NEWS UPDATE FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GOMBERG: News From District 10 and Around the State

Here’s a story you may have missed.

Capital Chronicle reporter Julia Shumway was recognized in the Best of the West journalism contest for a story she wrote about Toledo reserve police officer Gary Sumpter.

As Shumway reported, reserve officer Gary Sumpter was the only one on duty in Toledo on a Saturday in mid-March in 1969 when a call came in about a driver leading an Oregon State Police trooper and a Newport police officer on a high-speed chase over the winding forested highway from Corvallis toward Newport. The driver, 17-year-old Michael Meester, opened fire, wounded the trooper, and then killed Sumpter, who was providing backup cover.

In 2023, I introduced a resolution to recognize Sumpter’s sacrifice, a necessary step to get the state Department of Transportation to install a highway memorial sign recognizing Sumpter’s death while trying to protect a fellow officer.

But that recognition was held up, week after week, while a group of Senators brought Senate votes to a standstill during their boycott of a bill on abortion and reproductive health care. The protest lasted six weeks while the family waited.

Judge Alison Gerber, editor of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, remarked on Shumway’s “excellent and well-written story using a seemingly minor piece of legislation to illustrate government dysfunction.”

In my mind, this was not a minor piece of legislation. As I said in the story, there are big bills. And there’s other bills that are big in a different way – because they may in fact be the biggest piece of legislation to ever affect a particular family in a very meaningful way.

Please take a moment and read the award-winning story here.

With legislation approved, a sign like this for reserve officer Gary Sumpter will soon be erected.

The park system saw an estimated 52.2 million day visits to 180 parks, historic sites, and natural areas last year. That was slightly higher than 2022’s total of 52.1 million but short of the record of 53.6 million set in 2021. Visitors also logged 2.9 million camper nights last year, also down just slightly from a record-high of 3 million in 2021.

Parks on the coast were the most popular for both day use and camping. According to Oregon State Parks, the most visited park was Harris Beach on the south coast. Other popular sites include Beachside State Recreation Site, Ecola State Park, Oswald West State Park, and Lewis and Clark State Recreation Site. Coast parks, across a total of 84 sites, saw 29.97 million visits in 2023, up from 28.8 million a year ago. The 2021 record was 31.4 visits.

Oregon’s Parks and Recreation Department has made a priority of adding capacity. They received bond funds of $50 million from the state to increase the number of campsites and improve aging infrastructure.

Parks officials said in a news release that hiring continues to be difficult for the park rangers needed to manage the parks at such high visitation levels. Parks is hoping to hire 250 seasonal rangers and ranger assistants this season and is currently taking applications on their website.

• State income tax rate schedules.
• Sales tax rates in neighboring states.
• Which states levy capital stock taxes?
• Property tax rates across states.
• Different ways states tax cannabis or vapor products.

According to the Foundation, Oregon ranks 15^th overall with a rate of $4,458 per capita.

Anyone who recreates on Oregon’s waterways with a nonmotorized stand-up paddleboard, canoe, kayak, inflatable watercraft, drift boat, or any hybrid combination with a length 10 feet and longer, needs to purchase a Waterway Access Permit and be able to provide the permit (printed copy or digital display) when approached by marine law enforcement.

The permit is transferable to other nonmotorized boats and youths 14 and younger are exempt.

Waterway Access Permit purchasing options through the Marine Board’s Boat Oregon Online Store include a 7-day permit for $5, an annual permit for $17, and a 2-year permit for $30.

This program was established by the Oregon Legislature in 2019 to help keep Oregon’s lakes, rivers, and streams free of destructive invasive species like zebra and quagga mussels. The Marine Board also uses the funding for improving nonmotorized access and increasing paddling education opportunities in underserved communities. Since the program’s implementation in 2020, the agency has approved more than $2.7 million in Waterway Access Grants (WAG). Boaters can see detailed information about grant-funded projects on the Marine Board’s Grant History Dashboard.

Coastal surf shops offer Stand Up Paddle Boarding lessons and rentals.

Oregon became recognized as a state in 1859. Our legislature’s first meeting was in the fall of 1860 for a brief session of 20-30 days. Lawmakers decided there that they would meet every two years, and only for a month or two.

Historically, lawmakers were largely farmers who would set aside their plowshares to take up the reins of government for a few weeks.

With the small population of the state back then, there wasn’t as much legislating to do, so the short biennial sessions were enough. Lawmakers kept meeting in the fall of odd-numbered years until 1885 when they moved the sessions to January — a sensible change since fall is harvest time for farmers.

Those biennial sessions went on for over a century. The governor can also call a special session if there’s an emergency for lawmakers to address.

By the late 2000s, Oregon was one of only five states to hold a legislative session every two years, and some lawmakers had been wondering for decades whether it made any sense to make a change. Problems didn’t go away and new ones evolved during the long break. Budgets needed to be adjusted. And special “emergency” sessions became more and more frequent.

In November 2010, voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the Oregon Constitution requiring that lawmakers meet every year. This ballot measure established the alternating long and short sessions: long sessions in odd years and short sessions in even years.

During odd-numbered years, the session starts on the Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and it starts during the first full week of February in even-numbered years.

Oregon has a “citizen’s legislature,” which means lawmakers aren’t supposed to be professional politicians. They’re expected to have jobs outside of the session, although they’re necessarily the type of jobs that allow for someone to be gone for a month or five. Legislative pay reflects that ostensibly part-time status.

Compensation has become a more controversial issue in recent years as the nature of work as a whole and the workload of legislating has changed.

Three of our state capitols.

Listen to the entire program here.

Listen to my report on ADVs to the Governor, Secretary of State and Treasurer. The meeting also discussed the future of the Elliott Research Forest.

Finally, mark your calendar for the return of the Oregon Coast Economic Summit, scheduled for May 8 at the Chinook Winds Convention Center in Lincoln City. Registration is required but there is no cost. Learn more and sign up at www.OregonCoastEconomicSummit.com.

And that’s the news for this week. Enjoy the Spring as our gardens stir back to life. And I’ll be in touch again next week.

House District 10