By Representative David Gomberg, House District 10
Dear Neighbors and Friends,
I am occasionally asked if I write these weekly reports myself or if they are penned by staff.
Yes! I do write them myself. Each week as a variety of information crosses my desk, I put some into a folder. Then, usually on Sunday morning, I open that folder and begin to compose. Some weeks it comes easier than others. Then on Monday morning (or on a Tuesday of Holiday Weekends), my staff formats and sends out the report to nearly 10,000 readers.
Originally we used a “Gov Delivery” service offered by the state. But over the last year, we found that when someone hit “reply” rather than inserting our formal email address, letters didn’t get to us. And the last thing I wanted was for people to write and then presume I was ignoring them. Because we diligently answer all of the hundreds of emails we get from constituents each week. So we purchased service from Constant Contact and that has been working fine.
If you are interested in reviewing government news as I do each morning, I encourage you to check out eClips – a free service of the Oregon State Library. They provide an excellent overview of headlines and news summaries from around the state with links to the full article. You can choose to subscribe and receive a report by email or log on to the main page at your leisure.
Find more information here.
Every Tuesday morning at 7 a.m. for the past several years, I’ve joined Brian Kirsch on KBCH for a conversation and update on our legislature and our state. Last Tuesday we broadcast our final update. And ironically, just as we were wrapping-up to say goodbye, the power blipped and the station went temporarily off the air.
All of the stations of Yaquina Broadcasting are now permanently off the air. The five longtime Lincoln County radio stations signed off at midnight December 31st as the business closed. The stations are KNPT-AM and KNCU-FM in Newport, KBCH-AM and KCRF-FM in Lincoln City, and KWDP-AM in Waldport. The music formats of the stations ranged from classic rock to adult contemporary and country. The Federal Communications Commission cancelled the license for a sixth station, KYTE-FM, in June because it was not broadcasting in areas required under its license.
Local radio and local news are a critical part of community strength and identity. I’m sad to see five stations suddenly gone. Thank you to my loyal early morning listeners for tuning in. You can read more details at Yachats News.
Is Oregon’s population growing or declining? It depends who you ask!
Population and demographics are important because they are used to allocate funding for state and federal programs, disburse money to schools, and project tax revenue as part of the budget process. Population trends also tell us how many services we need, how many workers we may have to provide those services, and future needs for students, health care, or retirement living.
When we decide boundaries of legislative districts every ten years to make sure they are equal in population, we rely on the door-to-door counts completed by the Census Bureau. The rest of the time, we rely on educated estimates.
The Census Bureau’s 2023 population estimates, released in mid-December, showed that Oregon lost about 6,000 residents in the year leading up to July 1, 2023, representing a 0.1% loss to a total of 4,233,358 residents. That came after the state shed about 0.4% of its residents in the year before.
But recently revised certified estimates by Portland State University’s Population Research Center show that Oregon’s population grew by 0.52%, or roughly 22,000 residents, over the same time period. The center estimates that the state’s population now stands at 4,291,525.
Oregon has a relatively low birth rate which means more people die than are born each year. Historically that has been offset by a net migration, meaning more people move here than move away. Whether we have slightly grown or slightly declined, Oregon robust growth seems to have come grinding to a halt. That’s the main message here.
Economists say Oregon depends on working-age people moving from elsewhere to shop, pay taxes and join the workforce. Slower population growth, or a population decline, would strain Oregon’s economy, leaving companies struggling to hire workers or grow their sales.
| You can review County information on an interactive map here. You can also review current population and changes for each city and town.
Here is an interesting related story.
The share of in-state residents served by Oregon’s largest universities has dropped dramatically over the past two decades. This fall, Oregonians barely outnumbered out-of-state and international students at both the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.
With a combined enrollment of more than 60,000, the University of Oregon and Oregon State enroll the bulk of Oregon’s 98,545 undergraduate students and advanced degree seekers in our seven public universities.
Generally, out-of-state students pay higher tuition than in-state students. A huge chunk of out-of-state student enrollment at Oregon State University is driven by the school’s online programs, which began picking up steam around 2005. There are nearly 11,000 students enrolled in those online programs today, 75% of whom live outside Oregon. Those 8,100 students pay the same online tuition as Oregon residents and don’t come to campus, so they’re not creating capacity issues in Corvallis. |
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| With the beginning of a New Year, the Oregon DMV will be raising most of its fees.
The list of increased prices includes the cost to renew a driver’s license, renew vehicle tags, take a driver’s test, or acquire required permits.
For example, a non-commercial license will go from $60 to $64. Increases will help keep our rural offices open.
The agency’s spending on services has far outpaced the amount brought in by fees for several years. Most DMV fee increases over the last 20 years have gone to transportation projects at the city, county, and state levels, not to DMV operating costs. Most of the fee increases were approved by the Legislature earlier this year to help the DMV cover its costs and avoid reducing services.
Save time and perhaps some money by conducting your DMV business online for most common transactions. Customers can see what they can do online now at DMV2U.Oregon.gov.
Some services, like adding the Real ID option to your license, must be done in person. Before you go to the DMV, make sure you have all the documents you need and that your local office is open by visiting OregonDMV.com. Use the Real ID tool to determine which documents you need to bring for Real ID. |
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| There was an excellent article about the Newport Fishermen’s Wives over the New Year weekend. Over the years, they evolved from a social club into a nonprofit and volunteer-run organization that advocates for fishing families, provides education about the industry, and maintains Newport’s fishermen’s memorial for men and women lost at sea. They handed out 300 gifts to kids for the December holidays, along with food for families working in Oregon’s fishing industry. |
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| Fishing is a notoriously challenging and, at times, dangerous industry. It’s also a historically lucrative one for the state of Oregon. The industry generated more than $500 million in income for the statewide economy as recently as 2019, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
But the pandemic hit nearly every industry hard in 2020 when the world economy came to a halt. The fishing industry was no different, and three years later it is still struggling to rebound. There were signs of hope in 2021, but state economists said the industry only brought in $231 million in revenues in 2022.
I will be supporting Fishermen’s Wives programs again with continuing needs in 2024 as families work to recover from the economic challenges of the past few years. |
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| Attention community and business leaders, elected officials, activists, educators, organizers, and policy influencers. Mark your calendar now for the return of the Oregon Coast Economic Summit, scheduled for May 8, 2024, at Chinook Winds Casino Resort. |
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| The Summit is presented by the Legislative Coastal Caucus – a bicameral, bipartisan group of Oregon State Legislators that represent all Oregon Coast legislative districts. Over 600 people attended the last event in 2019 which promotes the economic development of rural coastal regions, builds relationships across regional and political spectrums, and pursues a balanced approach that can unite all Oregonians.
I’ll let you know when the 2024 agenda and registration materials are available. |
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| I want to conclude this report and welcome the dawn of a new year with some thoughts from Dick Hughes from the Oregon Capital Insider.
“Resolve”, he says, “to make at least one new friend each month. Not just any friend but someone who is unlike yourself, whether in politics, faith, race/ethnicity or other ways. Why? The resulting conversations on the grassroots level could begin to achieve what often eludes statewide policymakers: bridge the political, geographic and other divides that undermine Oregon.”
According to the Pew Research Center, 63% of U.S. adults say all or most of their close friends are of the same race or ethnicity as themselves. Other research indicates a majority of Americans lack close friends of the opposing political party. As is reflected in the Greater Idaho campaign, increasing numbers of conservative Americans are moving to “red” states and liberal Americans to “blue” states. The Associated Press reported, “Americans are segregating by their politics at a rapid clip, helping fuel the greatest divide between the states in modern history.”
“Why does this matter? If we spend little time talking with – and more important, listening to – people of opposing persuasions, we misjudge them. We see differences, not commonalities.”
I continue to believe we have more in common that we do separating us. I see that every day in my “swing” district which is neither red nor blue but purple. I know what we can accomplish when we work together and there is much of that work that needs to be done. And every day in Salem I endeavor to bring that attitude and respect to a place where too often, partisan and geographical divides get in the way of reasonable solutions and real progress.
Happy New Year, my friends! May 2024 bless you with health, happiness, comfort and prosperity.email: Rep.DavidGomberg@oregonlegislature.gov
phone: 503-986-1410
address: 900 Court St NE, H-480, Salem, OR, 97301
website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/gomberg |
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