Cities in Oregon will lobby the state legislature to increase funding for roads, water, and sewers, give them more authority to dismantle homeless camps, and give them more discretion over how to use hotel tax money for essential services.
At their biannual City Day at the Capitol earlier this week, city officials from all over Oregon outlined those objectives. However, the revelation that the Trump administration would immediately reduce funding that states and cities rely on—which was postponed due to court orders—quickly overshadowed the event.
Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature share some city interests, such as higher infrastructure expenditure. Others will be more difficult to sell in Salem, such as efforts to repeal a state legislation that restricts communities’ authority to dismantle homeless camps.
Laws against homeless camps
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled with the city of Grants Pass last June, upholding a local ordinance that prohibited homeless persons from sleeping outside with blankets, pillows, or cardboard boxes to protect themselves from the weather. The conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ earlier conclusion that the ordinance violated the Eighth Amendment and amounted to cruel and unusual punishment for homeless people, stating that cities should regulate homelessness.
Cities all around the nation established new laws prohibiting homeless camping or tightened their existing ones in response to the Supreme Court’s decision. However, Grants Pass and other Oregon cities were still bound by a state statute that restricted their ability to forbid sleeping outside. This law was supported by Governor Tina Kotek during her tenure as speaker of the Oregon House in 2021. According to that rule, communities are only allowed to prohibit people from sitting, lying, sleeping, or staying warm and dry outside on publicly accessible property if those prohibitions are objectively reasonable in terms of time, location, and method with respect to homeless people.
Additionally, as Disability Rights Oregon and the Oregon Law Center did on Thursday on behalf of five disabled homeless persons in Grants Pass, it permits homeless people to challenge towns for limits that aren’t objectively reasonable. Only two designated campsites have been open to homeless people since August; earlier this month, the larger campsite was closed and its hours were restricted, forcing hundreds of people to cram themselves into a site that can accommodate 30 tents per night and pack up everything they own by 7 a.m.
Jessica Engelke, the mayor of North Bend and president of the League of Oregon Cities, stated that the league does not intend to criminalize homelessness but rather seeks to explain the state legislation.
Instead, we want to address the important issues of the law’s uniformity and clarity,” she stated. Different cities and localities have different ideas about what is objectively acceptable, which results in a patchwork of laws that can be confusing for everyone in the community, including those who are homeless.
Discussions on what constitutes objective reasonableness and how towns might control camping in parks, flood plains, and other environmentally vulnerable areas are still going on, according to Alexandra Ring, the league’s lobbyist for housing and land use issues. Additionally, they want to change a state law requirement that currently requires anyone wishing to file a lawsuit to give 90 days’ notice. This would require the person to inform the city of any aspects of the ordinance that aren’t objectively reasonable so the city can address the issue before a lawsuit is filed.
Three billsNone of the bills that have been proposed to repeal the 2021 law—Senate Bill 593 from Senator Mark Meek, D-Gladstone; Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles; and House Bill 2432 from a number of House Republicans—have a hearing scheduled. At the League of Oregon Cities conference, Bonham made the announcement of those legislation to a mixed reception.
Finance for infrastructure
Additionally, cities will advocate for increased financing for local infrastructure, particularly for water and wastewater upgrades that are necessary before new residences can be constructed inside city limits. The list of projects that required money greatly outstripped the nearly $100 million that the Legislature granted last year for infrastructure improvements.
According to Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler, the city must raise $66 million for two large sewer lines, one in the city center and one in the southeast section of the town. Because Bend is situated on top of lava rock, it is more costly to construct subterranean infrastructure there than in other regions of the state.
The city is hoping the state will give it part of that money. Bend may proceed with plans to develop more than 1,200 homes and 2,800 permanent jobs after the southeast sewer interceptor is completed. Similar planned developments have been put on hold for years in other communities throughout the state due to water and sewer requirements.
It is impossible to overestimate the relationship between housing and infrastructure, according to Kebler.
first Democratic lawmakers and Governor Tina Kotek informed local officials that they are also giving infrastructure financing first priority.
We all know that there is a greater supply of housing in our communities, so we should give that priority even though I am aware that you have other infrastructure concerns that are not directly related to housing and housing growth, Kotek stated. We understand how important it is, so I’ll be working with the Legislature and my budget to develop a plan to ensure that we can keep funding infrastructure in your areas so that more homes can be built.
Legislators will prioritize infrastructure expenditures, particularly to promote housing building, according to House Speaker Julie Fahey, a Democrat from Eugene.
According to her, we also know that in cities like mine in Eugene, there is property inside the (urban development boundary) that could be developed for hundreds of housing units, but the city did not have the funds to build wastewater and water infrastructure. That is crucial, in my opinion, and we will carry on working on it this session.
Changes to hotel taxes
The Legislature approved a rule more than 20 years ago mandating that 70% of any additional local lodging taxes be used for tourism promotion. This means that if a city levies a 10% hotel tax and receives $10 from a $100 room stay, it must use $7 to draw in more tourists and keep the remaining $3 for other purposes.
According to Toledo Mayor Rod Cross, that might have been required to boost tourism 20 years ago, but today the restriction cripples local budgets. According to him, towns, particularly coastal tourist destinations, desire greater latitude in using hotel and short-term rental fees to mitigate the negative effects of tourism on local services.
According to him, Newport’s regular population is about 10,000, but during the summer months, that number rises to 40,000 and even reaches 50,000 on weekends. There aren’t enough officers for the summer in the city’s 28-person police department.
According to Cross, the infrastructure of a city gets overwhelmed when a large number of tourists arrive for a weekend and the population of that community doubles or, in some cases, quintuples. Roads deteriorate far more quickly in some communities. Water systems are under stress. Parks are frequented by tourists with kids.
He said allowing cities to use some of their tourism tax revenue to improve basic services will actually attract more tourists, who will want to return year after year to visit cities with good roads, parks and other amenities.
Visitors will find our towns even more appealing and return time and time again if local governments can better maintain and improve the infrastructure that is required and offer the services and amenities that are required to promote tourism, according to Cross. It looks like a win for all parties.
— Oregon Capital Chronicle’s Julia Shumway
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