NEWS UPDATE FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GOMBERG: What’s Shaking on the Coast and In Salem

These weekly newsletters now reach more than one in ten households across our sprawling district.

People continue to ask me who writes them. I do! Throughout the week I gather information and every Sunday morning, I sit down to pull files together and organize information I think may be most important and useful to you. I try to keep it relevant, objective, and local.

In response, I get dozens and sometimes hundreds of emails. Many simply say thank you. Some offer feedback and comments. (Last week three people wrote to say they found money on the Unclaimed Property link I included.) And of course, many others write with questions, suggestions, or a different perspective.

I think of it as an enormous virtual Town Hall every Monday. I provide an update and if you have questions, I get you a detailed response.

I read every letter and each receives an answer. The exception is mass mailing that goes to every legislator and doesn’t come from HD 10 residents. With just one staff person, we just don’t have the time to answer all of those.

When the legislature is not in session, I maintain an aggressive outreach schedule – visiting community meetings and events, schools, chambers of commerce, and fundraisers. Many appearances are announced in advance in these weekly reports. My aim is to be accessible and approachable in venues that people don’t go to looking for an elected representative. People stop and ask me questions all the time!

I don’t do a lot of traditional in-person Town Halls. Candidly, they tend to attract a small and partisan group of friends and supporters. That’s fine but I prefer to speak to a Chamber of Commerce or Rotary where questions are not always as affirming and feedback is more broad.

But during the 2025 session, which will be convening in Salem from January through June, I plan a series of regular online town halls from the Capitol. You can log in and ask questions from the comfort of your home or office. Watch this space for details!

The warning was issued immediately after a 7-magnitude earthquake struck at 10:44 a.m., about 45 miles southwest of Eureka, California.

The warning stretched from Davenport, California, to just south of Florence, Oregon.

This map from the U.S. Tsunami Warning Centers shows the tsunami warning area following a 7.3 magnitude quake off the California coast Thursday.

Some people saw all this as a false alarm. I saw it as a stark reminder. Cascadia is out there! These events underscore the importance of being prepared for future emergencies. As I learned when fires unexpectedly reached my Otis home four years ago, taking steps now to ensure readiness can make all the difference during natural disasters.

Did you get a warning text, call, or email?? Lincoln County emergency managers sent a tsunami warning to the 12,140 subscribers who signed up for their alert system. I strongly urge everyone to participate.

To stay safe and prepared, the Oregon Department of Emergency Management (OEM) recommends signing up for emergency alerts, familiarizing yourself with local evacuation routes, and creating an emergency plan for your household. OEM also encourages people to “Be 2 Weeks Ready” for any emergency. This includes having a plan and enough supplies for you and your household to survive for at least two weeks following a natural disaster.

Every two years, the Legislature passes a biennial state budget. The first step in this long process is a recommended budget the Governor delivers to the Legislature in early December. The Governor’s Recommended Budget is referred to by insiders as the “GRB”.

The process actually begins earlier with the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) analyzing each agency budget and determining what their “Current Service Levels” (CSL) will be going forward. CSL is what it will cost to continue all the current permanent programs after a standard inflation factor is added. Adjustments are then made reflecting available revenue, changing priorities, and evolving needs.

Thanks to the healthy revenue forecast that we received a couple of weeks ago, the GRB is able to go beyond CSL (Did you follow that??) and proposed more substantial investments in three major areas of pressing need:

• Housing and Homelessness
• K-12 Education, Early Learning, and Child Welfare
• Behavioral Health

It seems housing has been a pressing need since I first went to Salem in 2013 as your representative. Reading this budget, I was reminded of a short speech I made back in 2017. Please take a moment to listen.

Listen to my housing comments here.

For those of you particularly concerned about the need to increase K-12 education funding, you will be happy to hear that school districts would see record increases in this proposed budget, increases amounting to over a billion dollars at this point and moving from $10.2 billion in the current biennium to $11.36 billion in the next. This is of course very dynamic. Legislators will likely have further requests to improve funding for special education, minimum pay for educators, and improved support for substitute teachers and classified staff.

And Kotek wants lawmakers to route $140 million in federal COVID stimulus payments to build hundreds of new beds for addiction treatment and mental health. She’s asking for $40 million to continue funding county “deflection” programs that work to route people caught with small amounts of drugs toward treatment.

The Governor’s proposal mentions a $4 million boost to the office of Attorney General-elect Dan Rayfield. Half of that money would fund attorneys to “defend statewide policy” on things like abortion, immigration, and trade “when the landscape ahead is uncertain”.

To help the state better prepare for wildfires, Kotek wants to reduce the amount that would ordinarily be deposited into the state’s Rainy Day Fund by $150 million. That money would instead go to the Oregon Department of Forestry and the Office of State Fire Marshal to help those agencies address ongoing costs during fire season.

For all that it proposes, the budget summary leaves some big questions unanswered, such as how lawmakers might find billions in new money to pay for road maintenance and major highway projects the state wants to complete. That question is slated to be a major focus of next year’s legislative session. Governor Kotek’s budget includes $1.75 billion for the Oregon Department of Transportation to address budget shortfalls, but the governor said Monday she did not have a proposal for where that money would come from.

In the steps leading up to yesterday’s release of the GRB, all the preparatory work has been done behind closed doors. Once it enters the legislative sphere, the process becomes much more public and transparent. There will be opportunity for lobbying, advocacy, and constituent input, individually to legislators and via written and oral testimony to committees. There will be amendments and votes, debate and deliberation for the next seven months. That means a chance for you to engage with the issues you believe most crucial.

The link to view the recording of the Governor’s press conference is here and her press release is here. Here’s reporting from OPB and from the Capital Chronicle. For an interesting take check out Eight things to know about Gov. Kotek’s $138 billion proposed budget.

I have written in the past about the offensive fact that wildfire survivors here in Oregon, still struggling to recover, can be taxed on any legal recovery settlements and lawyer’s fees. When lawyers get a third and taxes another third, a family that lost everything is left with little to build back with.

Last year, we fixed that in Oregon. I was proud to be a chief sponsor of Senate Bill 1520 ending state income taxation on settlements and lawyer fees for wildfire victims which passed both chambers unanimously.

But that still left us with a larger problem with Federal taxes.

The Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act passed the Senate on Wednesday night, about six months after it was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives. It had been stalled for months, tucked into opposing tax packages from Senate Republicans and Democrats. The bill, which is likely to be signed by President Joe Biden, would exempt people who have survived a wildfire between 2016 and 2026 from paying federal income taxes on disaster recovery settlements and fees paid to lawyers that were received or paid between 2020 and 2026.

You can view this drone footage of Otis recovery here.

If you have problems, are concerned, or simply confused over insurance and financial issues, the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation (DFR) can help you. DFR’s consumer advocates field calls every day from Oregonians. Advocates have extensive industry knowledge and they analyze complex issues.

The Division recovered nearly $1.6 million for Oregonians in the third quarter of 2024.

Learn more about available help here.

Here are a few examples of work DFR advocates did during the third quarter:

• A consumer filed a complaint that they were charged for a hernia repaired while they were under anesthesia for another surgery. It was found that an agent accidentally denied the claim in error. This kept the consumer from being balance billed for $15,830.38.
• A consumer purchased travel insurance and suffered a medical event during the trip. A claim was filed, and the consumer was reimbursed $453.80, which was the maximum coverage limit. The consumer submitted additional bills that went above the maximum coverage limit, but the insurer did not communicate either acceptance or denial for about 11 months. The consumer submitted a complaint and the insurer acknowledged that there had been delays in communication. After a division consumer advocate had further discussion with the insurer, the company agreed to issue an additional $173.80 to satisfy the consumer’s expenses.
• A consumer submitted a duplicate payment through a money transmitter, and the company returned the duplicate payment to that money transmitter. However, the consumer did not receive the payment from the money transmitter. After the division’s involvement, the consumer was refunded $1,068.65.

Life can get complicated and it is good to have a knowledgeable advocate in your corner. Anyone who may need a consumer advocate can call 1-888-877-4894 (toll-free) or email dfr.insurancehelp@dcbs.oregon.gov for insurance questions and dfr.financialserviceshelp@dcbs.oregon.gov for financial services questions. You can find more information here.

My district sojourn this week included a tour of the Monroe Health Center, meetings with city leadership in Monroe and School Board and Superintendents from Benton Couty Schools, the Surfrider Volunteer Holiday Party, a Donor Reception at the Lincoln City Cultural Center, the annual Craft Faire at Connie Hansen Garden, Lincoln City Giving Fair, and the awkwardly what-to-wear dilemma of the formal holiday Hawaiian themed Angels Anonymous Banquet.