Proposal comes after more than a year of searching for reliable funding mechanisms
By Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle
Desperate for money to get through the next two wildfire seasons and with few proposals on the table that could meet costs and get passed by the Oregon Legislature, Gov. Tina Kotek is proposing to skim some money off of the state’s “rainy day fund.”
Kotek at a news conference Monday proposed taking $161 million of interest income from the state’s nearly $1.9 billion budget reserve fund — meant to help the state smooth out revenue or expense fluctuations in times of economic downturn or recession — to provide funding for wildfire response and mitigation for the 2025-27 biennium to mitigation readiness.
“We have only just weeks left in the session — days — without an immediate path for an ongoing funding mechanism. I urge the Legislature to identify as much one-time funding as they can,” she said. “I see no reason why they can’t get that at least done.”
The 2025 fire season has already started, and Kotek last week declared a conflagration for the Rowena Fire near The Dalles, which has burned more than 3,500 acres and destroyed 56 homes. And federal aid for fires remains in doubt, as the Trump administration has pushed for states to shoulder more of the costs of responding to natural disasters.
Kotek asked the Legislature for more than a year to come up with a reliable and consistent funding mechanism to support statewide wildfire work but has so far not received any proposals that come close to meeting her desired target of an additional $150 million per year and can get the bipartisan support needed to pass.
She recently began signaling her support for using a portion of the expected $1.64 billion “kicker” tax rebate for wildfire funding, despite declining to consider it in the past. The rebate is sent back to Oregonians when actual revenue the state collects, including income taxes, exceeds the two-year revenue forecast by 2% or more.
But any bill to change the kicker requires a two-thirds supermajority vote in each chamber, meaning at least two Senate Republicans and four House Republicans would need to approve along with all legislative Democrats.
A recent proposal from Sen. Jeff Golden that would use $1 billion of the kicker for wildfire funding and send the remaining $650 million to Oregonians earning less than $95,000 a year would meet Kotek’s desire for sustained funding. The $1 billion would be put into an interest-bearing account that could, if earning 5% each year, send $100 million each biennium to the state for wildfire — covering about one-third of the total $300 million the state hopes to budget each biennium.
But Kotek said she doubted Golden’s measure was feasible
“I don’t think legislative leaders have the votes to take a portion of the kicker,” Kotek said.
Alex Baumhardt has been a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media since 2017. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post.
