Latest news with #stateLegislature
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Gov. Kotek blames transportation package failure on Republicans ‘who just wanted to go home'
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, at the Oregon State Capitol Library in Salem, Oregon, on Tuesday, June 26, 2024. (Jordan Gale/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Gov. Tina Kotek blamed Republicans for the state Legislature's failure to pass a bill this session that would have provided enough funding for the Oregon Department of Transportation to avoid layoffs. At a news conference Saturday morning, following a late-Friday-night race to end the 2025 legislative session, Kotek touted what she said was progress on most of her key priorities for the state and 'unfinished business' in what was supposed to be passage of a historic transportation investment package. She criticized lawmakers from both parties for ending the session two days before they were constitutionally required. 'I'm here,' she said. 'Constitutional sine die is tomorrow, and legislators have gone home. And they have not produced anything on transportation that we need right now in the state. So that conversation is very much unfinished business.' Kotek hinted she could use her power as governor to call lawmakers back to Salem to finish this 'unfinished business' in a special session. 'There's a process for notifying if, for some reason, I'm going to change any of the bills. I don't know what those will be at this point,' she said. 'As governor, my job is to get the job done. And I have tools at my disposal to get that done. And I just hope everyone's going to show up for work when they need it.' The wins for now, Kotek said, were securing record investments in K-12 education, maintaining funding for housing and homelessness services and enough money to handle costs for the wildfire season. But she did not mask her frustration with lawmakers' inability to pass a bill that would have helped close the state transportation agency's $350 million budget deficit this year. Because of that, she said she would have to issue layoff notices to hundreds of transportation employees next week. 'I have workers, 600 to 700 workers, in the Oregon Department of Transportation, who are now facing layoffs because, for whatever reason, people couldn't come together as Oregonians to fund that,' she said. 'And I would put that at the feet of the folks who could have made that happen — and that is the Republican leadership.' Republican leaders pointed the finger at Democrats, who they said used a secretive behind-the-scenes process that left Republicans out of critical discussions and resulted in bloated proposals shared too late in the six-month session. 'All session long, people asked us: 'Well, what do you think of the transportation package?' And we'd say: 'We haven't seen it,'' House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, said at a news conference Friday night. 'So part of this issue, too, is getting to this last-ditch tax package that nobody supported happened today. That's ridiculous.' Finding a way to fund an agency that relies on gas taxes in a world of growing vehicle electrification, and finding a way to pay for long overdue and long underfunded road, bridge and public transit projects for the next decade, was a key priority for Kotek and Democratic lawmakers in both chambers going into the 2025 session. But the first version of the initial transportation package, House Bill 2025, wasn't publicly available until June 9 — less than three weeks from the June 29 constitutional deadline to end the legislative session. After several weeks of tense negotiations and counterproposals from Republicans and progressive Democrats, that ambitious 10-year, $14.6 billion proposal to fund not only the transportation department, but major bridge, road, bike, pedestrian and public transit projects, turned into a bare bones proposal to raise $2 billion over the next decade just for the state transportation agency. To do this, Democratic lawmakers hastily proposed Friday afternoon to increase the state's 40-cent gas tax by 3 cents and increase vehicle registration and title fees. Kotek met with lawmakers individually from late afternoon through the late evening to lobby for votes on the bill. She said she had them, but Democratic leaders in the House and Senate had called for an end to the session before the House could finish voting on bills that were still on the table, and they took an early vote on the $1 billion end-of-session budget bill that would have been the last ground on which Democrats had standing to bargain with Republicans. Agencies, lawmakers and lobbyists often use the bill, called the 'Christmas tree bill' to negotiate extra money for projects that didn't get much attention earlier in the session. By the time the transportation bill made its way to the floor of the Oregon House Friday night, Republican lawmakers voted not to suspend rules that would have allowed them to fast track its final vote, meaning lawmakers would have had to stay until Saturday or Sunday, which they opted not to do. Drazan said she was opposed to new taxes that would make it more expensive to live in the state, and that while she doesn't want anyone to lose their job, she felt the state was overinvesting in public sector jobs at the expense of making it easier for the private sector to grow. 'The answer to get those jobs back, to be able to have more money in our budget, is to grow the private sector and ensure that we have more tax dollars here,' she said. 'If we lack economic activity, we're not going to be able to sustainably support a budget that's growing anyway.' Kotek gave lawmakers credit for passing budget bills in the midst of chaotic and unpredictable federal actions and funding, and with historically low revenue forecasts due to President Donald Trump's trade and tariff policies. 'There was less money to work with for lawmakers at the end of the day,' she says. 'I can quibble, and we'll probably have comments going forward about some things that were left undone. In general, significant investments were made on those top priorities.' Kotek said she was pleased that the Legislature maintained investments in the statewide shelter system for Oregonians without housing and moving people from shelters to stable housing. She also lauded lawmakers for increasing capacity for youth mental health treatment and residential treatment for Oregonians with substance use disorders, sending a record $11.36 billion to Oregon schools, funding summer school and literacy improvement programs for kids, and finding enough money to get through the current fire season and respond to environmental disasters. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
With filing week over, election season in Spokane County asks if voters want to shake up their cities
May 9—Medical Lake residents will be asked whether to re-elect a mayor determined to see the city grow and further developed, or a former mayor worried growth is outpacing the city's capacity to pay for it and could start to price out current residents. Mayor Terri Cooper is running for her second term, touting the work her office has done to secure grants and other state support she believes has put the city on a path to revitalization. She highlighted the recent acquisition of Medical Lake Waterfront Park, for example, which the city had leased from the state for decades under terms set to become more expensive but that will now be transferred to the city outright in 2026 under an agreement secured with support from the state legislature. "I had a vision of creating Medical Lake as an outdoor recreation resort town that people would enjoy coming to enjoy the lakes and trails and beauty of our region," Cooper said in a brief interview Friday. "The city had basically been in a state of deterioration for many years." Cooper said she's proud of the work her staff and she have done to update local infrastructure and the city's economic development plan, and boost local festivals and park events, so she's seeking another four years to build on the foundation she feels she's laid in the first four. Cooper also came to regional prominence for her leadership in the face of a devastating fire in 2023 that destroyed dozens of homes in her city. A personal friend of former Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Cooper made a bid last year for that seat but dropped out before filing week. Her opponent this November will be John Higgins, who served as mayor for 12 years but declined to run for re-election in 2013. He also more recently served as a member of the Medical Lake School Board and worked as a local softball coach for decades before entering politics. Higgins praised Cooper's office's deftness in securing grants, but expressed concerns that the city didn't have the sales tax base necessary to sustain continued growth in the long term. He pointed to a pending 101-lot development and argued Medical Lake would have to expand its reliance on relatively costly water drawn from the city of Spokane, as well as the potential increase in area property values that would coincide. "It's pretty much a retirement community in Medical Lake; there's not a lot of young folks coming in, except the military," Higgins said. "I don't want to see folks pushed out of their homes. And when all this government money, like Biden's infrastructure stuff, when all that money's gone, there's not going to be much money left out there to keep up with all the people moving into Medical Lake." Higgins touted that the city had balanced its budget for 12 years under his leadership without raising local utility taxes, which he noted was one of the few levers the city had to increase local revenue. Last-minute additions in Spokane, Spokane Valley A few last-minute candidates for local races in Spokane and Spokane Valley mean real primary contests for more races. Races with only two candidates still appear on the August primary ballots, but only in races with three or more candidates is anyone eliminated before the November general. Justin Reed, co-owner of family business Great American Construction and freelance sports reporter for The Spokesman-Review, filed Friday to run for the Spokane City Council seat representing northeast Spokane against incumbent Jonathan Bingle and social justice advocate Sarah Dixit. The northwest Spokane council seat also has three candidates: incumbent Councilman Zack Zappone, private cigar lounge co-owner Cody Arguelles and Meals on Wheels board member Christopher Savage. In the final Spokane City Council seat up for election this year, Alejandro Barrientos, chief operating officer at SCAFCO Steel Stud Company, and Kate Telis, a former deputy prosecutor in New Mexico, are both seeking a seat being vacated by Councilwoman Lili Navarette, who was appointed to the seat in early 2024 and announced earlier this year she would not seek a new term. Three more candidates for Spokane Valley City Council also filed in the past two days, making that city's elections the most competitive in the county this year. Councilman Rod Higgins, the longest continuous serving member of the council, is not running for re-election this year. Four people have filed to try to claim his seat, including Kristopher Pockell, a software engineer and co-owner of Elixir Sauce Company; Mike Kelly, an entrepreneur who serves as chief financial officer for Salem-based KT Contracting; and Lisa Miller, a member of the Spokane County Board of Equalization. Finally, Adam Smith, owner of Smash Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, filed Friday as the fourth and final candidate vying for the seat. Smith ran unsuccessfully for the Spokane Valley City Council in 2019, 2021 and 2023. Councilwoman Laura Padden has picked up two opponents this week, including Brad Hohn, manager of the salvage yard High Mountain Horsepower. Joseph Ghodsee, a member of the city's Homeless and Housing Task Force and Gonzaga University student named Friday to the school's President's List, also filed for the position Friday. Spokane Valley Mayor Pam Haley received an opponent for her council seat Thursday in Realtor Catherine Nelson. Spokane Valley does not have a separate election for mayor, but rather the City Council appoints a mayor from among its members. Councilman Ben Wick, a councilmember from 2012 to 2015 before rejoining the council in 2017, has drawn a challenge from Daryl Williams, an employee of Fairmount Memorial Park who goes by "The Karaoke Guy" while operating his local karaoke pop-up business. The county's largest school district finally picked up a challenger Friday as well. All four Spokane Public Schools board members in seats up for re-election, Nikki Otero Lockwood, Hilary Kozel, Nicole Bishop and Jenny Slagle, have filed to retain their seats. Jessica Anundson, owner of Eye to Eye Advising, filed Friday to run against Kozel. A second Spokane municipal court position will also be contested. Judges Kristin O'Sullivan, Mary Logan and Gloria Ochoa-Bruck each filed for re-election Monday. As of Wednesday evening, Logan was the only to draw a challenge — from former Spokane City Attorney Lynden Smithson. On Friday, criminal defense attorney Sarah Freedman filed to run against Ochoa-Bruck.
