NEWS UPDATE FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GOMBERG: A Closer Look at Transportation

Last week, I detailed 10 bills that address how federal authority operates physically within Oregon’s borders and the systems that make enforcement and federal pressure possible in the first place. Proposed legislation is focused on immigration enforcement, law-enforcement cooperation, and National Guard participation, narrowing the circumstances under which state resources or personnel may be used in support of federal action. Other bills address the flow of information, data usage, election administration, public lands, health care oversight, and long-term financial exposure.

Those bills are being heard in committees, and many are advancing to votes in either the House or the Senate.

And that brings us to the third subject, which is where I’m doing most of my work. We need an immediate fix to the Oregon Department of Transportation budget.

Last summer, the Legislature convened a special session to consider and pass a revenue proposal to fund ODOT, support our transit systems, and provide revenue for transportation needs managed by local governments. The tax and fee increases of that special session package were then challenged in a successful referendum, and voters will now decide the fate of those recommendations, placing those proposed revenue increases on hold unless approved in an upcoming election.

This delay leaves ODOT with a roughly $300 million deficit. Transportation costs in Oregon are largely paid for with gas taxes and fees. With income increases on hold, we need to properly manage spending decreases.

This week in the Transportation and Economic Development Committee I co-chair, we heard an outline of possible cuts and how they would affect our highways and drivers. “We’re looking at a budget pothole that gets deeper every time a tire hits it,” I told the Committee.

The first two options presented reduced spending by eliminating vacant positions or further reducing the workforce.

• Safe Routes to Schools helps fund sidewalks, bike paths, and crosswalks near schools.
• Connect Oregon invests in our ports, rail lines, and small airports.
• The Transportation Operating Fund supports passenger rail like AMTRAK, senior and disabled transportation, EV charging stations, and community paths.

At one point, I pressed the Director: “I was in a much larger hearing room yesterday afternoon and heard consistently from Oregonians who say we don’t need more gas tax revenue — we need to go to the agency and reduce fraud, waste, and administrator salaries. I wanted to give you an opportunity to respond to that since we’ve been hearing that quite a bit.”

Director Sumption pushed back on that criticism, saying the agency has already made substantial cuts. “The agency has taken so many measures and reductions,” Sumption said. “We’ve been talking to you for over six years about this, and we have been making cuts for multiple biennia now. This is not a new problem.”

• Read more in OPB here.
• Watch a report on KATU here.
• Watch the full committee hearing here.
• See all of the ODOT presentation here.

I have often reported that the ODOT budget is huge, consequential, and complex. In the best of times, managing it is difficult. The reductions we’re facing are going to affect highway safety, livability in smaller communities, and our regional economy.

Bipartisan discussions continue, and we’ll see this question resolved before we adjourn.

Regular readers are well aware of my long-standing commitment to animal welfare. And that absolutely includes the research being conducted on monkeys at the Oregon National Primate Research Center (ONPRC). I have been an advocate for more accountability, more transparency at a facility that continues to lead the nation in animal welfare violations, and more thought to how we transition to evolving modern, human-relevant, non-monkey science.

Last session, I authored a requirement in the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) budget to require ONPRC create a plan for the future. Should federal funding of animal research decline, the University was instructed to detail how it would take care of current employees, modernize research, and care for the 5,000 primates currently at the Center.

In response, the University issued a report detailing that it was currently losing more than $10 million a year on monkey research.

Two weeks later, the University leadership issued a statement. “We also recognize that science evolves. Advances in technology, changes in ethical standards, and shifting public expectations are shaping how research is conducted across the country.”

The OHSU board, on February 9, approved a plan to negotiate with the federal government over the future of the ONPRC. With the vote, OHSU formally launches a process that could—though by no means certainly will—culminate in the transformation of a nationally significant scientific research center into an animal sanctuary.

Mike Perrault photo at ONPRC.

• Continues all currently approved research.
• Seeks input from faculty, unions, and the animal protection community.
• Provides for investment in new areas of science like bio-fabrication and gene therapy.
• Considers the protection of jobs at the ONPRC.
• Provides for the financial and management support to “provide maintenance, operation, and administration of an animal sanctuary.”

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine president Neal Barnard said, “Physicians all over Oregon are delighted to see a transition away from monkey experiments toward better research methods that will help our patients.”

And Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy & Animal Wellness Action, opined:

“In Oregon, a once-unthinkable opportunity is emerging.

Oregon Health & Science University houses approximately 5,000 primates at the largest primate research center in the United States. Oregon state Rep. David Gomberg has been the key driver of the effort to transform the facility into a primate sanctuary. He’s won over Governor Tina Kotek and so many other thought leaders in the state.

And now the NIH is offering the prospect of funding the transformation of that facility from a house of pain to a safe zone for the animals. Imagine it: the nation’s largest primate lab becoming a refuge instead of a pipeline for invasive experiments.”

This is a complex and controversial issue. Reasonable people may disagree. But I hope we can all agree that financial accountability and constructive change are good things. I thank the OSHU President and Board for their courageous concern.

On February 14, 1859, Oregon became the 33rd state in the U.S. Most years, we celebrate this milestone at the Capitol with cupcakes and cheer, but since it was on a Saturday this year, we are celebrating by acknowledging innovative legislation that makes Oregon unique.

Oregon began passing trailblazing policy soon after statehood, via both the legislature and voter initiatives. In 1902, voters approved the establishment of the initiative and referendum process in the Oregon Constitution. We can thank ballot initiatives for granting Oregon women the right to vote in 1912; codifying the Death with Dignity Act in 1994; and establishing Vote by Mail in 1998—just a few of the 377 ballot initiatives on the ballot since 1902. Oregon passed both Death with Dignity and Vote by Mail over a decade before any other state enacted similar legislation.

From the coast to the desert and the mountains and valleys in between, Oregonians have always treasured our extraordinary landscape. In 1913, Governor Oswald West established the state’s 362 miles of shorelines as a public highway. In 1967, the state legislature passed the Beach Bill, expanding public access to sixteen vertical feet above the low tide mark.

In 1969, the legislature approved SB 10, the first law in the nation to mandate local governments to zone all of the land within their jurisdictions, but the law was limited by lack of enforcement. Recognizing that the state’s precious farm and forestland remained vulnerable to development, in 1973, Governor Tom McCall called on the legislature to do better. SB 100 established a unique, statewide framework to protect farm and forest land and manage growth through mandatory Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs), and created the Land Conservation and Development Commission to oversee compliance of local planning with statewide goals. This law protects Oregon’s farms, forests, and beautiful landscapes from development to this day.

Governor Tom McCall looks at “private property” in Cannon Beach in 1967. Courtesy Oregon Hist. Soc. Research Lib.

In 1987, in a bipartisan vote, Oregon led the nation again by becoming the first Sanctuary State, prohibiting state and local law enforcement from helping federal authorities with immigration enforcement. Since then, ten other states have passed similar laws. In 2018, voters affirmed the state’s sanctuary status by rejecting Measure 105 by a 2-1 vote, which would have repealed the law. Legislators strengthened the law in 2021.

Sometimes, as in the example above, innovation can be traced to a singular piece of legislation, while other times, it’s a reflection of work conducted over years. The establishment of the Oregon Health Plan in the early 1990’s, and subsequent efforts to focus health care dollars on wellness to reduce long-term medical costs, have positioned Oregon as a national leader on health care policy. Similarly, passage of housing initiatives and programs to promote density, infill, and expedited development has set a course for other states to emulate.

I encourage you to test your mastery of fun facts in this Oregon Trivia Quiz.

phone: 503-986-1410

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

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