Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project

On March 25, the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation discussed two related problems that could turn its future into roadkill. First, the Oregon Department of Transportation’s budget calls for spending far in excess of projected revenue. What’s more, ODOT over relies on revenue from the gas tax, which is vulnerable to inflation, greater fuel efficiency […]

Agency presentations to legislative committees are typically routine affairs in which senior managers present unremarkable information to lawmakers whose committees have policy or budgetary oversight of them. Monday night’s presentation by the Oregon Department of Transportation to the Joint Committee on Transportation, however, was anything but routine, leaving one lawmaker sputtering in frustration. About one […]

A fundamental question lawmakers should ask about programs is who pays — and who benefits. Last week, the Oregon Senate Finance and Revenue Committee got the answer about who’s footing the bill for a public service that tops lawmakers’ to-do list this session: Oregon’s highways. Lawmakers are desperate to raise new money for the Oregon […]

A bill that would allow Oregon grocery stores to sell cocktails in a can, made from distilled spirits and containing up to 14% alcohol by volume, dropped in Salem on Feb. 24. House Bill 3730, sponsored by state Rep. Rob Nosse (D-Portland) at the request of the Northwest Grocery Retail Association, comes with a sweetener. […]

As President Donald Trump issues executive orders with effects across the nation, Oregonians, and particularly those in rural areas, could feel the impact on their already steep electric bills. Presidential executive orders are creating panic at the Portland-based Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which is part of the federal Department of Energy. BPA provides electricity to […]

Oregon lawmakers from both parties are scrambling to respond to a sagebrush rebellion against a state-issued wildfire hazard map. On Feb. 17, Republican lawmakers convened en masse in Salem to savage the map, the final version of which was published in January. The lawmakers took turns addressing the press from a dais bearing a sign […]