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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. It's sometimes confusing with regard to the Oregon Legislature. Is this year a long session, or is it a short one? Well, it's 2026, an even year. So starting in February, the legislature convenes for the sprint distance short session, and with the state trying to get a handle on a budget deficit, you can bet it's going to feel like a sprint befitting something at Hayward field later this year, today, on the show Oregon, Speaker of the House, Julie Fahy joins us to provide a preview on what the upcoming session will hold, and differing from every other recent session, protecting Oregonians against federal government overreach is tops on the agenda. Then at the end of the show, we'll talk with our own Nathan Wilk about a proposed ordinance to ban drivers from providing money at street corners. Julie Fahey, Oregon's house speaker. Thanks so much for coming in and talking to us.
JULIE FAHEY: Thanks for having me. Michael.
MICHAEL DUNNE: It's always great to chat with you, and certainly where you're gearing up for the legislative session. Can we start by taking a look back, especially with regard to, you know, the transportation package, and maybe just remind folks what kind of a journey that took this last year.
JULIE FAHEY: That's right. I think it is helpful to take a step back and talk about transportation. So, what we're seeing around the country is that increased fuel efficiency from electric vehicles and just increased fuel efficiency of cars, means that we are taking in less gas tax revenue than we might otherwise more people driving. EVs, that's great news for our climate goals, but it is a challenge in a transportation system that relies on the gas tax to help fund the basic operation and maintenance of our roads, things like pothole filling and plowing the roads. So, for many months, the legislature convened conversations with community members and stakeholders and legislators about how do we fix that problem? And so last fall, we passed a fairly modest, short-term fix to the problem that will make sure that we can cities and counties in the state can keep those basic operations and maintenance going, and that we stabilize funding for transit systems as well. Unfortunately, a group of Republican legislators collected signatures and referred that the funding parts of those measures to the ballot, kept the spending obligations in place, but funding measures were referred so that put the funding on hold, which means that new funding isn't flowing to cities and counties in the state to help maintain roads. So, our job right now, in the short session is to try and find a way to balance those budgets in the short term so we can keep people safe in the particularly in the winter and over the next few months here, and also to try and set the stage for a longer-term conversation where we could potentially solve the problem in 2027.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Are there concerns that what happened last time could happen this time? Does the short session compress things and maybe that makes it easier to strike a deal.
JULIE FAHEY: I would say that our goal for the short session isn't necessarily to find a long-term fix for to this problem only in session for five weeks. It's just and we already have a fairly packed agenda for the session. So, our goal is really to stabilize in the short term and try and fill those short-term budget holes. Unfortunately, we'll have another we'll have a long process leading up to the 2027, legislative session, where we hope to take tackle this problem again. Okay, you talked about a package packed agenda. Talk about your priorities for this session. Yeah. It's a very it's this challenge. Session is going to be happening amidst a very challenging backdrop of all of the things coming out of the federal government right now. You know, we have federal decisions that are making health care and groceries more expensive, tariffs, the you know, subsidies on the health care exchange. We have the big budget bill, which is cutting billions of dollars in funding for Medicaid and snap in Oregon alone, and we've got all these chaotic decisions coming out around National Guard deployments and ICE raids that are creating real fear and anxiety amongst many Oregonians. So, our job right now, in the short session, is to respond to those challenges responsibly and also to keep moving forward on the things that Oregonians want us to do. Reining in the cost of living for Oregon families is a really tough moment, and it's a really challenging time, but we have to, you know, stay focused on the things that that voter sent us to Salem to do.
MICHAEL DUNNE: It seems to someone such as myself, not an expert. It seems strange that state government has to react to so much coming down the pipe from the federal government. When you got into this, did you ever think we'd be in a situation quite like this?
JULIE FAHEY: Well, honestly, I ran for office because I wanted to improve our schools and address our housing crisis. Those are the two things that I am personally most passionate about, and they're solidly in the purview of state government. So, I have had the chance to work on those issues over the years, and have been really gratified to do that. And in the last year, the workload of state government, both the legislature and the executive branch, has probably doubled, given all of the things that are being thrown our way. And it's really challenging to have to address all of those other things at a time when we prefer to be focused on the challenges we have here in this state. It's a really challenging time to govern, and we have to be rethinking, you know, the funding that's been pulled away on Medicaid and snap. We have to respond to that. We have to make sure that we are preserving health care coverage to the maximum extent possible. We are seeing abuses across the country with how ice is enforcing immigration. Half of all Americans now think that ice is making our cities less safe. We have to respond to those challenges, and so we have to rise to meet the moment. Yeah, what are some things that the state government can do with regard to like the denuding of SNAP benefits and that sort of a thing? Well, I think one thing that I want folks to understand is that it's not just that the federal government is pulling back funding from states for those programs that help people keep food on the table. Okay, it's also that they're putting additional administrative requirements on states, things like having to recheck eligibility for benefits much more frequently. You know, work requirements, those things will cost money for us as a state to implement, and so it's we're getting less money for benefits. It's costing us more money to to implement those things, and we're going to have to figure out a way to keep people fed and keep food on the table, and so that's what we're doing this session. Part of our budget challenge this session that we're addressing is that we're going to have to come up with a way to pay for those extra administrative costs that the federal government is putting on states.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Give us a peek, sort of inside baseball, if you will, getting ready for the session. What are you, you and your caucus, your leadership team? How do you prepare for this?
JULIE FAHEY: Well, we've had conversations for months now about what, what should our priorities be in the short session? I think that the short sessions are only five weeks, they tend to go best when you have a limited set of priorities. Okay, that said, we have a lot going on the world in the world that we need to respond to. So, we have been very clear that our priorities continue to be addressing affordability and cost of living, health care, housing, utilities, and responding to the federal overreach that we're seeing. So that agenda setting part of things was a big part of the process, and then the nuts and bolts. You know, last week we were in Salem for three days, for legislative days, we had committee hearings to help air some of the concepts that will be brought forward in the short session make sure committees could have discussions beforehand. We had a big press announcement talking about our agenda to push back against federal overreach. So, all of that is a part of the process to get ready for session.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I know you talk to a lot of your constituents, and what's funny, because just the other day, I was talking with Senator Wyden, and I was asking him about town halls and what people are telling him about this issue of affordability. Obviously, the President has said things like, Oh, it's a hoax, or so on and so forth. What are constituents saying to you about inflation and about just the cost of living today?
JULIE FAHEY: Absolutely, folks have been struggling with the cost of living for some time now. It's one of the reasons why, you know, I mentioned housing was one of the things that I am most passionate about. I represent West Eugene and the Bethel neighborhood, and folks in that part of town have been struggling with housing costs for many years, and so we need to be tackling the big things, housing and health care, in particular, child care as well. And you know, groceries are obviously the place where people have been feeling the pinch. For the last few years, we've seen the price of eggs come down, but other price of other things has gone up, in part because of the impact of tariffs.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You brought up ICE, and I did want to talk to you just about the fact that obviously, you know, tremendously in the news right now, and certainly Minneapolis and Portland, to a degree, has been center stage in this whole thing. I wanted to ask about in the state government apparatus, what can be done, or what can you sort of at least tee up with regard to if the federal government decides, hey, I want to do to Oregon what we're doing in Minnesota right now?
JULIE FAHEY: Well, we did see the Trump administration attempt to deploy the National Guard in Portland a few months ago, and I was very proud of how our state stood up in response to that. So, he's also threatening to deploy the National Guard in Minneapolis as well. We challenged that. The Attorney General, Dan Rayfield was ready to challenge that order in court almost immediately, and we won in the courts. The community in Portland, business community, community members came together to say, we're going to, we're going to keep protesting, but we're going to do it peacefully, and so we're going to stand up, but we're, we're going to not do so in a way that gives them justification for sending in the guard. So, I think, from our point of view, being responsive, making sure the community member is responsive, and standing up, that is what we have. Our tools are somewhat less in the legislature, passing them, sure, sure about X, Y or Z. It's more about standing up as community and speaking out when we see something wrong and, you know, challenging things in the court, and we have been winning, right? We won on the National Guard front. We got the rescue helicopter back in Newport. But it is, it is challenging to have to respond to everything that we are seeing at the federal government is throwing at us.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I did want to talk about the issue of the unhoused and homelessness, and I know that's a key issue for you. And you know, it seems like we win little battles, but the war still, if I could use that terminology, is still, you know, undecided with regard to curing this issue of not enough houses, not enough shelter for people, generally speaking, talk about that. Talk about your issue, but also what the legislature has done and is doing and is looking to do in the future, with regard to which could be the number one issue for our state and community.
JULIE FAHEY: Absolutely. So, what the legislature has done over the last eight to 10 years, I would say, is focus on what is the root cause of homelessness? And the root cause of homelessness in our state is that we do not have enough homes for people, and so we have it's been a big part of my work in the legislature to try and remove barriers to constructing more housing in this state, and we've made progress on that big progress, but there's a lot more work to do. We face some federal headwinds in terms of interest rates and other things, and also that is a long-term solution that is not a solution that helps people right now. And so, we, at the same time that we've been focused on building more housing over the long term, we are also focused on getting people shelter and moving them on the path out of homelessness. We've, we have, there's been new data that's been released that has shown that we have made progress in reducing the number of unsheltered folks on living on the streets, particularly for families with children, and so I'm really proud of that work. We've had big investments in the last few years in shelter and, you know, supportive housing, to get people on that path out of homelessness. But we clearly have much more work to do. I just, you know, from a local community perspective, I look around and see all of the good work that is happening with, you know, Square One village and everyone villages out in West Eugene, in my neighborhood, that are really putting creative solutions forward to help people stabilize folks and get them on the path out of homelessness.
MICHAEL DUNNE: What will success look like coming out of the short session? If you could say, oh, if I get this and this and this, that's a successful legislative session, especially in the compressed period of time?
JULIE FAHEY: I've mentioned the two planks of our agenda about affordability and fighting back against federal overreach. So, we have a slate of bills in each of those topic areas that I want to make sure that we're we get a robust agenda passed in each of those areas. But for us as a legislature, our primary responsibility, our constitutional responsibility, is to balance our budget. Okay? And so that, you know, having a balanced budget overall, and of course, on the transportation side as well is part of what success looks like, and it will be challenging. So, we last year in our long session, we budgeted very conservatively. We knew that there would be something coming from the federal government that would pull back funding, and then that, that big ugly bill passed just a few days after we the after we got out of session, and the big surplus that we had left that disappeared overnight. So, we do have to balance our budget, and we have to do it in a balanced way, I think, and that involves taking a look at what some of those massive tax giveaways were in the big, ugly bill, and which of those do we want to rein in here in Oregon, it involves budget cuts that might you know, look at efficiencies in state government, and I think it means judicious use of our reserves as well.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, speaker, my last question for you is just, do you see areas elements where bipartisanship can. Can occur in this next session?
JULIE FAHEY: Absolutely. I think there are things that you know, everyone cares about, the cost of living and affordability for Oregonians, and we have seen really strong bipartisan work in the area of housing and building more housing. When I was back, when I was housing chair, I really enjoyed working with my Republican colleagues on that issue, and we still have that bipartisanship today on that issue. There are other issues that we've seen, you know, around water, water in the state and water law, where we have Democrats and Republicans leaning together. So, I'm in the budget work honestly has been, you know, we've had our Republican colleagues at the table to talk about, how do we responsibly balance the budget? So, I do see opportunities for bipartisanship. There are, and of course, there will be some things that will be more controversial as we as Democrats are pushing back against Trump's agenda.
MICHAEL DUNNE: She's the Speaker of the House in the Oregon Legislature. Eugenian. Julie Fahey, thanks, as always, for coming in and talking to us.
JULIE FAHEY: Thanks, Michael, always a pleasure.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Now let's check in on a proposed Eugene law that would ban asking for and giving money out of car windows. KLC’s Nathan Wilk, thanks so much for coming in and talking with us.
NATHAN WILK: Thanks for having me, Michael.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You've been following this story about a proposed ordinance from the Eugene city council that would, as I understand it, stop people from giving money out their car windows. Talk about this, this proposed ordinance, and how it came into being.
NATHAN WILK: So basically, what it would stop is drivers from handing money out of their windows or out of their car doors while they're in the road, in traffic in a travel lane. And so, if a police officer were to see this, and this is how they say they'd enforce it, they would, you know, give a warning, or they could give a fine of up to $50 so critically, you know, and this has been described by some as a panhandling ban. This wouldn't punish the panhandlers themselves, and that's actually important, because it's kind of a way of potentially sidestepping some constitutional issues, because there's, there's free speech involved when someone's asking for something, saying that they want money. And you know, if a person, a pedestrian, goes into the street that is already illegal, but this would basically try to curb that interaction between drivers and pedestrians who are asking for money.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I see, so the potential fine goes to the driver and not necessarily the person asking for money.
NATHAN WILK: Yes.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I know that there's been a public hearing. What have been some of the comments that that people have made on both sides of this issue?
NATHAN WILK: So, there's a, there's a couple arguments for, you know, the big one that people are talking about is traffic safety, you know, basically saying that this type of interaction can distract drivers, you know, could potentially lead to accidents. Some speakers at public hearings have said they've seen near misses around this sort of behavior, and also encourage panhandlers to be in more kind of precarious situations where they could be at risk. And then there's also the social argument as this relates to people asking for money who are potentially homeless, that sort of thing, basically that these donations aren't the best way to actually help these people, and that donating to an organization would be a better way to help. Now, the counter arguments to that sort of social value of donation. Argument is basically that it's not the city's job to decide what the best way to donate. And there are some city councilors and others who argue that this is still unconstitutional, that it's still regulating speech, and then also it would distract police officers from dealing with more important or serious crime.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I think I saw your story that the Eugene Chamber said they support it, but they also want to add something to it, like perhaps, you know, increasing funding or something like that to other homeless shelters or something like that. So, is the business community kind of sort of with this?
NATHAN WILK: So, the comments that you're referring to with the Chamber of Commerce was basically advocating for was, you know, if this route for people to obtain money is being taken away, you know, really spending time and money on a public education campaign to try to get people who are donating on the street through their car windows to donate to some of those other organizations and help in those alternative ways with, you know, many in the business community saying, well, they're concerned about this practice. They still want homeless people to be able to get help and support.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Do we have any data that shows that this interaction is particularly dangerous? Well, I'll say the limitations of what I know, which is I'm not aware of any particular incident, or whether or not a particular incident hasn't occurred recently in Eugene?
NATHAN WILK: You know, where this led to somebody being struck, something like that. Okay, I do know that councilor Eliza Kashinsky, one of our city councilors, sort of responded to this question, basically saying that, despite the fact, you know, we have issues with driving fatalities in this community, that this sort of interaction was not represented on the recent crash reports that she had seen, and that it wasn't really part of the city's existing discussions about the priorities for preventing traffic deaths, you know, versus something more like driving under the influence, speeding, that sort of thing.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay. Nathan, my last question for you is this, I know that there are organizations that sometimes solicit for donations and whatnot. I'm thinking, famously, I think many people have seen it. A lot of fire departments all over the country, including here in Eugene, do a, I think it's called the Fill The Boot campaign, where they have their fire boots and people donate money. I think it's for muscular just muscular dystrophy. I didn't know if there were any particular restrictions or carve outs for this ordinance that might allow for something like that, right?
NATHAN WILK: So, it's worth noting that as of right now, the fill the boot campaigns in Eugene, Eugene Springfield fire actually don't do that on the roadside, and that came up, city councilor Randy groves said that, essentially, they had been told that this wasn't safe, and sort of presented it as you know, other organizations are doing this, and it's sort of a double standard. So, you know, there aren't carve outs, for example, for a charitable group versus an individual asking for money.
MICHAEL DUNNE: He's Nathan Wilk, one of our reporters here at KLCC. Nathan, always appreciate you coming down and talking with us.
NATHAN WILK: Thanks so much, Michael.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon On The Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. The Oscar nominations are out, and if you're like me, you've only seen a few, if any, of the nominated movies. Monday on the show, we talk with a U of O professor and cinema expert on why going to the theater is on such a downward spiral these days, and what might be done about it. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon. On The Record, thanks for listening.
