Cascade CounterPoint

The Oregon legislature is about to pass Senate Bill 1182, which would authorize the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to give away the half-billion dollar, four-acre, I-5 lid over the Rose Quarter—plus all property and development rights and contracts—to a single black-owned nonprofit, the Albina Vision Trust or AVT.

ODOT’s Design Summary for the cover states that a “Black-led, community development corporation” would control the property and development. AVT’s leader states that “the Black community should be able to have both the land on the freeway caps and the jobs that come with building them.”

This would qualify as denying opportunities to those who aren’t Black, based solely upon their race. The Supreme Court outlawed this practice two years ago in Fair Admissions v. Harvard when the majority wrote, “ameliorating societal discrimination does not constitute a compelling interest that justifies race-based state action.”

In other words, SB1182 would support construction and ownership opportunities that violate state and federal laws prohibiting race-based discrimination. Handing over public assets to a private organization who plans to hire only Black contractors will simply invite litigation, and legislators should be ashamed of themselves for approving it.

The Governor should veto SB1182.

Metro will soon be revising its 1995 Regional Framework Plan, also known as the 2040 plan. The vision of 2040 advocates was for the Portland region to “build up,not out” by maintaining a tight urban growth boundary, mandating the construction of apartments rather than single family homes, stopping any more highway building, and spending billions of tax dollars on transit. They assumedthat this would lead to a better quality of life, but they were wrong.

Housing is now unaffordable due to land scarcity and the high construction cost of building high rises. High priced housing has doubled the homeless population and Metro’s reliance on bond measures for homeless services and other programs has made Portland one of America’s most heavily taxed cities.

Traffic congestion now has Portland commuters wasting 75 percent more time in traffic, while billions spent on light rail failed to increase ridership.

Although it’s hard to believe, the Metro 2040 plan was based on emulating the traffic congestion and high housing density of Los Angeles. Unfortunately, they succeeded.

Instead of creating yet another long-range vision, Metro should help build the communities people actually want by reducing congestion, lowering taxes, and increasing the supply of land for single family homes.

House Bill 2808 and House Bill 2165 seek to address the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) budget shortfall of $875,000, but through different methods. Instead of choosing which bill offers the best path towards good governance, the legislature is saying, “both.” 

HB 2808 would increase the permitting and licensing fees related to wells. HB 2165 would provide an increase in funding to OWRD from the general fund of $830,415.

Initially proposed as a one-or-the-other approach, the current recommendation from the committee is that both bills are needed, with no downsizing. The solution addressed by these bills is critical to the one-in-four Oregonians relying on domestic wells. But well owners, not taxpayers, should pay for increased employment costs at OWRD.

Permit fees are a means of ensuring that the agency has a fiscal responsibility to process applications, versus relying on a one-time bailout from the general fund that has no statutory requirements for processing applications.

When fees are required by law, project beneficiaries should pay the price, not taxpayers. Fee increases should be permitted only when agencies can show increasing employment costs, increasing demand for processors, and that no agency rulemaking has created obstacles to processing.

In the case of OWRD, funding increases are needed, but this should come from landowners wanting a new well, not unsuspecting taxpayers who are already paying their own monthly water bills.

Over-promising and under-delivering has been the habit of Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) for decades, with businesses and counties enduring financial hardships from ODF’s inconsistent timber sales. House Bill 3103 with the -1 amendment seeks to address these concerns by requiring ODF to create five-year projections on Sustainable Harvest Levels (SHL) by December 31, 2026 and to offer one-fifth of this timber for sale annually.

If there is a deficit in volume from the previous year, it will be added to the volume of the following year. The proposal also accounts for exceptions due to changing forest dynamics like wildfire, disease, and pests. HB 3103 also grants standing for those receiving funds from state timber sales to sue ODF if the SHLs are not published or met.

In the 1940s, counties placed thousands of acres of forest land in a public trust with the state of Oregon. Millions of dollars were expected to be generated from this arrangement. But in recent decades, ODF has consistently failed at meeting sale projections.

In a state with some of the most stringent timber harvest regulations worldwide, unpredictable harvest levels will cause end-users to import timber from less regulated regions. Oregon timber is harvested responsibly, but the only way to ensure that Oregon’s environmental priorities are impactful is by creating a consistent supply of Oregon timber products.

It’s official: More than half of America’s K-12 students are now eligible to participate in a school choice program.

Last Saturday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 2 into law, making the Lone Star State the latest to enact a universal Education Savings Account program. According to the American Federation for Children, the one-billion-dollar Texas legislation will be the largest new school choice program in history. Individual ESA accounts, which will be valued at $10,000 or more, can be used for private school tuition, tutoring, transportation, special needs therapies, and other education-related expenses.

The program will begin serving 90,000 children and expand as needed. If initial demand exceeds available spaces, priority will be given to low-to-middle-income students and students with disabilities.

This year, Tennessee, Idaho, Wyoming, and now Texas have given parents greater access to the learning environments that will best help their children through educational choice. With school choice laws on the books in more than two-thirds of U.S. states, fifty-five percent of American children now have a chance to get the educational opportunities they deserve. Let’s bring school choice to Oregon soon.

Recently The Oregonian published a feature about TriMet’s ongoing death spiral. Since 2015, the agency’s annual revenue from passenger fares has dropped from $117 million to $59 million, while operating expenses have grown. As a result, TriMet’s operating loss last year was $850 million.

TriMet is begging state legislators for a bailout, but we’ve already tried that. The legislature approved payroll tax rate increases in both 2003 and 2009. As a result, TriMet is now almost entirely funded by taxpayers.

TriMet anticipates that it will have to eliminate up to 51 of its bus lines by 2031 if it cannot improve its financial condition. We should probably let that happen. Transit is important only if people choose to use it. Most people in the metro region are making other choices.

Unfortunately, TriMet is in denial about these trends. The agency is planning to expand light rail service to Vancouver and tear up 82nd Avenue to accommodate bus rapid transit.

The TriMet Board is holding a strategic planning retreat this week. The Board should shut down plans for new service and prepare for the retrenchment that the market is demanding.

On Monday, the North Dakota legislature passed the state’s first private school choice program. If signed by Governor Kelly Armstrong, House Bill 1540 would establishEducation Savings Accounts for North Dakota students beginning in the 2026-27 school year. Award amounts wouldbe determined by a family’s income level, and the lowest-income students could receive more than $4,000 each. A separate bill, signed into law this week, has authorized the establishment of public charter schools in the state.

Education Savings Account programs allow parents to use a defined amount of state education funding on behalf of their children for qualifying education-related expenses, including tuition, textbooks, tutoring, and transportation.

North Dakota’s ESA and charter school laws will empower parents to choose the educational environments that best help their children succeed. When parents have choices, students have more opportunities for their individual learning needs and goals to be met. North Dakota is taking strong steps to make sure every child has access to an effective, meaningful, and empowering education.

On April 14, Governor Tina Kotek held a press conference to reaffirm her commitment to protecting students from discrimination based on race, national origin, or immigration status in Oregon schools.

The point of the announcement was to focus on the implied future threat from President Trump, but discrimination is already occurring in Portland.

For the past decade, the Portland Public School district has been providing extra funding to schools in part on the basis of race (2024-2025 Proposed Budget – Volume 2, pp. 4-5). Students who are Black, Hispanic, Native American, or Pacific Islander are automatically characterized as “historically underserved,” which means the schools they attend receive more money. This is true even if their parents are rich and the students themselves are high achievers.

For the current school year, the elementary school receiving the most generous funding is Rosa Parks, with $17,891 per student. The school with the least amount of funding is Richmond, at $7,649.

At the high school level, Jefferson receives $15,812 per student, while Grant gets $8,109.

It’s not clear why Portland school parents have been tolerating this for so long. ORS 659.850 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any public school, and PPS funding is clearly discriminatory.

The Governor should stop grandstanding about President Trump, start enforcing civil rights laws in Portland, and put an end to race-based school funding.

What if every child could attend the school where he or she would learn most successfully? Empowering parents to choose their children’s school is called educational—orschool—choice.  School choice allows parents to better meet their children’s tailored educational needs and circumstances.

Nationwide polling shows that strong majorities of voters support parents having “the right to use tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs.”

 So far this year, Tennessee, Idaho, and Wyoming have joined 12 other states enacting universal or near-universal school choice laws for their students. According to the nonprofit organization EdChoice, approximately 40% of American children are now eligible to participate in a school choice program that includes private options. Millions more attend charter schools or benefit from other kinds of publicschool choices.

Children are unique, with different talents, interests, and learning styles. Schools that work well for some don’t always meet the needs of others. It’s time for Oregon to join the “school choice states,” so every child has the chance for aneffective, motivating, and successful school experience.

A decade ago, 21 youth plaintiffs in Oregon filed a lawsuit asserting that the government had violated their due process rights of life, liberty, and property by encouraging and permitting the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels such as oil and gas.

The plaintiffs were represented by Our Children’s Trust, a litigation firm based in Eugene.

The case, known as Juliana v. United States, was dismissed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020 for lack of standing and upheld in February 2021. An amended suit was dismissed by the Ninth Circuit in May 2024 again over lack of standing, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in March 2025.

The proponents are now attempting to put their hydrocarbon paranoia into the Oregon Constitution. On March 26 the state legislature held a hearing on SJR 28, which would add the following language to the Constitution:

"All people, including children and future generations, have the fundamental right to a clean, safe and healthy environment."

This is just performative politics. Hydrocarbons power the modern world; but if lawmakers think the public wants to return to the 18th century, they should vote to outlaw fossil fuels right now and run for re-election on that record.