Latest news with #GovTinaKotek
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Oregon Legislature pivots to 3-cent gas tax increase instead of $11.7 billion transportation package
Oregon Department of Transportation workers fill a pothole on U.S. Highway 97 near Chemult in 2016 (Oregon Department of Transportation/Flickr) This is a developing story and will be updated Oregon Democrats appear to have pulled the plug on a transportation package more than a year in the making, unable to find the votes for a series of tax increases as the legislative session draws to an end. Instead, House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, is pushing a 3-cent increase to the state's 40-cent gas tax and increases to vehicle and title fees. An estimate for how much it would raise hasn't yet been released, but it's sure to be a far cry from the $11.7 billion lawmakers aimed to raise over 10 years in their earlier bill. Gov Tina Kotek plans to testify in favor of the new plan, her staff confirmed. It's a blow to a legislative effort months in the making. Lawmakers traveled the state last summer, seeking public input on plans to overhaul the state's transportation funding system. Fahey's 20-page amendment, attached to House Bill 3402, was scheduled for a hearing in the House Rules Committee at 3:45 p.m. and is expected to be sent to the Joint Transportation Reinvestment Committee from there. It would change a previously innocuous bill requiring the Department of Transportation to study speed bumps into a last-ditch attempt to raise some money for Oregon's crumbling roads and bridges The new bill includes accountability measures, such as requiring regular audits of the transportation department and shifting responsibility to hire and fire the department's director from the Oregon Transportation Commission to the governor. It would raise the gas tax from 40 cents to 43 cents, hike vehicle registration fees from $43 to $64 and increase vehicle title fees from $77 to $168. Gone are increases to the transit payroll tax, which would have gradually tripled from 0.1% to 0.3% under prior versions of the measure. A proposal to mandate electric vehicle users pay a per-mile fee also didn't make the final bill. Without the payroll tax increase, officials at Portland's public transit agency TriMet said they'd have to cut 27% of their bus service, eliminating 45 of 79 bus lines. The tax increase would have cost an Oregonian making the state's median annual income about $10 per month, according to TriMet's analysis. The measure aims to fill an immediate funding gap of $1 billion per year that the Oregon Department of Transportation faces. All tax increases in that bill are intended for the state transportation department, worrying cities and counties. In a statement Friday, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said the bill would put Portland's street system at risk. 'It jeopardizes dozens of essential city infrastructure jobs and our ability to perform basic safety functions like filling potholes and implementing traffic safety improvements,' Wilson said. 'We can't afford a patchwork solution. Legislators, please don't leave Salem without addressing crumbling city transportation systems.' The long-awaited transportation package faced headwinds in recent days, as Republicans and moderate Democrats lined up against it. Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, was the only Republican to publicly support the larger measure, saying it wasn't perfect but was better than nothing, while Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, doubled down on his objection to it. 'From the correspondence I've received from around the state of Oregon and my community both in letters, emails, phone calls, social media posts, I'm doing the right thing for Oregonians,' he said on the Senate floor Friday morning. Reporters Alex Baumhardt and Shaanth Nanguneri contributed to this article.
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Feds demand Oregon Health Plan data in crackdown against immigrant coverage
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Federal officials are seeking the personal data of the Medicaid-funded Oregon Health Plan as part of a crackdown on coverage for undocumented immigrants. The request, as first reported by , comes after the Department of Homeland Security provided immigration officials with similar data from California, Illinois, Washington state and Washington, D.C. 'Just wrong': Oregon advocates say SCOTUS decision targets transgender youth Oregon, like these states, has expanded medical coverage to undocumented residents through state-funded programs. On Monday, Gov. Tina Kotek said her office is reviewing the order. 'I think it's very important, to a degree that we can, that we do not share personal information,' Kotek said. 'Always comfortable with aggregated information, but when we start sharing personal medical information that could be misused, that's a challenge for me.' The state of Oregon has until the end of July 2025 to comply. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Oregon Legislature passes bill aimed at protecting Beaver State's namesake
A bill aimed at protecting beavers on more than 100,000 miles of Oregon's waterways passed the state Legislature on June 16 and heads to Gov. Tina Kotek for her signature. House Bill 3932 passed the Senate 17-11 after previously passing the House 35-18, mostly on party lines. The bill's advocates touted the industrious rodent's ability to filter toxins, recharge groundwater, and generate habitat for fish and wildlife in their natural course of building dams and canals in river systems. The bill prohibits trapping or removing beavers from public lands where the waterways have been officially classified as 'impaired' — having problems like too much sediment, low oxygen or water temperature that's too high. Roughly 100,000 miles of Oregon waterways currently qualify as impaired, state officials said. The bill requires the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to publish a map showing the waterways where the new beaver protections apply. 'We call this the beaver state for a reason. Beavers help stabilize ecosystems, improve water quality, and build natural resilience against the climate impacts we're already facing,' Sen. Courtney Neron Misslin, D –Wilsonville, Tigard, Sherwood and King City, said in a news release. The bill does not change existing laws that permit trapping or removing beavers on private land. The bill's sponsors pointed to a 2024 report that showed only 4% percent of beaver harvesting happens on impaired waterways on public lands. Oregon Republicans largely voted against the bill. In public testimony, some groups of trappers urged not passing the legislation. "(Beaver) populations must be managed responsibly to prevent ecological imbalances," Trevin Franks, of Hood River, wrote in a statement. "When beaver numbers swell unchecked, they cause extensive damage to agricultural lands, disrupt infrastructure, and threaten the habitats of other wildlife. By banning trapping, you are effectively ignoring a vital tool that ensures our environments remain balanced and healthy." Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, pushed back on that notion. 'If we started from scratch to create a resource to improve water quality and quantity on our impaired streams, we couldn't do better than beavers' Golden said in a news release. 'This bill puts them to work for us with the barest impact on Oregon trappers.' Zach Urness has been an outdoors reporter in Oregon for 18 years and is host of the Explore Oregon Podcast. He can be reached at zurness@ or (503) 399-6801. Find him on X at @ZachsORoutdoors and BlueSky at This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon beaver protections bill passed by state Legislature
