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Oregon News
Providence explores sale of health plan after $100M loss
Portland Business Journal | By Elizabeth Hayes
Providence on Thursday announced it is considering a sale of its health plan, which reported a net loss of more than $100 million last year.
Portland-based Providence Health Plan serves more than 167,000 members and has 1,150 employees. It is the third-largest health plan in the state, following Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest and Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon.
Chief Financial Officer Greg Hoffman said Providence’s decision to actively explore “strategic options” reflects the challenges faced by smaller regional plans that lack large insurers’ scale and ability to spread costs.
Kicker refunds are landing in Oregonians’ bank accounts. Here’s how much taxpayers are getting
The Oregonian | By Aimee Green
Just 14 times in the last 45 years have Oregon taxpayers received a beloved economic treat: The kicker refund.
This tax season is one of those special years. So how much are Oregonians receiving?
As of the beginning of this week, the average individual income taxpayer had received a kicker refund of approximately $429.
Adjusted for inflation, that’s the seventh largest in state history.
The IRS has been sending bigger tax refunds this year. Here’s by how much
The Oregonian | By Aimee Green
The figures show that as of early March of last year, individual income taxpayers received an average refund of $3,324. But at the same point this year, that amount reached $3,676 — an increase of $352, or more than 10%. That means the average refund grew about four times faster than inflation over that same period.
POLITICS
Trump homeless policy advisor tells Portland leaders they are ‘more in agreement’ than expected
The Oregonian | By Lillian Mongeau Hughes
Robert Marbut, a senior policy advisor to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, was in Portland Tuesday to walk local leaders through the Trump administration’s thinking on homelessness policy.
According to several sources who attended the meeting, Marbut, who served as Trump’s homelessness czar during the president’s first term, made a short presentation and then took questions from the room. At one point, he told local leaders that they were “more in agreement” than he’d expected.
Trump admin. launches investigation of states mandating health insurance covers abortion
Associated Press
The Trump administration said Thursday that it has launched investigations into 13 states - including Oregon and Washington - that require state-regulated health insurance plans to cover abortion.
Kotek slams ‘misleading’ claims House committee made over Oregon Health Plan fraud
KOIN 6 | By Michaela Bourgeois
After a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to Oregon Governor Tina Kotek with concerns over fraud in the Oregon Health Plan, the governor is firing back, saying the committee is “misleading” the public.
Oregon institutions reckon with removing Cesar Chavez’s name following sexual abuse report
OPB | By Bryce Dole
Oregon leaders condemned the union organizer Cesar Chavez after a news report detailed extensive sexual abuse allegation against him dating back decades.
Journalists, Oregon publishers call on governor to veto bill changing public meetings law
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Alex Baumhardt
A bill meant to create clarity about what public officials can call and text about outside of public meetings is creating more confusion, press advocates said.
TRANSPORTATION
Oregon gas tax opponents file another lawsuit in federal court
Oregon Capital Chronicle | By Mia Maldonado
The Right to Vote on the Gas Tax Political Action Committee — organized by Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Dundee; Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Scio, and the Taxpayer Association of founder Jason Williams — filed a new lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of Oregon in Portland one week after a Marion County judge denied their original claims, ruling that the gas tax vote would remain on the May ballot.
Interstate Bridge cost soars 140%, adding billions to project estimate
OPB | By Erik Neumann
The cost of the project to replace the Interstate Bridge between Washington and Oregon is going up again.
According to new official estimates released Tuesday morning, the price will increase approximately 140% from a 2022 estimate of $6 billion to a new target of $14.4 billion.
I-5 Bridge Replacement Project Finally Comes Clean on Skyrocketing Price Tag
Willamette Week | By Nigel Jaquiss
“We need a new bridge and it’s time to start building it,” Kotek said. “By focusing our available funding on a core set of projects, we can deliver what Oregonians have been waiting on for decades: a modern, earthquake-ready bridge, with no bridge lifts, less traffic congestion, extended light rail, and better options for people walking and biking. At my direction, the Oregon Department of Transportation will focus on protecting Oregon taxpayers by making sure this critical project is delivered as efficiently as possible.”
The new price tag of $14.4 billion for the whole project is a massive increase from the last official estimate of $6 billion released in 2022, and it’s even a jump from a draft estimate OJP published in January of $13.6 billion.
At that time, lawmakers from both Oregon and Washington expressed anger that project staff had withheld information from the public and a bistate legislative oversight committee about potentially far higher costs. It now appears those concerns were well placed.
But Portland economist Joe Cortright, whose public records requests have consistently offered insight into the troubled project, said the new strategy is an act of bait and switch.
“The high-level bridge requires elevated freeways on both the Oregon and Washington sides of the river, with new interchanges elevated high into the air to reach the new roadway,” Cortright wrote in commentary on the website City Observatory. “ODOT & WSDOT have intentionally designed this so once you start, you must build everything. The reality is they’ll never stop with Phase I; start construction and you’re signing up for $15 billion and 20 years of construction hell.”
2026 ELECTION
Republican field for Oregon governor is evolving — somewhat
Oregon Capital Chronicle | Opinion by Randy Stapilus
Last August, I wrote of the upcoming contest for the Republican nomination for governor that legislator Christine Drazan, the party’s 2022 nominee, started in the preeminent position and that “any discussion of major contenders for the 2026 Republican nomination for governor has to start with her.”
In the last couple of months the field has changed, to the point that another legislator who last summer wasn’t even on the radar appears to be claiming front-runner status.
Rep. Ed Diehl of Scio on March 15 released a poll (which he said was conducted independently, not by his campaign) that showed him with 66.4% of the vote among the 10 Republican candidates for governor. The poll is credited to Predict Oregon, and it was said to have surveyed 1,022 Oregon Republicans from March 3 to 8.
It’s not a traditional poll, by any means. While traditional pollsters call or text to gather a statistically representative sample of the electorate, Predict Oregon instead solicited responses online.
David Medina, a social media influencer from Tualatin who has never won office, was said to have come in a distant second (8.7%), with Drazan (7.7%) and 2010 GOP governor nominee Chris Dudley fourth (7.6%).
Diehl’s campaign statement said “Voters want bold action on the economy, public safety, homelessness, and affordability, and this poll shows I’m the clear choice to deliver it.”
Despite all that, the race at this point still looks most like Drazan’s to lose.
PUBLIC SAFETY
State psychiatric hospital faces renewed calls to limit admissions amid delays
The Oregonian | By Maxine Bernstein
Despite facing daily fines, the Oregon State Hospital remains in violation of a court order that requires it to admit criminal defendants more quickly for competency treatment.
WILDFIRE
Wildfire threat increases for parts of Oregon on Thursday. What to know
KOIN 6 | By Josh Cozart
A growing wildfire threat builds over the south-central region of Oregon as warmer and drier weather builds.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Company appeals Coffin Butte Landfill expansion denial to LUBA
Statesman Journal | By Tracy Loew
Republic Services is taking its fight to expand Coffin Butte Landfill to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.
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