Town Hall With Gomberg And Anderson

There were many who attended a recent Town Hall held on Friday February 28th at Oregon Coast Community College's north county campus, which was also recorded on zoom with over 50 attending online. State Representative David Gomberg and Senator Dick Anderson were on hand to give updates of their work in Salem and take questions from the audience and online.

Representative Gomberg spoke about being 1/3 into the legislative session with the main focuses being on housing, healthcare, wildfires and the uncertainty from the Federal Government. He noted that 1/3 of the state's budget comes from the federal government.

Gomberg noted that Oregon is an export state and the tarriff's are having an impact on agriculture and fishing. He also pointed out that the federal job cuts are going to have a big affect on the state and locally. Gomberg noted that 2/3 of the staff at Yaquina Head have been let go forcing them to close at 4pm instread of dusk. This will have a big impact heading into spring break and the summer season.

Gomberg told the audiance the cuts that have been made to staff at Hatfield Marine Science Center are going to have an affect on us as well with an oyster virus making its way up the coast and the scientists at Hatfield who studied this and found solutions are no longer employed. The 600 cuts to NOAA are another big loss for our economy and protection. Gomberg said the NOAA weather staff that have lost their jobs now can't provide weather forecasting important for our coastal area to keep people safe from storms and potential wildfire conditions and let fishermen know what is happening at sea.

Senator Anderson spoke of the many committees he is on including early childhood education and behavioral health. He also talked about the lack of housing in the state and more infrastructure that is needed to create more affordable housing. He said the state needs to be looking at a plan B in case Federal money is lost to help pay for childcare programs. He said there are over 15,000 people across the state who are unhoused, and that does not include the ones who were not able to be counted. He said there are less homes being built because going from concept to construction is too long of a process. Lack of infrastructure is also an issue with lack of sewer and water in many areas. Anderson noted that high inflation costs are also hurting businesses and families.

Questions that were asked included if the Republican Senate and Representatives would be walking out again, hurting the legislative process. Senator Anderson said he didn't walk out last time but he supported people's opinions, and he has no intentions of walking out. He also pointed out that some of those who did walk, are not being allowed to run again for their positions. Anderson was also asked from a NOAA employee who was recently let go what options they have and he responded that they could see if they were able to file for unemployment. There were also questions around school funding and support for changing transient room tax money availability to help with more infrastructure needs in cities with high tourism.

These Town Halls will be occurring monthly. The full video of the Town Hall can be found on https://oregoncoast.edu/

A Coffee with Kiera interview after the Town Hall with Representative Gomberg can be viewed here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsnTfr_0sgg&t=7s