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Oregon News
POLITICS
250,000 Oregonians sign petition to send transportation bill to voters, backers say
OPB | By Bryce Dole
A Republican-led effort to refer a road funding bill to Oregon voters has gathered more than 250,000 signatures.
Petitioners announced the latest total on Monday for the referendum, which seeks to stop the legislation and its proposed tax and fee increases by letting voters have their say.
“Oregonians from every corner of the state spent their holiday season gathering signatures,” Senate Republican Leader Bruce Starr, a chief petitioner, said in a news release. “Because of their hard work, the will of Oregon voters will not be ignored.”
Editorial: Turmoil in 2025 lays bare our challenges, opportunities
The Oregonian Editorial Board
At the beginning of the year, we wrote that 2025 had to be the year when elected leaders proved that our state of “crisis” had not calcified into status quo. State and local governments needed to show that the millions of dollars spent on homelessness, housing and behavioral health were finally getting traction as part of a coordinated strategy. Amid whatever chaos came Oregon’s way – and there was plenty from the federal government on down – we were emphatic that 2025 had to be a year of showing results.
While Oregon’s crises persist, the year provided some encouraging signs of change. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson set and met an ambitious goal for opening night-time shelter beds in Portland, paving the way for modest enforcement of the city’s ban on unsanctioned camping. Pre-pandemic policies are paying off in increased building of townhomes and triplexes, particularly in Portland, Eugene and other cities that have embraced “middle housing” to ease the state’s shortage. As one of its few major accomplishments this past year, the state Legislature took a long-belated step toward strengthening our behavioral health response by making it easier to mandate treatment for people with mental illness when they pose a danger to themselves or others.
And in perhaps the greatest reason for optimism, Oregonians proved that they can stand up for our values without letting demonstrations devolve into the violence and destructive riots of five years ago.
Neighbors, teachers and others throughout the community have stepped in to watch over children, provide resources and help counter the chaos caused by aggressive immigrations enforcement, while the state filed suit to protect Oregon’s interests on a variety of fronts. In protests opposing President Donald Trump’s unjustified and unnecessary efforts to deploy National Guard troops to Portland, Oregonians dressed up in chicken costumes and inflatable frog outfits, sending a message to the country and to each other showing who Portland is: funny, creative, protective of our communities and loyal to our city. The unity and restraint from our elected officers, community leaders, residents and protesters reflect a community that is committed to defending our principles but is also unwilling to repeat the mistakes of the past.
But it’s easier to command that unity when the threat comes from outside, and the year also included plenty of examples of how turmoil of our own making has held Oregon back. Below are some of the events that will frame the challenges ahead in 2026.
A rocky road for transportation funding: Lawmakers passed a new funding plan last year to pay for road maintenance, shore up the Oregon Department of Transportation’s budget and provide additional funds for cities and transit agencies. But passage came only after months of embarrassing blunders by the Democrats in charge, and the fate of the package of new taxes and fees still faces an uncertain future.
Democrats, who hold a supermajority in the Legislature, bungled the process from the start. They did not release the funding proposal until three weeks before the session’s mandatory adjournment, and the proposal itself – a staggering $15 billion of higher taxes and fees over the next 10 years – instantly generated intense opposition from Oregonians exasperated with the state’s declining affordability and ODOT’s long track record of financial irresponsibility. Subsequent efforts to hurriedly trim the package also failed to advance before the session’s adjournment.
Even the special session convened by Gov. Tina Kotek last September to pass a transportation package showed some of the same fecklessness, with the taxpayer-funded session dragging out for weeks to secure passage. Then, Kotek delayed signing the bill for more than a month, cutting the amount of time for opponents to gather signatures to refer the taxes to voters. It did not matter. Opponents, led by two Republican legislators, gathered in just two weeks more than twice the number of signatures needed to refer the issue to the November 2026 ballot. The taxes, paused for now with the expectation that the petition has enough valid signatures to qualify, leave the state and cities facing the same funding hole that they did at the beginning of the year.
Poor financial stewardship spells a reckoning ahead: Oregon is cutting services, passing steep new taxes and faces a world of unknowns as the Trump Administration slashes agencies and abandons policies. Oregon’s school districts face massive shortfalls, with some already cutting school days and laying off employees. Federal changes raise stark questions about the state’s ability to continue providing broad Medicaid coverage for Oregonians.
While legislators wisely budgeted conservatively for the current biennium this year, they also made some inexplicable choices. Among them: Senate Bill 916, a proposal pushed by the Democratic majority that ventures where no other state in the country has gone. The bill allows employees who choose to go on strike to collect unemployment pay, which is funded by employers, while on the picket line. Not only is that one more mark against Oregon’s business climate – already a dismal 39th in the country – but the bill also applies to teachers and other public employees, whose unemployment pay comes straight out of school districts’ and public agencies’ already lean budgets. The bill – opposed by only two Democratic state senators and all Republican legislators – raises questions about legislators’ commitment to financial stewardship.
That will become increasingly critical as lawmakers face daunting challenges ahead due to the Trump administration’s tax and policy changes.
Poor financial stewardship extends to the local level as well. For years, lax oversight of a Washington County sewer agency allowed executives to spend lavishly on restaurants and pricey trips to Hawaii where the agency had created a subsidiary, as an investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive found. At least in this case, officials belatedly made some corrections. In the wake of the reporting, the sewer agency’s CEO resigned. The agency’s board – made up of the five Washington County commissioners – then finally voted last month to relocate the subsidiary to Arizona.
Specialty taxes for clean energy projects in Portland and universal preschool in Multnomah County continue to rake in funding while core services and programs face cuts. And Portland City Council put a levy on the November ballot seeking a 75% increase in the existing rate to keep parks running, with only a paltry $2 million a year to address the severe backlog of capital maintenance needs that have already led to some service shutdowns. While the levy passed, Portlanders’ 56% approval rate in the face of no organized opposition should send a message to elected leaders that their support for higher taxes, even for such beloved assets as the parks system, is at risk.
Alarm bells from a weakening economy: Oregon employers shed nearly 9,000 jobs in the past year, many from longtime heavyweight Intel, as well as forest products companies, retailers and other businesses. The unemployment rate has hit 5.2%, its highest rate since the pandemic. Oregonians’ income is growing at a rate lower than inflation and substantially lower than the national average. Big Pink, the iconic office tower in downtown Portland sold for a paltry $45 million, down from its $372.5 million price tag just 10 years ago. Ongoing office building vacancies and store closures in downtown Portland show the central core’s struggles to regain its vibrancy. Although businesses have been warning for years about Oregon’s decreasing competitiveness, the data should make it harder for elected leaders to ignore.
A shaky first year for Portland city government: Vision is arguably the easy part. Implementing that vision is where the real work comes in. So, Portlanders shouldn’t have been too surprised by delays, kinks and disputes as the mayor and new Portland City Council took office under a new form of city government.
That said, Portlanders shouldn’t be too pleased with the progress and priorities they’ve seen so far, particularly from City Council. Marathon meetings over process minutiae; on-the-fly budgeting decisions that are disconnected from funding realities; and councilors more focused on grandstanding on international issues than solving Portland’s problems. Meanwhile, the city’s most significant action on homelessness came from Wilson.
And efforts to micromanage city administrative decisions show councilors engaging in the same behavior that exasperated Portlanders under the old form of government. There may have been no better example of such behavior as the City Council’s decision to reject grant recommendations from the Portland Children’s Levy. Despite an exhaustive, transparent, community-guided evaluation process that was shared with city councilors in a work session, a majority voted against the list after two politically connected organizations complained. Thankfully, the majority reversed itself after public outcry, but the episode showed that Portland – and Oregon – are at a crossroads, with our path to recovery or doom loop on the line. How our region’s leaders respond to the turmoil of 2025 will determine which direction we take.
Eye on Northwest Politics: The biggest political stories of 2025
KOIN 6 | By Ken Boddie
What a year it has been in politics.
The eyes of the Trump administration turned to the City of Portland and its ICE facility. Inflatable frogs and other assorted characters became the national symbols of Portland protest.
Meanwhile, in Salem, legislators wrestled with how to pay for transportation needs amid a public pushback over higher taxes and fees. A successful petition drive puts the question to voters in 2026.
New Modeling of Preschool for All Shows Fund Balance Could Hit $2 Billion if Status Quo Remains
Willamette Week | By Joanna Hou
The news that Preschool for All may only need to fund about 7,600 seats to reach universality means the program’s $610 million stockpile could grow to $2 billion over the next two decades, economists told the program’s advisers this month. That’s raising questions about whether a planned increase to the tax rate is as necessary as previously touted.
Your annual park pass is about to get a lot more expensive. Here’s why
The Oregonian | By Jamie Hale
If you haven’t bought your annual park passes for 2026, now is the time to do it.
From local state parks to federal public lands, annual passes have been getting more expensive, as agencies seek more funding for recreation areas. Some of those increases will take effect Jan. 1, giving Oregonians only a few more days to buy passes at a lower price.
Frogs, shelters and a new city government: Portland’s political year in review
The Oregonian | By Lillian Mongeau Hughes, Shane Dixon Kavanaugh, Austin De Dios, Julia Silverman
Suffice it to say, 2025 was far from Portland’s most tranquil year on record. What follows is a brief summary of the highlights any observant citizen could be forgiven for missing.
The Peacock Papers Provided a Window Into Portland’s New Balance of Power
Willamette Week | By Andrew Schwartz
Peacock has become a stronger and tighter voting bloc in the months since the chats emerged.
Salem man's reappointment to police review board draws union outrage
Statesman Journal | By Whitney Woodworth
Salem City Council reappointed Kyle Hedquist, who has a past murder conviction, to the Community Police Review Board.
The reappointment has drawn criticism from local police and fire unions, as well as national media attention.
Councilor Vanessa Nordyke, who initially voted for the reappointment, is now calling for the council to reconsider the decision.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
The saddest Portland restaurant closures of 2025, including this historic steak and seafood chain
The Oregonian | By Michael Russell
There were still plenty of painful closures, from a landmark Oregon steak and seafood chain to a beloved neighborhood watering hole to a cafe that held down its Old Town Chinatown block for a decade. Here are the 10 most painful restaurant, bar and cafe closures in the Portland area in 2025.
EDUCATION
Opinion: State’s focus on ‘accountability’ won’t fix underfunded schools
The Oregonian | Opinion by Frank Caropelo, Jeffrey Fuller, Esper Farmer
Caropelo is superintendent of Reynolds School District. Fuller is president of Reynolds Education Association. Farmer is president of Oregon School Employees Association, Chapter 37.
A recent news story highlighted allegations that the state is shortchanging Oregon’s lowest-income school districts by undercounting how many students live in poverty – a calculation key in determining how much funding a district receives.
While the details are new, the underlying story is not. As superintendent and presidents of the unions representing teachers and classified professionals for the Reynolds School District, we can attest to the misalignment between what the state provides and what schools are asked to do, particularly in districts, like ours, that serve some of the state’s most vulnerable children.
Rather than provide the resources to hire an adequate staff of reading specialists, classified staff and social workers, the state instead is pushing a narrative that districts simply need to be held “accountable.” And now, under Senate Bill 141, the Oregon Department of Education is empowered to intervene in local districts’ spending and decision-making when they fail to meet certain performance benchmarks.
A focus on “accountability,” however, won’t make up for the state’s failure to properly fund school districts to account for the high percentage of high-needs students that many of our districts are serving.
CRIME & PUBLIC SAFETY
One dead, one hospitalized after Downtown Portland shooting
KOIN 6 | By Andrew Foran
One person was killed, and another was hospitalized after a shooting in Southwest Portland late Sunday night, officials said.
ENVIRONMENT
Conservation groups urge Oregon to reduce whale deaths from crab fishing gear
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Mia Maldonado
Petition comes weeks after young entangled humpback whale found stranded near Yachats.
TRUMP ADMIN VS. OREGON
Oregon saw at least 1,100 immigration arrests in 2025
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Mia Maldonado
Arrests in Oregon in 2025 almost 10 times as high as previous year.
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