Five Kotek setbacks (beyond gas tax defeat)

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek just suffered several serious setbacks this month.

Most recent and notable has been the the massive $2 billion gas tax/road tax transportation bill (Hb 2025) which died last Friday night at the official end of the 2025 Legislature.  Just look at how desperate The Oregonian makes Kotek as it describes her not being involved until the final seven hours of the entire Session:

The Oregonian reports, “For months, Kotek’s engagement on the transportation package was limited to behind-the-scenes meetings with lawmakers. But on the final day of the session, she spent at least seven hours in the Capitol, urging lawmakers in one-on-one meetings to pass the slimmed down proposal.”  

The Oregonian did not mention Capitol insiders that said that Governor Kotek was threatening lawmakers with vetoes of their local budget spending projects if they did not do what she requested.  So desperate.   This all started last December when Kotek drafted a fluff budget that included transportation funding but left out the hard parts (taxes) of how to pay for it.  Then Governor Kotek went silent for much of Session and then shows up at the last minute to panic and threaten people.

This is why even OPB noted a disconnect with Kotek at her recent press conference when they reported, “What Kotek didn’t have was any blame for herself.”  Ouch!

Here are other set-backs the media cited on Governor Kotek in the past 40 days:

•  Kotek tried to stop a foster care regulation bill with a veto threat.   The Oregon State Senate made a surprising move against Kotek’s veto, by over-riding it with a lopsided 21-6 vote turn-out.  First, the last time an Oregon Senate overrode a Governor veto was in 2011.  Second, the margin of defeat showed that Kotek had only 6 supporters.  A clear rebuke of Kotek of near-historic proportions.

• Governor Kotek came out hard against the pre-school for all tax and resorted to public attacks on the Chair of METRO.  Willamette Week noted, “It’s unusual for the governor to publicly single out one particular local tax for rebuke”.  Very unusual.

• Governor Kotek housing plan fell apart. While Kotek budgeted for $700 million for affordable housing, she only got $468 million.   While Kotek budgeted for $173 million for rent subsidies in her budget, she only got $45 million.

• Governor Kotek also floated taking the people’s Kicker Income Tax Refund to pay for wildfire programs.  She later backtracked and recast her plan as only taking a small portion of the Kicker Refund — which is the higher income.   Senator Jeff Golden explained that the definition of higher income is those Oregonians making $90,000 or more.  Kotek’s quick backtracking revealed how unprepared and sporadic she has become.

• Also, this very month, Governor Kotek had made a bold stance against extraditing an Oregon fugitive suspect who stole  from a local Eugene newspaper (she stole so much that the newspaper laid off a dozen employees and closed).   Kotek said she wanted to save money by not having to collect the fugitive in Ohio.  That blew up and Kotek was forced to reverse herself.  At the same time, Kotek refused to extradite a mass-burglary suspect, and once again, after backlash reversed herself.

Finally, we noticed the Governor got a bad photo moment.  Usually, the media reserves such awkward photos for conservatives.  This could mean the media feels free to express their dismissive feelings over Kotek’s rash of irresponsible behavior.

— Did you not love our big collection of Kotek fails? If so, contribute online at OregonWatchdog.com (learn about a Charitable Tax Deduction or Political Tax Credit options to promote liberty).