NEWS UPDATE FROM DAVID GOMBERG: Busy Behind the Scenes

By Representative David Gomberg, House District 10

3/31/2025

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

The cherry blossoms were in full bloom this past week and provided a pleasant respite for Capitol visitors.

Late March is one of the busiest times in the legislative calendar, and with little visible results for the effort. Most of the activity is taking place behind the scenes.

First, as I detailed last week, the 2025 session reached a critical deadline on Friday as all bills in policy committees needed to be scheduled for a hearing and work session to remain alive. That had legislators scrambling to get their concepts on the calendar. The lawyers who help us write proposed laws are swamped with requests for bills or amendments. Much of the material is coming back later than usual. Since committee staff have already planned out agendas, that means we’re maneuvering to get bills added with little time available.

It also means we’re often expected to be in two places at once! I began my testimony for one proposal this week saying, “If I seem breathless, it is because I’m excited to present this bill to you today. And it is also because I’m chairing a committee at the other end of the building right now and had to run down here when I heard you were ready…”

I’m particularly focused on public safety and disaster preparation this session.

Thursday, I presented two bills before the House Committee On Emergency Management, General Government, and Veterans. The first, HB 3788, creates a grant program to help coastal hospitals upgrade their supply of drinking water and generator fuel. We now know that the average hospital in Oregon has only a three-day supply of the water and fuel they need to operate in a power outage or natural disaster. We’re asking Oregon families to be two weeks ready. We should expect and assist our hospitals to do the same. Dr. Lesley Ogden, CEO of two of our hospitals, gave compelling testimony to support the bill.

A second measure, HB 3870, is a bipartisan package to improve rural public safety. My proposal would fund 20 projects to improve aging fire stations, move police stations out of the tsunami zone, provide wildfire training, or support addiction relief across all of rural Oregon in both Republican and Democratic districts.

You can watch the testimony here. Both measures should soon move along to the Ways and Means budget committee.

Representatives Zach Hudson (D-Troutdale), Lucetta Elmer (R-McMinnville) and Jeff Helfrich (R-Hood River) (not pictured) joined me to support rural public safety.

In the House alone, 1352 bills were introduced into the Legislative process, and as of Tuesday night, less than 500 were still “alive.” As policy committees work to schedule worthy proposals, the Ways and Means subcommittees are also working to complete Phase 1 of the budgeting process. There are seven subcommittees, each with a designated subject matter. For example, I co-chair Transportation and Economic Development. We hear budgets for housing, veterans, the Employment Department, Business Oregon, ODOT, Labor and Industries, and even the Racing Commission.

During Phase 1, each agency is scheduled to present its proposed budget, which includes what it is doing now, what reductions are possible, and what more it would like to add. Committee members ask questions and time is provided for public comment. We are then tasked with evaluating current programs and ranking all of the new proposals. I’ll say that a different way. The agencies before my subcommittee have about 200 proposals for new positions and programs, and I’m asked to rank them from one to 200.

That is taking time and a lot of emotional energy, as we have to decide whether emergency shelter beds are more important than counseling vets with PTSD or addressing the backlog of claims for stolen wages at BOLI. It is a daunting responsibility.

Phase 1 concludes with the Ways and Means leadership unveiling a high-level spending framework of what priorities the state may be able to fund over the next two years. We then spend a month traveling around the state to hear feedback from Oregonians as part of the W&M Roadshow I described last week.

The Ways and Means Roadshow convened in Astoria Friday evening. Next stop is Warm Springs next Friday.

The budget process will continue to evolve into Phase 2 as we evaluate new agency proposals, look at reductions, and also consider bills from legislators that cost money. Clearly, there are more asks than there are dollars. That means most proposals will not be funded. And I should add, none of the current discussions include back-filling potential cuts from the federal government.

In mid-May we will receive a final forecast of tax revenue from the state economist. At that point, we will know how much we have to spend and whether we anticipate the economy will remain stable or suffer consequences of job losses or lower sales due to tariffs and changes in international trade. At that point, we can begin to finalize the two-year budget.

Last week, I also had the opportunity to tour the ongoing renovations of our state Capitol – technically called Capitol Accessibility, Maintenance and Safety, or CAMS. The historic 1930s portion of the building is being renovated for earthquake resilience. And at the same time, more hearing rooms, public spaces, stairwells and offices are being added.

Most of the administrative and public areas of the “old” building have been closed for nearly six years. That includes the iconic rotunda, offices of the Governor, Treasurer, and Secretary of State, and almost all staff offices. The House and Senate chambers, hearing rooms, and legislative offices in the “new” 1970s wing are still accessible but crowded and filled with construction noise and smells.

All of us look forward to the opening of the new and improved Capitol – now scheduled for September.

Closer to home, construction continues at curbs and crosswalks throughout Lincoln County. I’ve had numerous conversations with ODOT about the timing, pace, and need for all this work. Like many of you, I’m frustrated with frequent lane closures, the sense that work is being done slowly, the hundreds of construction cones littering roadsides near completed work, and the fact that entire cities have become construction zones (with increased traffic fines!).

This ongoing project is to rebuild or install ADA-compliant curb ramps in Lincoln City. ODOT is adding textured plates at the curb ramps, called truncated domes. These allow pedestrians to feel, see and hear where the crossing is located and the direction they should go to safely cross the street.

ADA-compliant curb ramps make it easier for people to move between the sidewalk and the road. This can be helpful for those who have trouble stepping up and down high curbs. It’s also helpful for people using wheelchairs, strollers, walkers, hand carts, and bicycles.

ODOT reports they are grouping and rebuilding curb ramps in batches at various locations.

Not all intersections or curb locations are the same. Some are construction-ready and others may have fire hydrants, utility boxes, utility poles, additional land requirements or need an environmental permit.

The construction-ready locations are completed first because they can be done immediately. Those needing additional coordination or design will be part of a future batch or stage of construction. This is why an intersection with four corners might be completed at different times.

Construction began in 2024 and is scheduled through the summer of 2026 at Highway 101 mileposts 112.3 to 118 and milepost 121.42 to 125. You can learn more here. Work started at the south end of Lincoln Beach and continued north. Construction paused in the general downtown area of Lincoln City during spring break and will resume next week.

Even without construction, Lincoln City has several points where lanes expand and contract from four to three or two. I’m one of those drivers that gets quickly into the main (left) lane and slowly waits in line, grumbling as other drivers speed past on the right to merge in front of me. ODOT says I’m doing it wrong and should use a “zipper merge.”

Here’s what they say: Sometimes drivers see the “lane closed ahead” sign in a work zone and either slow too quickly or even come to a complete stop before merging. This can lead to dangerous lane switching, serious crashes and even road rage.

When you see the “lane closed ahead” sign, stay in your current lane.
As you approach the merge point, take turns with other drivers to ease into the remaining lane, like the teeth of a zipper.

“Merging like a zipper may take a change in your mindset. Many of us were taught to merge early when we see an opening. It may feel like you’re being ‘cut off’ by vehicles moving into your lane at the merge point. By being patient and taking turns at the merge point, we’re each doing our part to safely share the road. Your cooperation can help prevent crashes, keep traffic moving smoothly and our workers safe.”

“A change in your mindset,” says ODOT. It makes sense, I suppose. But at my age, habits change slowly. I’m not going to be the guy zipping past you on the right while you’ve been waiting ten minutes in line. I’ll just be patient and try not to grumble as much at the people doing it right on the right…

Still on the transportation topic, I have shared several times in my newsletters that the Legislature is working to create an updated critical Transportation Plan to protect and sustain our infrastructure system.

The safety and sustainability of our roads and bridges are critically important and impact the lives of all Oregonians, but Oregon currently faces a severe funding crisis.

Revenue from the fuel tax, which is our primary source of highway funding, is in decline. But our needs statewide remain and continue to grow in cost. Without funding reform, reduced state highway fund revenues will negatively affect roads, sidewalks, and bike lanes in cities and counties. We will not be able to meet other critical needs, like safety and resiliency, supporting our climate goals, maintaining our facilities, and ensuring equitable distribution to cities and counties.

The Legislature will act in 2025 to ensure there are stable, sufficient, and diversified funding mechanisms that will support our multimodal system and meet the needs of everyone now and into the future. For more background information, view this informational sheet.

The plan being worked on is based on extensive conversations with jurisdictions, stakeholders, and the public over the last ten months and work that started in 2023:

Starting in June and finishing in late September, the Joint Committee on Transportation traveled the state on the 12-stop Transportation Safety and Sustainability Outreach Tour to hear about transportation needs directly from Oregonians.
After the tour, the Transportation Committee held a series of topic-specific workgroups to continue the more nuanced conversations and consider ideas heard on the tour. Almost 50 hours of meetings occurred from October – January. The workgroups focused on three main categories of the transportation package: maintenance and operations, public and active transit, and HB 2017 (2017) priority commitments. All three transportation workgroups successfully reviewed extensive amounts of information about our transportation system. Together, the workgroups used the lenses of equity, safety, and environment to identify the critical needs to address in the upcoming Transportation Plan.
During the 2025 Legislative Session, the Committee has continued conversations and held a series of public hearings to provide thorough information on our priority needs and potential policy actions to meet those needs. You can follow the Transportation Committee’s work here.

Oregon taxpayers deserve sound stewardship of their hard-earned dollars and to know that agencies entrusted with those dollars will use them wisely. The Committee is working through a collaborative, bipartisan, and bicameral effort to identify accountability measures that will ensure Oregonians can be confident in the work of the Department of Transportation.

To learn more about the accountability work of the Transportation Committee, I recommend the following:

ODOT Accountability Work Presentation to the Transportation Committee

Joint Transportation Committee Hearings on Accountability (videos will play at the exact point in the meetings where the accountability discussions begin)

Friday morning, Senator Anderson and I hosted a Town Hall. You can catch a recording of it here.

I was in Astoria for Ways and Means Friday afternoon and returned home Saturday. That evening, it was my great pleasure to be the auctioneer for the Newport Symphony Gala.

I don’t live in Newport, so I prefer to call our symphony the “Orchestra at the Ocean.” But regardless of where you live, you should be proud of what we have here. A town of 10,000 that supports a full annual symphony program has something quite remarkable. Classical music enriches our lives, enhances local livability, and even supports our tourism economy.

Saturday, I auctioned spa visits, golf, wine, a Baja vacation, and the opportunity to conduct during the free July 4^th concert.

Next Saturday, I’ll be at the Children’s Advocacy Gala, and later in the month, I will auction again for the Newport Chamber of Commerce. I’m proud to be part of such generous and engaged communities.