The Oregon Legislative session saw several thousand bills introduced in the first week, with more piling on since the session started Jan. 21, setting the stage for six months of lawmaking in Salem.

Lawmakers representing Central Oregon have already partnered on several region-specific bills, including legislation addressing emergency preparedness and youth health and homelessness. Other bills will address statewide challenges on housing, infrastructure and transportation, which could have the biggest impacts for the region’s growing cities.

“I really view this as a very opportune session for the region,” said Doug Riggs, a lobbyist who has worked on behalf of Central Oregon clients for 25 years. “We have some real challenges facing us,” he said, listing housing, homelessness and behavioral health.

“We are poised to really be able to tackle some of those head-on.”

The region holds that position partially because there are a number of Central Oregon lawmakers on the Joint Ways and Means Committee, which creates the state’s budget policy, Riggs said.

For the city of Bend, the legislative agenda has never been more detailed, with policy consultants tracking 150 bills moving through the Legislature, said Eric Kancler, a lobbyist for the city.

Bend’s Mayor Melanie Kebler joined a group of city leaders in Salem last week to advocate for infrastructure funding. The city’s priorities include two growth-driven sewer projects billed at $25 million apiece: a central sewer pipe to serve westside expansion areas, redevelopment of the Bend Central District and the old Korpine site at the heart of town; and a new sewer system for expanding the southeast area. Both will pave the way for thousands of new homes to be built.

Bend also hopes to get money for water filtration upgrades and $25 to $30 million for the interchange at Murphy Road and U.S. Highway 97.

Transportation funding

In Central Oregon and across the state, many people will be following lawmakers’ efforts to pull together a funding package for transportation. Cities and counties, including Bend and Deschutes County, have lobbied for maintaining their proportion of transportation funding divvied up by the state, while the Oregon Department of Transportation has said the state needs to think about new ways to garner funding besides the ailing gas tax.

Despite the buildup ahead of the session, no formal transportation package has been introduced, as lawmakers deal with uncertainties around federal funding under the Trump Administration and Gov. Tina Kotek’s Dec. 19 executive ordering state agencies — including ODOT — to negotiate with labor unions on large projects. An ODOT report suggested the requirement could lead to higher costs.

Levy files youth bills

Rep. Emerson Levy, whose district includes northwest Bend, Tumalo and Sisters, hopes she can pass several bills on what’s perhaps her strongest priority — youth and family issues.

Levy, a member of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, said she feels strongly that the state should ramp up investments targeted at ending youth homelessness. As it stands now, Levy’s HB 3079 would appropriate $54 million for the issue, including new money to support providers at risk of closing and to expand programs into new areas. The bill also directs state homelessness agencies to detail in a report how they could raise the portion of homelessness funding spent on youth.

The legislation comes on the heels of policy-shaping public discussion in Central Oregon, where youth homelessness ranks among the highest percentages in the nation. The planning included the Deschutes Civic Assembly and meetings of the Youth Action Board — both of which produced a slate of recommended solutions, from a central services hub to fixing the foster care system.

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Levy said her bill aligns with many of the recommendations, but wasn’t drafted directly based on local policy talks.

Another of Levy’s bills would take steps toward addressing youth mental health. It would establish a pilot program for stabilization centers at hospitals for people under 18 who are experiencing a mental health crisis.

The ultimate goal is to get a regional psychiatric center for Central Oregon. Levy said St. Charles Health System is a partner in the effort.

“There’s not a single youth bed for a child who’s experiencing a mental health crisis in Central Oregon, and we have double the suicide rate of the state for youth,” Levy said.

Levy plans to file a third youth-related bill “at the behest of the school district” that would give schools more information about sex offense history of visitors. The bill stems from a 2022 incident when a man who served federal prison time for sex crimes was allowed entry into High Desert Middle School. Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Steven Cook said the district failed to follow protocols of signing visitors in through a system that notifies the district if the person is on the national sex offender registry.

But, according to Levy, the district would not have known the man was a sex offender even if sign-in protocols were followed, because the system doesn’t flag offenders below Class 1. Levy’s planned legislation would extend the system to pick up Class 2 and 3 offenders.

Broadman focused on housing, safety issues

Sen. Anthony Broadman, who was elected in November to the state senate seat representing parts of Bend and Redmond, said he is “squarely focused” on home affordability in his position on the senate housing committee. The former Bend City Councilor said unlocking needed housing with infrastructure investments is the “single most important thing we can do for Central Oregon and all of Oregon.”

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“There’s no shortage of work to do, which is why the people of Central Oregon sent me to Salem,” he said.

Broadman is also the co-chair of a public safety subcommittee of Joint Ways and Means.

“It’s not just one thing,” he said. “It’s looking at everything you do as, how is this making life more affordable for Central Oregonians, how is this making us safer, and being kind of maniacally focused on affordability and security.”

Bill seeks boost for emergency preparedness center

Broadman, Levy and Rep. Jason Kropf, the third Democrat representing the Bend area, have partnered on a bill that would propel plans to create a disaster center east of Redmond that would host the state’s emergency operations in the event of a major Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.

The Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, which is leading the project, called CORE 3, secured a $1 million federal grant in March. HB 3084 doesn’t include new earmarks to build the disaster center itself, but directs state agencies to coordinate on the development of the project.

The CORE3 center would also act as a training facility for local, state and federal public safety and emergency management agencies.