NEWS UPDATE FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GOMBERG: Migrating Birds, Wasting Sea Stars, and Farm Stands

As co-chair of the Transportation and Economic Development Committee, it fell to me to manage commitments to our vets during a session of budget reductions. From the very beginning, our commitment was to sustain those investments.

Through HB 5006, we secured funding for vital support and infrastructure that directly benefits veterans and their families. Funding for the construction of the veterans’ home in Roseburg and the Mid-Willamette Family YMCA Veterans Housing for the Albany Veterans Apartments Project made the top of the list.

A summary of veterans’ policy measures that received a public hearing and their status can be found here.

I was particularly proud to author and unanimously pass HCR 16 honoring Specialist Four Paul “Jeff” Cochran for his service to his country. Jeff grew up in Philomath and was killed during combat operations in Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam. He is still remembered and honored through the Paul J. Cochran Veterans Memorial Park. With the passage of this Memorial, a sign can now be erected on Highway 20 nearby.

While more work lies ahead, we continue to mark real progress for our vets.

If passed in November, the funds will go towards Lincoln County’s Veteran Services office, which currently serves 5,200 military veterans and active-duty Coast Guard and NOAA members, connecting them with county and federal benefits.

According to a 2022 survey, at least one in four veterans has a service-related disability, but less than one-third file a Veterans Affairs disability claim. The study found nearly half of veterans do not understand the benefits available to them.

The number of birds migrating through Oregon this spring declined drastically compared to years past. Between April and May, 43 million birds migrated through Oregon, 47% fewer than the same time last year. That’s according to BirdCast numbers analyzed for the Bird Alliance of Oregon.

A 2019 study by Cornell University researchers found a nearly 30% decline in the North American bird population since 1970. Limiting light pollution is one way humans can help their feathered friends.

As these birds fly over cities at night, light pollution can blot out the stars and disrupt their natural navigation system. They can wind up trapped in the city and either run into buildings or collapse from exhaustion after circling repeatedly. The Bird Alliance of Oregon’s Lights Out program encourages Oregonians to turn off outdoor lights and close their curtains or blinds to aid birds during their spring and fall migration periods. The peak migration periods this year are from April 15 to May 19, and from September 19 to October 19.

People can also help migrating birds by keeping cats inside, treating windows to prevent birds from running into unmarked glass, planting native plants, and talking to friends and neighbors about light pollution.

Read more in OPB.

The Western Meadowlark is Oregon’s official state bird. The Osprey is the official Oregon state raptor.

A mass die-off began among sea stars along North America’s West Coast in 2013. Of 20 species affected, the pizza-sized sunflower star was hardest hit. More than 5 billion sunflower stars, or 90% of their global population, wasted away. With these key predators of sea urchins largely wiped out, the spiny grazers proliferated and chewed their way through kelp forests, leading to widespread losses of that productive ocean habitat.

For 12 years, the cause of the wasting disease was either unknown or, mistakenly, thought to be a virus. Researchers in Washington and British Columbia now say they have solved the deadly mystery that has stumped scientists for more than a decade. It is a strain of bacteria known as Vibrio pectenicida.

Left unchecked by the sunflower sea star, sea urchins can overgraze kelp forests, turning them into barren areas free of sea kelp and other coastal underwater vegetation.

The Trump Administration has proposed cutting the U.S. Geological Survey budget 38% in 2026 and eliminating its biological research arm, which environmental advocates call “the backbone of environmental and ecological monitoring in the United States.” The Trump proposal would include shutting down the sea star lab and four other fisheries research centers in Oregon and Washington.

Read more in the Lincoln Chronicle or listen to Think Out Loud.

“We lost 17% of our food supply to the food pantry with a cut of one USDA program, just one program, and all of that product is high-protein nutritional food,” Thornberry said. This past spring, the U.S. Department of Agriculture made more than $1 billion in federal funding cuts and program pauses.

“Now almost more than ever, the amount of people who need food, who need clothing, who need resources, that number is going up,” Philomath Mayor Christopher McMorran told the crowd. “And the amount of resources and support that we’re getting from the government — that number is going down.”

Thornberry said significant cuts and changes to SNAP will be coming in October. SNAP, an acronym for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is a federally-funded, state-administered program designed to reduce hunger and improve nutrition for people with limited incomes.

Susan and I attended the event and I led a live auction toward the end of the evening that raised thousands of dollars.

Brad Fuqua / Philomath News photos.

Oregon’s agritourism sector connects the public with farms, ranches, and agricultural experiences, offering a variety of recreational, educational, and leisure activities. It encompasses activities like farm stays, farm-to-table dinners, corn mazes, and direct sales of farm products. This sector provides supplemental income for farms, promotes agricultural education, and strengthens connections between consumers and the source of their food.

But increasingly, the desire to support farms and get people out into the countryside is clashing with our traditional land use regulations. How much development or traffic do we want in our farm use zones?

I was confronted with the local complexity of zoning rules recently when I visited two district wineries. One is allowed to feature a food cart near their tasting room during music events. The other is not. The vineyards are right across the street from each other!

On a statewide basis, this question came to a head this summer. In July, the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development released proposed rules changes for farmstand permits, the result of a series of meetings held by a 20-member committee composed of farmers, land-use organizations, and county planners. The proposal, if implemented, would limit various public events and activities on farmland, as well as narrow what could be sold at farm stands.

Land-use conservationists say such changes are necessary to preserve farmland from commercial development, while farmers and other land-use groups say they would threaten the economic survival of small farms. Advocates argued that farmstand regulation is necessary to ensure farmland stays farmland, and does not become primarily non-farm commercial operations with restaurants and grocery stores, and concert venues. Farm owners countered that these auxiliary activities are critical to their economic survival.

Farmers and others have long complained about frustratingly complex regulations that can be attached to farmstand permits. In Oregon, a farmstand permit allows farms in exclusive farm-use zones to have 25% of their total annual revenue come from hosting events and the sale of small retail goods like jams or logo-embossed T-shirts.

House Bill 3133 in the 2025 legislative session attempted to refine and simplify rules around farmstand permits. But the bill didn’t make it out of the House Committee On Agriculture, Land Use, Natural Resources and Water. As I said, the proposed rules have been withdrawn. But I expect the conversation to continue.

Read more in the Oregonian and OPB.

Your Oregon income tax is going to be lower.

Oregon has no sales tax and relies primarily on the income tax. And rather than develop our own detailed tax code, we “connect” to the federal tax rules.

Recent federal legislation includes more than 100 provisions that will impact Oregon’s tax system, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office. State analysts examined some of the largest cuts in the bill and estimated that Oregon will forgo about $451 million in personal income tax revenue and $581 million in corporate taxes over the biennium.

The preliminary analysis determined that Oregon could lose out on roughly $972 million in the two-year budget period that began in July, based on various federal tax changes that will flow down to the state.

Oregonians who tell me they yearn for tax reductions will be pleased. But income taxes are how we pay for schools, health care, housing, and wildfire response. Budgets that we tightened in the recent legislative session may need to be further reduced. And that may hurt people who need those tax cuts the most.

Here is another problem.

Imports are a significant part of Oregon’s economy, with $28 billion worth of goods coming through the state’s ports last year. A number of countries have responded to President Donald Trump’s tariffs with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Those can affect a number of industries in Oregon, which send out $34 billion in products.

Here’s a video explaining how tariffs affect Oregon, produced by OPB:

President Trump is using the import taxes to pressure other countries on a variety of issues — from improving drug enforcement to influencing economic ties among allies and adversaries alike. However, American importers pay the tariffs to the U.S. Treasury, making foreign goods and parts more expensive to consumers. Some of you will conclude foreign policy goals are more important, and some may prioritize the rising cost of products you buy.

This week, I attended several meetings with Congresswoman Val Hoyle. At one point, the Congresswoman detailed that federal benefits are now being prioritized for communities with higher birth rates. I replied that in Lincoln County, where one-third of the population is over age 65, that might be a problem.

Val Hoyle meets with constituents in Newport.

phone: 503-986-1410

address: 900 Court St NE, H-480, Salem, OR, 97301

website: http://www.oregonlegislature.gov/gomberg