Kotek lets stand state money for three metro projects

Three metro area projects will proceed to get a total of $8 million in state funds now that Gov. Tina Kotek has decided against invoking line-item vetoes.

Kotek gave notice April 8 of potential vetoes of state aid for seven of 44 public works projects — including two in the metro area — and a separate $2 million award to the Old Town Community Association for proposed athletic apparel manufacturing in Portland.

Among the imperiled projects: $3 million for the Tualatin Valley Water District to upgrade a pump station on Southwest 189th Avenue in Beaverton, and $3 million for the Oak Lodge Water Services District for a water treatment plant. The others were in Siletz, Creswell, Butte Falls, Gold Hill and Shady Cove.

The seven were among the projects funded directly by the 2024 Legislature, instead of going through an agency review, to accommodate more housing construction. Total for the seven: $14 million of a total of $94 million. (Money for a few other projects was in another bill that Kotek did not single out.)

Kotek issued her notice to comply with a constitutional requirement for the governor to give a five-day notice for potential vetoes — including budget line items — from the 2024 session, which ended March 7. The Oregon Constitution gives the governor 30 business days, excluding Saturdays and Sundays, to issue vetoes.

That deadline was Thursday, April 18.

The requirement for a notice of potential vetoes does not obligate the governor to follow through — and Kotek said she received sufficient information about the projects that she chose not to follow through.

“I am grateful to legislators for responding to our state’s most pressing needs,” she said in a statement on April 17. “In the days following last week’s notice of potential vetoes, I received adequate information to have confidence” in signing the two bills containing the budget items.

pwong@pamplinmedia.com