|
Oregon News
TRANSPORTATION
Governor delay in signing transportation bill limits GOP time for referendum, experts say
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Mia Maldonado
Within hours of the Oregon Senate passing a transportation bill on Sept. 29 meant to keep transportation workers employed and maintain funding for cities and counties to fix their roads, Gov. Tina Kotek directed the Oregon Department of Transportation to stop layoffs and begin hiring for the winter season.
But more than two weeks later, Kotek has yet to sign the very bill she and her party called an emergency.
Under Oregon law, Kotek has 30 business days from Oct. 1 — when the special session adjourned — to sign the bill into law. While it’s not unusual for governors to take time before signing bills into law, state political experts say the governor’s delay is a strategic move to limit the time Republicans have to challenge the measure through a referendum.
After the bill’s passage, Republican lawmakers vowed to give Oregon voters the opportunity to support or reject four parts of the legislation in the November 2026 election, including a 6-cent gas tax increase, car registration fee increases, title fee increases and doubling the payroll tax used for public transit to 0.2% of a paycheck.
Rep. Ed Diehl, a Stayton Republican and a chief petitioner leading the referendum effort called “No Tax Oregon” said he expected the governor to wait before signing it.
“I think she’s rightfully concerned that people don’t like these taxes and fee increases, and she’s concerned we’re going to get the signatures,” he said. “She has until Nov. 12 to sign this, so she’s really eating into a lot of a lot of time that we could be using to gather signatures.”
People seeking to refer a law to the ballot have until 90 days after the Legislature adjourns sine die to gather 78,116 signatures — 4% of the total ballots cast in the most recent gubernatorial election. But they can’t start circulating petitions until the bill officially becomes a law, when the governor signs it or allows it to take effect without signing.
Kotek press secretary Roxy Mayer did not say why the governor has not yet signed the bill into law.
Gas Tax Referral Campaign Kicks Off
Willamette Week | By Nigel Jaquiss
The No Tax Oregon campaign, which hopes to refer the recently passed 6-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase to voters, launched its campaign Oct. 13.
One of three leaders of the effort, state Rep. Ed Diehl (R-Scio), says more than 400 people joined a conference call to plan strategy.
The measure lawmakers passed, House Bill 3991, is currently sitting on Gov. Tina Kotek’s desk as the clock for referral ticks. The campaign has 90 days from when the Legislature adjourned Oct. 1 to gather the 78,115 valid signatures needed to qualify for the November 2026 ballot, but they can’t get started until Kotek signs the bill—and she has until Nov. 12, 30 weekdays from session end, to do that.
Diehl and his co-leaders, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Starr (R-Dundee) and Jason Williams, executive director of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon, know they will have little time and, potentially, little money since the final transportation bill mollified some critics, including the Oregon Trucking Associations and the Oregon Auto Dealers Association.
Diehl is nonetheless optimistic, pointing to more than 2,100 volunteers who have signed up to organize signature gathering.
“I’m an engineer who built big systems,” Diehl says. “And what I’ve learned is, every big project is a series of small projects—and we can handle that.”
POLITICS
Portland parks’ future imperiled by poor financial management, city watchdog warns
The Oregonian | By Shane Dixon Kavanaugh
Portland’s Parks Bureau has no plan to pay for reasonable parks upkeep, even as the bulk of its assets continue to crumble and the agency remains without a long-term solution to cover day-to-day operations, the city’s elected watchdog said Wednesday.
After finding forever chemicals in its drinking water, this Eastern Oregon city stopped testing for them
OPB | By Antonio Sierra
It’s been two years since Hermiston officials revealed Eastern Oregon’s largest city had “forever chemicals” in its water supply. It may be years more before Hermiston residents get more information about the discovery.
TRUMP ADMIN VS. OREGON
Judge extends orders blocking deployment of National Guard to Oregon
The Oregonian | By Maxine Bernstein
A judge Wednesday extended her two temporary restraining orders that barred President Donald Trump from deploying Oregon National Guard members - or any National Guard members - to Portland for another two weeks.
Portland considers adopting policies to protect residents from 'aggressive federal overreach'
KGW | By Blair Best
The Protect Portland Initiative, modeled after Chicago's policy, would lay out city responses to the federal government's use of law enforcement and military troops
Democratic governors launch multistate public health alliance to counter Trump, RFK Jr.
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Anna Claire Vollers
In a clear rebuke of recent federal health policy, 15 Democratic governors announced today they’ve formed a public health alliance that breaks with guidance from the Trump administration and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
Salem City Council votes to use $300K to attract commercial airlines
Statesman Journal | By Whitney Woodworth
Salem officials and community donors will be using a total of $1.5 million over three years to attract a commercial airline to Salem-Willamette Valley Airport.
Nike renames corporate campus after co-founder Phil Knight
The Oregonian | By Matthew Kish
Nike CEO Elliott Hill on Tuesday announced the company has renamed its corporate headquarters in honor of co-founder Phil Knight.
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
TriMet video shows MAX train closing on passenger’s coat seconds before train drags him, leads to his death
The Oregonian | By Aimee Green
TriMet has released video showing the doors of one of its MAX trains closing on the edge of a coat worn by a passenger as he apparently tried to reboard it, seconds before the train began to move, dragging the man along the train’s platform and tracks. He died 26 days later in the hospital as a result of his injuries.
EDUCATION
PPS Students Are Flocking to Their School Libraries
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
Without easy access to phones, Portland Public Schools sees a novel phenomenon.
Accountability Committee Warns PPS Is Overbuilding High Schools
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
Tucked away in a quarterly report by the Citizens Bond Accountability Committee that went before the Portland School Board on Tuesday night is a damning bullet point.
“The BAC would like to share the opinion that the district should not be building such large high schools when there is not the student body to justify it,” it reads. “Given declining enrollment and decreasing birth rates this issue is even more pronounced given the project budget issues.”
Oregon students are struggling in the classroom: Local expert weighs in on why
KGW | By Thomas Shults
For years Oregon students have struggled with common skills, like learning to read and write. Since the pandemic, test results have only worsened. Recent studies show Oregon students made incremental progress in recovering lost learning last school year, though they still have a long way to go.
Andy Saultz, the dean of Lewis and Clark's Graduate School of Education believe some of the challenges students encounter is due to how Oregon school districts function.
Saultz believes if state legislators push school districts to embrace methods that are most effective, according to data, students would have better scores.
NATURAL RESOURCES & WILDFIRE
Oregon wildfires burned fewer acres but destroyed 200 homes, structures in 2025 season
Statesman Journal | By Zach Urness
Oregon wildfires burned a far smaller number of acres than last year’s historic total, but the state’s fires still destroyed more homes than normal and shut down rivers and roadways while spurring numerous evacuations in 2025.
Harney basin faces competing regulatory strategies
Capital Press | By Mateusz Perkowski
Competing regulatory proposals in Oregon’s Harney basin are requiring state water regulators to choose between minimizing either groundwater depletion or economic disruption in the region.
Proponents of a plan developed by the state government are asking the Oregon Water Resources Commission to prioritize stabilizing the basin’s declining aquifer levels, claiming the proposal already contains enough concessions for irrigators.
Advocates for an alternative regulatory strategy are urging the commission to adopt less stringent irrigation restrictions, arguing groundwater depletion can still be curbed with less economic fallout in the agriculturally-dependent Harney County.
“We need time to reinvent ourselves,” said Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, who is promoting the alternative plan for regulating Harney basin groundwater.
Owens and other supporters of the alternative strategy recently told commission members they’re facing the most consequential decision they’ll likely make as regulators.
| 
