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LAWMAKERS PONDER RETAIL DELIVERY FEE: After months of intensive work on how to bolster funding for the Oregon Department of Transportation, the Legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee is preparing to unveil a package of funding options to augment the gas tax and vehicle registration fees. One new idea: a fee on retail deliveries by companies such as Amazon and DoorDash. Colorado implemented such a fee in 2022 and raises about $70 million a year from it. Minnesota’s fee, implemented last year, brought in $60 million. The funding package will have lots of moving parts and will be the subject of intense debate, but co-chairs Sen. Chris Gorsek (D-Gresham) and Rep. Susan McLain (D-Hillsboro) say such a fee is under consideration. “It’s on the table, but that doesn’t mean it will stay there,” Gorsek says.
PORTLAND UTILITY DIRECTORS RETIRE IN TANDEM: The city of Portland announced Tuesday morning that the directors of its public utilities will both retire next month. It’s unclear what led to the departures of the directors of the Portland Water Bureau and the Bureau of Environmental Services, especially as the departures occur in tandem. But the city says Mayor Keith Wilson and city administrator Mike Jordan are seeking to combine the two bureaus, and will look to hire a director to oversee the new formation. The plan to consolidate the two bureaus has been in the works for some time. Edward Campbell, director of the Water Bureau, took over after former director Gabe Solmer was abruptly pushed out. Dawn Uchiyama has led the Environmental Services Bureau since 2023. Interim directors will take their places, the city says. Quisha Light will step in to lead the Water Bureau in the interim. Ting Lu, who’s currently deputy director at BES, will serve as its acting director.
REPORT SUGGESTS OREGON SHOULD SPEND MORE ON EDUCATION: In 2024, Oregon Senate Bill 1552 asked for a review and evaluation of the Quality Education Model. The QEM, which projects the cost to adequately educate students statewide, has long been cited by school funding advocates as evidence the state is underfunding education. In recent years, the model has faced increased scrutiny, which helped prompt the reevaluation. The state-commissioned report by the American Institutes for Research, completed this month, concludes that the QEM methodology is sound. But researchers suggested the model take more outcomes into account when projecting costs. Currently, the QEM hinges on achieving just one outcome—a 90% graduation rate for Oregon students. (The class of 2024 reported an 81.8% graduation rate.) “Expanding the goals to include a broader conceptualization of adequacy would make the cost estimates more meaningful and relevant to policy,” the report reads. But that comes with a bigger price tag. In 2022–23, Oregon would have had to make up a funding gap of $2.8 billion to catch up to AIR’s numbers. That’s about $1.87 billion more than what the QEM would have asked for: $935 million for that year. As WW has previously reported (“Money for Nothing,” Feb. 5), increased education spending over the past decade has not improved student outcomes. The Senate Committee on Education is expected to delve into the new report Feb. 26.
BILL WOULD RESTRICT COMPUTER CLEANER: Ray Thomas, a Portland lawyer known for winning massive tobacco lawsuits, is hoping for one last victory before he retires. Senate Bill 1032, introduced Feb. 18, would require retailers to put the aerosol cans of computer cleaners, referred to as “dusters,” in secure locations and restrict their sales to people 21 and older. Thomas pushed for the bill after Joleen Braasch-Berry, a family friend, was struck and killed while riding her bike home from work by a driver who had just inhaled from a can of duster. The bill, which has bipartisan support, is modeled after a Minnesota law that went into effect earlier this year. “We learned about the widespread abuse of duster products, all of which contain DFE, (a chemical originally developed as a surgical anesthetic) after Joleen was killed in October 2020,” Thomas says. “My last effort at the end of my 45-year law career has been to do something after Joleen was killed.”