NEWS UPDATE FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GOMBERG: The Public Safety Priority

By Representative David Gomberg, House District 10

A fundamental responsibility of government is to keep people safe.

But how do we sustain safety when we have police stations that are aging out and falling apart? How do fire stations help in a natural disaster when they are located in the tsunami zone and will be impacted by a disaster? We ask Oregon families to be two weeks ready, but most of our hospitals only have three days’ supply of drinking water or generator fuel.

These problems are most acute in Oregon’s smallest towns. And as I often say, small towns can’t afford big projects. Toledo’s police station is a block from the water and will be lost in the aftermath of a large earthquake. But a new Toledo Public Safety Building and seismic upgrades will cost $5.3 million. With a population of 3,500 that comes to $1500 for every man, woman, and child in the city limits. Not gonna happen without state support.

Last session, I talked about the problem of small-town water and sewer maintenance systems that need help. We secured $100 million to support fifty projects around the state. And this year, Governor Kotek has proposed continuing that effort by proposing another $100 million for water and sewer grants. I’m pleased with that progress and am now shifting my primary attention to long-term public safety.

Any time you try to address long-term needs in Salem, you run up against short-term necessities. A new police station can wait while we address homelessness, confront addiction, or put out forest fires. But at some point, long-term needs must be considered, or else they may become even more expensive new emergencies.

In the next week, I will introduce legislation to fund twenty infrastructure improvements for police, fire, wildfire training, and emergency supply and equipment storage. Those projects, averaging $2 million each, are spread across rural Oregon in districts now represented by Democrats and Republicans. I will also propose a $10 million grant fund for water and emergency fuel for hospitals within 25 miles of the tsunami inundation zone.

Examples include $3 million for land acquisition, planning, and construction of new fire stations in McMinnville; $2 million for an Emergency Operations Center and training space in Talent; $2 million for design and construction of a sobering center in Jackson County; $2.79 million for procurement of equipment, emergency services vehicles and construction of a new justice center in Lake County; $1.7 million for equipment and infrastructure replacement or modernization at the Sheriff’s Office in Grant County; $10 million for design, planning and construction of the Fire Station 74 rebuild in Gresham; $1.35 million for the acquisition of Waldport Fire Hall by Central Coast Fire and Rescue; $600,000 for Benton County Community Health Center emergency services in Alsea; and of course, $5.3 million for renovations and seismic upgrades to the Toledo Public Safety Building.

Money is tight this session and we are looking at increased costs for schools, health and mental health, housing, and for wildfire response. My proposals would not attach the tax revenue that supports those programs but rather ask for support from lottery funding through the legislative capital construction budget.

It is early in session with a long road ahead. Changes being announced by the federal government are certain to affect our budget and command our attention. But public safety will remain my priority this year and I’ll be working with leadership from both parties to better prepare and protect our communities.

As I mentioned earlier, we are witnessing uncertain times. And that uncertainty affects our state budget, our local businesses, and potentially your pocketbook.

Some constituents wrote me after last week’s newsletter to criticize my “Trump-bashing.” But criticizing the new administration is not my intent here. Explaining what is going on to you is. And I provide links back to every article I reference.

President Donald Trump declared a 25% tariff on Canada, Mexico, and China last Saturday, potentially starting a trade war that would likely lead to price increases on groceries and numerous other products. These tariffs, he said, were justified as a response to “the extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl” constituting a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

The president said later Friday that he wasn’t using the tariffs as a negotiating tool, but as a way to raise revenue for the federal government and bring attention to fentanyl flowing into the country.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service writes on its website that Canada and Mexico “are the United States’ first and third largest suppliers of agricultural products averaging $30.9 billion and $25.5 billion in 2017–21, respectively. “Mexico supplied the United States with 31 percent of imported horticultural products including fruit, vegetables, and alcoholic beverages. Canada is also a source of horticultural products, as well as grains, and meats.”

The Office of the United States Trade Representative writes on its website that the U.S. imported $562.9 billion worth of goods from China in 2022.

Mexico and Canada both reached a deal to pause impending tariffs until at least early March. On Tuesday morning, a 10% import tax on all items from China went into effect.

How does this affect Oregon business? “Businesses do not like uncertainty,” Carl Riccadonna, Oregon’s Chief Economist, told OPB. “They do not like to be playing a game where the rules of the game are in flux, and they have to make these adjustments to supply chains and investment patterns.”

In Oregon, industries like agriculture, construction technology, and computer chip manufacturing rely on international trade. In 2023, the state exported more than $25 billion worth of goods to the global market and imported nearly $20 billion, according to the trade group Oregon Business & Industry. “The escalation of a tariff or trade war — particularly with major trading partners like China — could negatively impact Oregon’s key exports, such as timber, wheat, wine, and hazelnuts,” the economists at Oregon’s Office of Economic Analysis wrote in their most recent quarterly outlook.

The biggest exports from Oregon are computers and electronics, transportation equipment, machinery, chemicals, as well as agriculture – all supporting roughly 90,000 jobs at places like Nike and Intel.

Tariffs proposed by President Donald Trump could stymie construction in Oregon, industry representatives say.

Tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico stand to further constrict already declining Oregon homebuilding, as well as other construction, industry representatives say. Builders would experience the most acute price hikes in softwood lumber from Canada, the material gypsum used for drywall, electric transformers and kitchen appliances, all of which have already gone up in price in recent years.

If tariffs continue and they don’t exclude all fossil fuels, experts say Northwest energy consumers could see utility costs rise, as the region is dependent on Canada for supplies of crude oil, natural gas and electricity. That dependence is particularly heavy for natural gas, and any increase in prices could add to the already steep rate increases ratepayers of natural gas and electric utilities have seen during the last five years.

PGE’s Port Westward gas-fired power plant near Clatskanie.

More than one in three Oregon households use natural gas as their primary source of heating, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. About a quarter of the electricity consumed in Oregon is generated by burning natural gas. And the price of natural gas is a significant driver of the cost of wholesale electricity, which utilities buy to meet demand, particularly at times of energy scarcity.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission said it is too early to tell what price impact tariffs may have on power costs and consumer rates.

On a completely different front, Oregon exports 46% of its total wine exports to Canada. In response to the tariff, Premiers in several Canadian provinces responded by announcing they would remove American wines and other alcoholic beverages from the shelves of their state-run liquor stores. “Buy Canadian Instead” signs adorned with maple leaves began replacing American bottles on Canadian store shelves.

On Monday, numerous Oregon wineries received notifications from their business partners in Ontario and Quebec that their wines would be removed from shelves and that future orders would be canceled. Oregon’s wine exports to Canada totaled 72,641 cases in 2023, according to the most recent Oregon Vineyard and Winery Census.

Late Monday, the American and Canadian governments reported a 30-day pause on tariffs while negotiations over border security and other issues continued. In a statement released Monday afternoon, Gina Bianco, executive director of the Oregon Wine Board, called the temporary trade ceasefire “encouraging.”

Broadley Vineyards in Monroe is one of several wineries that lost a pending deal in Quebec over the weekend. After the 30-day pause was announced, Jessica Broadley, the winery’s direct sales and operations manager, was asked if the break would make a difference. “Honestly, I don’t think the 30-day delay will change anything. I think the only thing that will change anything is if the tariffs are canceled,” she replied.

With more than 2000 bills introduced and as many as 2000 more expected, we are clearly heading toward a record number of proposals this session.

Some observers suspect the high volume of bills may be because there are fewer newly elected lawmakers this session. More seasoned members tend to file more proposed legislation.

Some say the larger number of bills reflects an increasing push to be heard amid an intensifying partisan divide. With President Donald Trump now in office, some of Oregon’s Democrats may feel the need to reassert their progressive beliefs while the state’s Republican lawmakers may feel energized to introduce Trump-inspired bills.

The important thing to keep in mind is that most will not pass. Typically, 400-500 measures reach the Governor for final approval. The great majority go nowhere or die along the way.

That said, all of these bills need to be crafted by legislative lawyers, processed, and then committee chairs need to decide which are actually heard. All of that takes time and doesn’t necessarily lead to a more fruitful Legislature.

Across the board, this session’s proposed measures run the gamut from very serious to the less pressing. They include meaty bills that attempt to address Oregon’s ailing test scores among schoolchildren and the need to prepare for the next ferocious wildfire season, as well as lighter measures, such as one declaring February as Oregon Truffle Month.

In my new role as Speaker Pro Tempore and therefore a leading rule writer in the House, I’ll be looking at changes to limit the number of bills to be introduced in future sessions.

As the session unfolds, I’ll try to highlight particular hearings that may be interesting, insightful, or entertaining.

On Tuesday, the House Committee On Commerce and Consumer Protection heard HB 3178 which addresses situations where people purchase a car, finance it through the car dealership, and then learn, sometimes weeks later, that the loan did not go through. They then need to refinance the car or return it, paying the dealer for any devaluation.

You can watch the entire meeting here and see the HB 3178 hearing at about the 13-minute mark. Toward the end of the hearing, I asked one of the witnesses about the contracts that allow this and how a consumer might be made aware. In an unscripted and unplanned moment, they held up a purchase contract to show me…

Later in the week, the Committee heard my bill, HB 3431 which would allow some online news services to publish public notices rather than restricting those notices to printed papers or their web pages. The measure was supported by Philomath News, Yachats News, and the City of Philomath.

You can watch the hearing here starting at the 39-minute mark.

Philomath Mayor Christoper McMorran works in the Capitol and often says people need to know which “hat” he is wearing – Mayor or legislative assistant. So at the hearing, he made his role very clear…

We often hear that legislative sessions are a marathon, not a sprint. More aptly, they might be called a relay race. You run as fast as you can, hand off the baton, catch your breath, then pick up the baton and run again. This past week seemed like it was a month long as we all worked to get our bills finalized, introduced, and hopefully heard.

Friday the Ways and Means Committee was only 17 minutes long and they processed several grant requests and reports. I drove home to Otis with a few extra minutes before departing for Philomath – two hours away. The occasion was the annual Samaritan Awards.

Staged at the Philomath Scout Lodge and hosted by the Philomath Area Chamber of Commerce, the evening featured a celebration of community volunteers and exemplary businesses and organizations. An annual highlight is the presentation of the First Citizen awards, which went to Kyah Weeber (Future First Citizen), Trey Ecker (Junior First Citizen), Janel Lajoie (First Citizen) and Yvonne McMillan (Senior First Citizen).

First Citizen award winners at Friday night’s Samaritan Awards included, from left, Kyah Weeber (Future First Citizen), Trey Ecker (Junior First Citizen), Janel Lajoie (First Citizen, accepted by Tyana Newbill) and Yvonne McMillan (Senior First Citizen). (Photo by Brad Fuqua/Philomath News)

The Philomath Middle School Choir performs the National Anthem at the beginning of the program. (Photo by Brad Fuqua/Philomath News)

The National Anthem was wonderfully sung by the Philomath Middle School Choir. Afterward, I stepped out of the room to invite them to come to Salem and sing for the opening ceremonies of a legislative day. And I’m a bit embarrassed to tell you that this was the exact moment emcee Billy Scott chose to recognize me at the event!

I’m catching my breath at home this weekend and preparing for another sprint early Monday. Thanks for reading and staying in touch!

Warm Regards,