Inside Salem: Paul Evans

2025 has been an extraordinary year. We are continuing to navigate significant challenges. The US Government is about to enter the second week of a shutdown, our state revenue forecasts are showing a reduction of nearly $900,000,000, and we have a court battle being waged over the deployment of National Guardsmen by the President. For many people, this is a time of worry and uncertainty.  

Here in Salem, we recently completed a "Special Session" of the Oregon Legislature and our quarterly committee meetings. The session was widely reported as a frustrating  experience because of multiple miscalculations and preventable missteps. As a senior  member (and a lifetime student of Oregon politics), I admit that much of the reporting  about the session was honest and insightful. There were key opportunities for  bipartisanship missed. Fortunately, I believe lessons have been learned by all involved and that we will do better in the future.  

The special session was called because we had a huge hole in the Oregon Department of  Transportation budget that threatened the ability of ODOT — and the 36 counties and 241 incorporated cities dependent upon state funding — from doing the work they need to do on our behalf. A lot of blame was tossed around, but the reality was that three things converged to create the problem: past project scope errors, declining federal funding, and the failure to implement tolling in the Metro area were all contributing factors to the crisis we had to resolve. The result was a compromise none of us loved, but most of us believed to be as fair as we could make it.  

As we move towards the end of 2025, we are working on budget reductions associated with  a downturn in the economy. We are also prioritizing the services we believe are most  essential to sustain during a recession that we anticipate we have already entered. These  decisions are never easy, but they are necessary to live within our budget. Accordingly, I will be holding a series of town halls (the first of these is November 1, 2025)  throughout the district to ask you for your thoughts as we approach the 2026 Legislative Session coming in February.  

In closing, I want you to know that most of us recognize we cannot do the job assigned to  us without your continued participation. Together, we have the combined intelligence to understand the nature of our challenges and find responsible solutions to them. Your involvement is more important than ever, and I ask you to reach out and share what you feel, what you think, and what you suggest, as we navigate the coming year as a  community. We are living in a dynamic chapter of the Oregon Story. I hope we find the will to make it a memorable and successful chapter.  

Respectfully,

Paul Evans