Willamette Week | By Sophie Peel
Shea Flaherty Betin, the executive director of Prosper Portland, who was asked to step down earlier this week by Mayor Keith Wilson, will receive a severance package totaling $212,992—a full year’s salary.
Wilson acted after Flaherty Betin, who led the agency for just eight months, engaged in a public fight with two city councilors who proposed stripping Prosper of all of its general fund money—$11 million. Though that proposal died at a meeting of the City Council on May 21, the public spat contributed to Wilson’s decision.
Portland’s Tribal Relations office was once a national leader. What happened?
OPB | By Alex Zielinski, Nika Bartoo-Smith
When the City of Portland established its Tribal Relations Program in 2017, it turned heads. In a city with one of the nation’s largest populations of Native residents, creating a program to bridge the long-neglected relationships between Tribal and city governments seemed obvious — and overdue.
But a cycle of tumultuous firings, staffing cuts and political neglect has reduced the office to a shadow of its former self. The office has sat empty for more than seven months, putting programs and projects on pause.
Now, as Portland ushers in a new form of government, city managers are poised to hire yet another new employee to lead the troubled office. Indigenous community leaders and Tribal officials see an opportunity to get the program back on track — if city leaders are willing to listen.
Resignation of Crater Lake head leaves Oregon congressional delegation concerned, clueless
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhardt
While Democratic members of Oregon’s congressional delegation expressed alarm at the sudden resignation of the leader of the state’s only national park, the Republican who has the park in his district declined to take a position Friday.
Kevin Heatley, the new superintendent of Crater Lake National Park, resigned from his post May 30 over staffing concerns after just five months on the job.
Trump administration challenges Oregon over voter rolls in lawsuit
OPB | By Dirk VanderHart
The Trump administration is wading into a court fight over whether Oregon does enough to scrub its voter rolls of ineligible voters.
Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read declined to comment on the filing Friday, citing ongoing litigation.
“What I can say is that we take our responsibility to maintain secure, accurate voter rolls seriously,” Read said in a statement. “Oregonians want and deserve fair and free elections, and we must do everything in our power to deliver.”
The Oregon Department of Justice said it was researching the matter.
At issue is a lawsuit filed in October by the national conservative group Judicial Watch, along with the Constitution Party of Oregon and two individual Oregonians, Suni Danforth and Hannah Shipman.
Oregon voter rolls case highlights national confusion over American Samoans’ citizenship status
OPB
The unique situation of American Samoans has caused confusion across several U.S. states, including Oregon, where officials inadvertently registered nearly 200 American Samoan residents to vote when they obtained driver’s licenses under the state’s motor-voter law.
Of those, 10 cast ballots in an election, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s office. Officials there determined the residents had not intended to break the law and no crime was committed.
In major reversal, Kotek seeks return of fugitive suspected of targeting Asian Oregonians
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Shaanth Nanguneri
Gov. Tina Kotek on Friday said she’s ordered the extradition of a suspected member of a multi-state burglary ring who allegedly targeted Asian households throughout the Eugene area and fled to Texas, averting some of the blowback she faced for rejecting the extradition earlier this week.
The reversal marks the second time in the past two weeks that Kotek has changed course in an extradition decision in the wake of public pressure. The governor made a more explicit reversal in May regarding the transfer of a woman who fled to Ohio after being accused of embezzling from Eugene Weekly, a move the locally-beloved newspaper has called “an about-face.”
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
Mayor reassures Portland's commitment to sanctuary policies amid ICE protest tensions
KOIN | By Victor Park
The protest follows reports from attorneys that a second asylum seeker was detained by federal agents after appearing in Portland immigration court.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson reassured the public about the city's commitment to its sanctuary city policies.
"The focus we have in Portland is caring for our undocumented community. Making sure that everybody is being protected. We certainly are hopeful it doesn't, but we're certainly monitoring it," Wilson said. Despite claims of detainment by federal officials, some protesters remain steadfast outside the facility.
OR Gov. Kotek, Democratic Govs call Trump's use of Nat'l Guard 'abuse of power'
KOIN | By Danny Peterson
A coalition of Democratic governors is condemning President Donald Trump’s deployment of the California National Guard in Los Angeles to quell anti-ICE protests as “an alarming abuse of power.”
Gresham teacher charged with child sex crimes after online sting
Oregon Live | By Sami Edge
Portland Police on Friday arrested a Gresham High School social studies teacher caught in an online sting designed to identify potential child abusers.
Portland police said in a news release that a detective in Bothell, Washington was posing online as a 13-year-old girl when he connected with Ramirez in November.
How Salem Health hospital handled surge of 11 UGM stabbing victims
Statesman Journal | By Whitney Woodworth
The stabbing at Union Gospel Mission of of Salem that left 12 people injured triggered a "mass casualty safety" response at Salem Health hospital.
Within five minutes of emergency personnel responding, the first of 11 patients was already being prepped for surgery at the hospital.
ECONOMY
More Oregon workers are part time as labor market cools
Oregon Live | By Mike Rogoway
The number of Oregonians working part-time jobs hit its highest point in a decade last year, another sign the state’s labor market is cooling off.
Nearly 23% of Oregon workers had part-time jobs last year, up 4 percentage points from 2022. The share of people working part time rose nationally, too, but not nearly as fast.
Oregon’s unemployment rate has been steadily rising for the past two years and is now approaching 5%, its highest point since the pandemic. Meanwhile, the number of job openings in the state has fallen by more than half since 2022, to around 50,000. The trends all point to fewer professional opportunities.
HOUSING
Oregon’s housing crisis persists. Here’s what lawmakers are doing about it
OPB | By Bryce Dole
Oregon’s housing crisis persists. On this, many Democrats and Republicans agree: In urban and rural communities alike, too many Oregonians struggle to live in a housing market with too few affordable homes. Where they diverge is how to fix it.
From funding shelters to boosting senior housing to capping rent increases on manufactured homes, lawmakers have put forward a number of bills this session aimed at speeding up housing production and making the state a more affordable place to live. Many housing bills sit before lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, who write the state’s budget.
But lawmakers are contending with $500 million less in revenue than formerly predicted for the state’s next budget, which begins July 1. That could make it harder to pass many housing bills that tap into the state’s general fund.
Since 2023, the state has invested billions of dollars in its housing efforts, much of which was buoyed by federal funds that have since dissipated. Without those efforts, Gov. Tina Kotek and Democrat leaders say, more people would be out on the street. Still, Republicans say the state should change course, that the state isn’t advancing fast enough.
“We don’t seem to finish anything,” said Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City, the vice chair of the Senate Committee on Housing and Development. He added, “We don’t even see more housing coming online, yet we put a lot of money in. So all I’m saying is we need to stay with housing, but we need to quit doing what we’ve been doing and do something else.”
EDUCATION
Here’s How PPS Will Determine Which Schools Take Priority for Seismic Upgrades
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
An 11th-hour Portland Public Schools Board resolution to prioritize seismic safety in the district’s $1.83 billion bond may have helped it find success among Portland voters, as parents whose children attend school in dangerous brick buildings rallied behind the tax measure.
Now, in its first update to the School Board as required by that resolution, PPS officials presented a working draft of how they plan to determine which schools will be first in line for improvements. The algorithm would rate buildings both by an objective, data-driven “seismic risk score” and PPS criteria that inform an “importance score.”
Readers Respond to Angela Bonilla’s Use of Teachers’ Political Capital
Willamette Week
Angela Bonilla has been racking up wins lately. The president of the Portland Association of Teachers saw three of four School Board candidates endorsed by the teachers’ union win office in May, while voters approved a $1.83 billion bond to fund school construction (“Lesson Learned,” WW, May 28). Last week, Bonilla pushed her chips to the center of the table. She publicly rebuked City Councilor Dan Ryan for scolding his council colleagues for moving police dollars to parks maintenance. Her letter represented an unusual foray into city politics by the teachers’ union leader—and intensified a dispute over public safety budgets that has split the council into leftists and centrists. Here’s what our readers had to say:
NATURAL RESOURCES & WILDFIRE
Pacific Northwest startup promising to replant forests faces allegations of deception in whistleblower lawsuit
OPB | By Justin Higginbottom
Seattle-based Mast Reforestation had a novel idea to help save the planet: sell voluntary carbon credits and use that money to replant forests destroyed by wildfire.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Long-thwarted efforts to sell public lands see new life under Trump
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Brown, Clark Corbin, and Kyle Dunphey
Public outcry was swift and forceful after a U.S. House committee last month hastily approved an amendment directing the federal government to sell off more than half a million acres of public land.
A few days later, lawmakers advanced the larger bill — a sweeping list of President Donald Trump’s priorities — but stripped the federal lands provision.
Yet leaders on both sides of the issue say the battle over selling off federal lands is likely just heating up.
Some conservatives in Western states have complained for decades that the feds control too much of the land within their borders. They see a long-awaited opportunity in a Trump administration that’s sympathetic to their cause. Public lands advocates are bracing for more attempts to turn land over to states, industry groups and developers.
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