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Federal Retirement Match Proposal Could Double Savings Incentive 2027 Program Nears Launch By John Oliver A federal retirement savings program scheduled to begin next year could become considerably more valuable for working Oregonians under legislation introduced this week that would double the government's maximum contribution, expand income eligibility and alter the tax treatment of money deposited into qualifying retirement accounts. The proposal carries particular relevance in Southern Oregon, where retirement income is an important component of household finances and communities including Grants Pass serve sizable populations of retirees and workers approaching retirement. While the legislation would apply nationwide, its potential effect reaches directly into Oregon households trying to build retirement savings through individual retirement accounts and workplace plans. The Saver's Match Enhancement Act, introduced September 28 by Oregon U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, would increase the federal government's matching rate from 50 percent to 100 percent on the first $2,000 an eligible person contributes annually to a qualifying retirement account. The change would raise the maximum federal contribution from $1,000 to $2,000 for an eligible saver who contributes at least $2,000. The legislation is a proposal and has not become law. It would modify a separate federal retire-

ment program that Congress has already enacted and that is scheduled to take effect for contributions beginning in 2027. Under existing federal law, the Saver's Match will allow qualifying low- and moderate-income individuals to receive a government contribution equal to as much as 50 percent of the first $2,000 they place into eligible retirement savings. A worker contributing $2,000 and qualifying for the full match could therefore receive another $1,000 from the federal government. Those federal funds generally will not arrive as cash in the taxpayer's checking account or as a conventional tax refund. The match is designed to be deposited into a designated retirement account, allowing the federal contribution to remain invested with the worker's own savings. The program covers several widely used retirement vehicles, including traditional and Roth indi-

vidual retirement accounts, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans and governmental 457(b) plans. Eligibility does not depend exclusively on having an employer that provides a retirement match, giving the program potential significance for workers whose employers do not offer matching contributions as well as people saving independently through an IRA. For contributions made during 2027, eligible participants will claim the match when filing their 2027 federal income tax returns in 2028. The Internal Revenue Service is preparing Form 8880-A for those claims and has begun releasing implementation guidance as the program approaches its first year. Current federal law establishes income thresholds based on modified adjusted gross income and tax filing status. For 2027, a single filer can receive

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see SAVINGS, page 7

Federal Land Proposal Opens New Front in Oregon’s Data Center Debate By Ellen Ward A proposal to build a data center on federal land near Hermiston places eastern Oregon at the center of a question with implications across the state: how much public land, water and electrical capacity should be committed to a rapidly growing industry, and who should pay for the infrastructure it requires? California-based energy company Copia has applied to develop the Charlestown Data Center and Battery Energy Storage System on approximately 106 acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management in Umatilla County. The company submitted a draft development plan in May. The application remains a proposal; federal approval has not been reported. The Hermiston site is among at least a dozen data center proposals involving more than 17,500 acres of BLM land across six Western states. It follows a July 2025 federal executive order directing agencies to make appropriate federal property available for data center development and accelerate related permitting. If approved and built, Charlestown would be Oregon’s first data center on federal public land. Umatilla County is already one of Oregon’s principal data center locations. The Hermiston application adds a different question to the region’s experience with the industry. A project on BLM land would require a federal decision about the use of property managed for multiple public purposes, alongside decisions about the water, power and

other infrastructure needed to operate the facility. Oregon is weighing those demands at the state level. In September, Gov. Tina Kotek directed state agencies to pause work on unapproved requests for state-owned property connected to data center projects. The directive covers such actions as leases, easements and land sales through July 1, 2027, unless superseded by further state action. It does not extend to federal BLM property, so it does not halt the Hermiston application. The governor has also convened a Data Center Advisory Committee to examine the industry’s effects on electricity costs, water supplies, infrastructure and communities. Its recommendations could inform legislation in 2027. The committee’s work will address a statewide industry whose projects can differ considerably in size, location and

demand for resources. For the Hermiston proposal, the scale of its eventual water and electricity use cannot be established from its acreage alone. Those figures, along with its proposed cooling system and power arrangements, will be central to evaluating the project. Data centers need substantial electricity to run servers and cooling equipment, but their water requirements vary with the technology they use and the source of their supply. Federal ownership of the site would not, by itself, give an operator unrestricted access to Oregon water. Businesses generally need state authorization to take groundwater or surface water, subject to legal exceptions. A water application would

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see OREGON’S, page 5

Federal Hemp Rules Put Oregon Product Lines and Southern Oregon Harvests in Question By John Oliver Oregon hemp businesses are approaching a November deadline that could remove a substantial share of hemp-derived products from the market. A federal law scheduled to take effect Nov. 12 changes which cannabis products qualify as hemp, creating immediate questions for manufacturers and retailers and longer-term uncertainty for growers supplying them. The change reaches beyond products marketed for their intoxicating effects. Under the new federal definition, a finished hemp-derived cannabinoid product cannot contain more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container and remain within the hemp category. The law also changes how THC is considered in hemp and excludes certain cannabinoids created or altered through chemical processes. Products that satisfy Oregon’s current rules may therefore fail to qualify as hemp under federal law when the change takes effect. For an Oregon manufacturer, the amount in the entire package is consequential. A beverage, bottle of tincture or bag of gummies must be evaluated as a container, rather than solely by the amount in one serving. CBD products may also be affected if they contain enough THC to exceed the federal limit. Whether a particular item can stay on the market will depend on its ingredients, laboratory results and how federal agencies apply the new definitions. The Oregon Department of Agriculture has told hemp licensees that its program continues under existing state laws and rules during the transition. The department expects federal agencies to provide further direction before it determines what changes Oregon’s federally approved hemp program may require. It has identified possible changes to testing, disruption for products above the container limit and, depending on future federal instructions, consequences for crops tested before harvest. None of those possible crop consequences has been announced as an immediate new requirement for Oregon growers. Southern Oregon’s exposure begins with the businesses that cultivate hemp, process it and sell finished goods. A grower in Josephine or Jackson County could meet the requirements for the cur-

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see HEMP, page 11

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Wednesday, September 30, 2026

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OREGON Oregon University Workers Reach Contract Deal Hours Before Planned Strike By John Oliver A strike that could have affected dining halls, building maintenance, campus offices and other services at Oregon’s seven public universities was called off early Monday after the universities and SEIU Local 503 reached a tentative contract agreement. The agreement covers approximately 4,600 classified employees—the staff who perform many of a university’s day-to-day support jobs, including custodial, dining, maintenance and administrative work. They work at campuses from Portland State University to Southern Oregon University in Ashland. Union members must still vote to approve the contract. The proposed deal includes cost-of-living pay increases of 3% this year and 3% next year, according to the union’s bargaining team. SEIU also said it retained existing protections governing the contracting out of jobs, layoffs, employees’ rights to move into other positions during layoffs, and health insurance. The complete contract has not yet been released, so the precise wording of those provisions remains unavailable for review. Employees voted September 14 and 15 to authorize a strike. The union then gave the universities notice that workers could leave their jobs September 28 if negotiations failed. Bar-

gaining continued as the deadline approached, and the union announced a deal before Monday’s shifts began. It instructed members to report to work at their usual times. The negotiations covered Portland State, Western Oregon, Oregon State, the University of Oregon, Eastern Oregon, Southern Oregon University and Oregon Tech. Several campuses were beginning fall classes Monday. A walkout would have reached the staff responsible for services students and faculty use throughout the academic day, although the effect would have varied by campus and department. Wages remained a central issue in the fi-

nal days of talks. The union sought annual 3% cost-of-living increases and opposed proposed changes to job and health care protections. The universities cited financial pressures during negotiations, including rising benefit costs and budget difficulties. Their bargaining representatives pointed to Southern Oregon University’s declaration of financial exigency as evidence of the conditions facing some campuses. The announced pay increases address one of the union’s principal demands, but employees have not yet received the full terms needed to assess the agreement. The bargaining team has not released the effective dates of the rais-

es, the final pay schedules or the language covering regular salary steps. Those details could affect how the contract applies to workers at different pay levels. The written provisions on health insurance, layoffs and contracting out also remain to be seen. SEIU says the tentative agreement makes no reductions to existing protections in those areas. Members will be able to examine the contract language when the bargaining team distributes it for the ratification vote. In Southern Oregon, the outcome directly affects represented staff at Southern Oregon University and Oregon Tech. Both institutions negotiated as part of the same statewide group as the five other public universities, placing their employees under the proposed agreement despite differences in each campus’s finances and staffing. SEIU’s bargaining team said it expects to release the full details, its recommendation and voting information later this week. It also plans meetings for members to discuss the contract before voting. No ratification result has been announced. For now, employees remain on the job and the planned statewide strike is off. The tentative agreement will become a final contract only if the workers covered by it approve its terms.

Congress Seeks Review of EPA Microplastics Research as Drinking Water Testing Gap Reaches Oregon By Ellen Ward Microplastics are on the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of potential drinking water concerns, but they are absent from the agency’s proposed nationwide testing rule. That gap has prompted Rep. Janelle Bynum of Oregon and 23 other House members to seek an independent review of EPA’s research and its ability to measure the particles in water. Bynum joined Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois and Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey in leading a September 28 request to the Government Accountability Office. The members asked GAO to examine EPA research, monitoring methods, risk assessments and policies concerning microplastics and nanoplastics since fiscal year 2023. The request does not establish a drinking water standard, require utilities to collect samples or identify contamination in Oregon. It asks GAO, which conducts reviews for Congress, to account for the federal work completed so far and identify what remains unresolved. No findings from the requested review have been issued. EPA placed microplastics on its draft sixth Contaminant Candidate List in April. That list identifies substances that may warrant future drinking water regulation. In July, the agency proposed its sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, calling for public water systems to test for 30 specified chemicals between 2028 and 2030. Microplastics were not among them. The difference has a practical effect. The candidate list can guide research and future regulatory decisions, but it does not require a water utility to test for a substance. The monitoring rule would collect results from public water systems across the country. Unless EPA changes

the proposed rule, its next testing cycle will not produce a comparable nationwide set of microplastics results from those systems. Under the proposal, all community water systems and qualifying systems serving places such as schools or workplaces with more than 10,000 people would participate. Systems serving 3,300 to 10,000 people would also test, along with a sample of smaller systems, if federal funding and laboratory capacity are sufficient. Each participating system would collect samples during a 12-month period between 2028 and 2030. Larger systems would pay their analytical costs, while EPA would cover those costs for participating systems serving 10,000 people or fewer. In Southern Oregon, the federal proposal is relevant to public water providers of different sizes across Jackson and Josephine counties. As written, it would not require a participating provider to measure microplastics through that program. It also would not require testing at every private household well, which falls outside the public water system monitoring rule. The omission leaves a question for residents who want to know whether microplastics are present in their own drinking water. It does not

establish that water supplied in Grants Pass, Medford or any other Southern Oregon community contains unsafe levels. The congressional request, EPA proposal and Oregon state materials reviewed for this story do not provide verified microplastics measurements for those city supplies. A finding about a particular source would require samples from that source and a clear account of how they were analyzed. Developing a dependable method is one of the issues behind the request to GAO. Microplastics include fragments and fibers made from different materials and ranging widely in size. Some are manufactured as small particles; others form when larger plastic products break down. Oregon Health Authority training materials have identified the lack of standard sampling and measurement methods as a barrier to comparing studies and assessing exposure. Identifying different types of plastic also requires specialized laboratory equipment. EPA’s water research plan for fiscal years 2023 through 2026 included work on methods for studying microplastics and their possible effects on people and aquatic life. With that plan nearing its conclusion, the House members are seeking an accounting of what the agency ac-

complished, whether its methods can support reliable monitoring and what additional work is needed to assess risks. Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality identifies plastic fragments and fibers as concerns for drinking water, agriculture, air, wildlife and ecosystems. Its ongoing study of Oregon waste pathways examines materials including compost, landfill leachate and wastewater. The project may provide information about how plastics move through the environment, but it is not a statewide survey of treated tap water. Questions about health effects also remain open. In a July science overview, GAO reported that microplastics have been found in the environment and human body and that some studies have associated exposure with health problems. The agency said scientists have not determined the extent to which the particles cause those problems. That earlier overview was a scientific briefing, not the review requested in September. EPA announced a separate drinking water study this month to screen for a broad range of potential pollutants. The agency said the research could guide future decisions. The announcement did not add microplastics to the proposed list of substances that public water systems would be required to test. EPA’s final monitoring rule will determine what data participating water systems collect in the next federal cycle. The requested GAO review, if undertaken, would give Congress a closer account of whether EPA’s microplastics research is ready to support broader testing. Until comparable testing is available, residents in Southern Oregon and elsewhere in the state have limited public data for judging whether the particles are present in their particular drinking water supply.

GRANTS PASS TRIBUNE

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

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OREGON

Oregon’s $200 Million Road Budget Gap Puts Maintenance and Travel Services at Risk By Ellen Ward The Oregon Department of Transportation is preparing for a roughly $200 million funding gap in 2027–29, a shortfall that could reduce highway maintenance, lengthen road closures and cut services at DMV offices across the state. The agency has outlined statewide reductions if the Legislature does not provide additional funding. It has not released a county-by-county account of where those cuts would fall. Maintenance and operations would absorb the largest proposed reduction, about $78.5 million. ODOT’s plan also identifies about $30.1 million in reductions to the staff and work that support transportation projects and about $32.9 million at the DMV. In all, the agency would eliminate 548 positions, including 193 in maintenance. The count includes vacant positions and filled jobs. It does not represent 548 layoffs already carried out. The pressure on ODOT’s budget extends well beyond paving contracts. Highway crews clear blocked drainage systems, remove fallen trees, manage traffic after crashes and reopen routes damaged by storms and fires. Equipment, labor and materials have become more expensive, while fuel tax collections have not kept pace with the agency’s operating costs. As more travel shifts to vehicles that use little or no gasoline, the tax produces less revenue per mile driven. Restrictions on transportation funds also limit ODOT’s ability to move money designated for other work into routine operations. Agency officials say the maintenance reduc-

tions would leave fewer employees available for pavement repairs, vegetation clearing and emergency response. Smaller crews could take longer to clear incidents and reopen lanes or highways. The proposed cuts to project staff could slow the preparation and delivery of future road improvements. At the DMV, fewer positions could mean additional office closures or reduced access to in-person service, a particular concern in rural communities where the next office may be a considerable drive away. Those changes carry costs outside the transportation budget. A closed highway can delay freight, keep employees from work and interrupt travel to local businesses. Pavement and drainage problems left unaddressed can become more expensive to repair. The effects would depend on which positions and services ODOT ultimately

reduces and where those reductions occur; the statewide proposal does not identify a uniform loss of service for every county. In Southern Oregon, the stakes are visible along routes that connect communities, carry freight and provide access during emergencies. ODOT’s Southwest Oregon region encompasses Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson and Josephine counties. The agency maintains 2,812 lane miles and 466 bridges there, including a long stretch of Interstate 5, coastal highways and roads through mountain passes. Wildfire, winter weather, falling rocks and landslides regularly place demands on the crews responsible for keeping those routes open. Interstate 5 carries commercial and passenger traffic through the Rogue Valley and over the Siskiyou Summit. When a storm, crash or fire closes part of that corridor, the consequences extend to

Oregon’s Data Center Debate

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identify the proposed source and use, allowing the state to examine whether the request can be permitted. Those details would also show residents and existing water users which watershed or groundwater supply is at issue. Electricity presents a separate economic test. Serving a large customer may require new lines, substations or other investments. The effect on household and business bills depends on the utility involved, the costs of those improvements and the rates approved for recovering them. Oregon’s 2025 POWER Act was enacted to make large energy users, including data centers, pay costs attributable to their demand. Its implementation will be consequential as utilities assess fu-

ture projects. The proposal near Hermiston does not mean a data center is planned for federal land in Southern Oregon. No Southern Oregon site has been identified in the reported group of proposals, and a facility in Umatilla County would not draw water from the Rogue Valley merely because both locations are in Oregon. Still, the federal land application establishes a development path that could be considered elsewhere. Federal agencies manage extensive property in Southern Oregon, including land near communities, streams and groundwater used by households and farms. If a developer proposed a facility there, its ef-

fects would depend on the precise site, its water source, its electrical connection and the capacity of local infrastructure. Residents could then evaluate a defined project through its applications and environmental review, rather than assume that the Hermiston proposal predicts a local outcome. For now, the decision immediately before federal officials concerns eastern Oregon. The broader decision facing Oregon is how to assess future data centers before commitments of land, water and electrical infrastructure are made. The Hermiston application brings federal property into that discussion while the state develops its own approach to growth across Oregon.

deliveries and travelers well beyond the immediate area. ODOT’s warning about slower incident response is therefore relevant to Grants Pass, Medford and other Southern Oregon communities, although the agency has not specified which regional crews or services would be reduced. No verified dollar figure has been published for Jackson County, Josephine County or the five-county Southwest Oregon region. ODOT’s $200 million proposal assigns reductions to agency functions, not geographic areas. Dividing the statewide gap by population or road mileage would suggest a local amount that the agency has neither proposed nor confirmed. Planned construction follows a separate budget process. ODOT’s draft 2027–30 transportation program lists projects in Southwest Oregon, including intersection and signal improvements in Grants Pass. Their appearance in the draft does not establish how many employees will maintain nearby highways during the same period. Likewise, the operations gap alone does not establish that a listed construction project has been canceled. Oregon voters rejected major portions of a transportation revenue package in May 2026. The state now enters its next budget cycle with ODOT’s proposed reductions on the table and no published regional breakdown of their effects. The 2027–29 budget will determine how much funding the agency receives. For Southern Oregon counties, the remaining question is how that decision will translate into local crews, response times and road service.

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Wednesday, September 30, 2026

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NATIONAL Nationwide Meat Recall Reaches Retail And Restaurant Supply Chain As Oregon Monitors Distribution By Bryce Robinson A federal recall covering nearly 168,000 pounds of raw beef, pork and goat meat has reached the national food distribution system, prompting consumers, restaurants and retailers to examine freezers and inventories for products that entered commerce without required federal inspection and carried an unauthorized USDA inspection mark. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced the recall Sept. 22 after determining that Star Meat Delivery Inc. of Lucama, North Carolina, produced approximately 167,639 pounds of raw meat products without federal inspection. The products were shipped to A&D Foods, a distributor in Georgia, before moving through retail and restaurant distribution channels nationwide. The recall encompasses meat produced on various dates before Sept. 22 and includes a wide assortment of products commonly sold by grocery stores, specialty meat markets, restaurants and other food businesses. Beef products include ribeye, chuck, oxtail, short ribs, shanks, ribs and beef feet. Pork products include ground pork, chorizo, chops, feet, ribs, Boston butt and sliced hock. Several cuts of goat meat are also included. Federal regulators identified the establishment number “EST. 1363” as a central marker in the recall. FSIS determined that the number appearing with the USDA inspection symbol does not correspond to a federal grant of inspection. Products bearing that establishment number are considered misbranded and unsafe for consumption under the federal recall. The federal action is classified as a Class I recall, the highest recall classification used by FSIS. The classification is applied when federal regulators determine there is a reasonable probability that consumption of the affected food could cause serious adverse health consequences or death. No confirmed illnesses or injuries associated with the recalled meat had been reported when the federal action was issued. The recall was initiated because the products were produced without required federal inspection rather than because investigators had identified a specific outbreak of foodborne disease. Federal meat inspection provides regulatory

oversight of slaughter and processing operations, sanitation procedures, labeling and food-safety controls before covered products enter interstate commerce. Meat produced outside that required inspection process lacks the federal verification ordinarily attached to inspected products. For Oregon consumers, the distribution chain remains the central unresolved question. The recalled products were distributed to retail and restaurant locations nationwide, placing Oregon within the possible distribution territory described by federal regulators. As of Tuesday, Sept. 29, federal and Oregon information reviewed for the recall had not publicly identified a specific Oregon grocery store, restaurant, meat market, distributor or community that received the products. Oregon residents therefore should not assume that the recalled meat was sold locally, but the nationwide distribution also means Oregon cannot be excluded until the downstream distribution chain is fully documented. The Oregon Department of Agriculture coordinates food-recall responses at the retail level in the state, while the Oregon Health Authority and local public health agencies participate in investigations involving foodborne illness. Oregon

maintains food-safety alerts and recall information as federal agencies and state regulators identify products entering the state’s commercial food system. The state’s publicly available food-safety information had not identified an Oregon recipient of the Star Meat Delivery products as of Sept. 29. Tracing the recalled meat may be more complicated than locating packages displaying the A&D Foods name. The products initially moved through the supply chain in bulk packaging. Retail businesses receiving bulk meat can repackage products for individual consumer sale, adding their own price labels, safe-handling instructions and store identification. As a result, some individual packages purchased by consumers may not display the original A&D Foods labeling or the establishment information appearing on the shipping container. That possibility broadens the federal investigation beyond recognizable branded packages. Restaurants and retailers that received affected bulk shipments must also examine purchasing and supplier records to determine whether recalled products remain in commercial refrigerators, freezers or storage facilities.

For households, frozen meat creates another concern. Unlike perishable products that disappear from the food supply within days, raw beef, pork and goat meat can remain frozen for extended periods. Federal officials are concerned that recalled products may remain in consumer, restaurant and retailer freezers even after affected inventory has been removed from active sale. Consumers who find meat carrying the recalled establishment number should not cook or consume it. Federal guidance directs affected products to be discarded or returned to the place of purchase. Restaurants and retailers are instructed not to sell or serve recalled products. The absence of reported illnesses does not end the recall or establish that individual products are safe. The federal action concerns the lack of required inspection and the unauthorized inspection marking applied before the meat entered commercial distribution. The case also differs from recalls initiated after laboratory testing identifies organisms such as E. coli, Salmonella or Listeria. Federal regulators have not tied this recall to a confirmed pathogen. Instead, the recall removes products for which the required federal inspection process cannot be verified. For Oregon grocery stores, restaurants and consumers, additional information could emerge as federal investigators trace shipments from the Georgia distributor through secondary distributors and individual commercial customers. Retail distribution information can be updated as FSIS determines where recalled products were ultimately delivered. Until that distribution work is completed, no evidence currently establishes that the recalled meat reached Grants Pass, Medford or another Southern Oregon community. The national scope of the distribution, however, leaves Oregon among the states where downstream sales remain possible. The recall covers approximately 167,639 pounds of meat — more than 83 tons — that entered a national food system serving restaurants and retail businesses. Its final Oregon footprint will depend on where those shipments traveled after leaving the distributor and whether additional businesses are identified as federal investigators continue tracing the products through the commercial supply chain.

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Wednesday, September 30, 2026

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COMMUNITY GRANTS PASS WEATHER 5 DAY OUTLOOK SOURCE: WEATHER.COM

WEDNESDAY Partly cloudy 85/50

Ruch School to Build Permanent Art Studio With State Grant By Bryce Robinson An existing classroom at Ruch Outdoor Community School is slated to become a permanent art studio for kindergarten through fifth grade after Jacksonville nonprofit Sticks and Stones Studio received a $10,000 Oregon Arts Commission grant. The award places a Southern Oregon school among projects funded through the commission’s Arts Learning program for the coming academic year. Fifteen organizations across Oregon will receive $10,000 each, for a statewide total of $150,000. The grants support arts instruction developed through partnerships between community organizations and schools. At Ruch, the money will support the conversion of classroom space into a studio designed for ongoing use by students and educators. The project is intended to establish K–5 art instruction within the school’s continuing curriculum, so the space and its teaching approach can remain in use after Sticks and Stones Studio concludes its direct work on the grant-funded project. That longer-term purpose gives the award a role beyond paying for a set of classes. The studio is planned around Teaching for Artistic Behavior, an approach that gives students choices about the ideas and methods they pursue while they learn to work as artists. The Arts Commission’s project description emphasizes building the capacity of both children and educators to use the studio independently. Ruch Outdoor Community School is a K–8 school in the Medford School District, located on Upper Applegate Road near Jacksonville. Its setting and outdoor focus have al-

ready shaped the art experiences Sticks and Stones Studio provides there. The nonprofit, which works to expand arts access for children in rural and lower-income communities, has partnered with the school on activities that connect creative work with the natural environment. Among those activities is Nature Art Explorations, a separate program that Sticks and Stones Studio describes as serving 72 students in grades one through five over six months. Its sessions bring together art concepts, materials found in nature, collaborative projects and opportunities for students to discuss their work. The organization has also offered after-school art clubs at Ruch for different elementary grade levels. Those existing programs provide background for the new award, but the $10,000 grant has its own stated purpose: preparing a classroom for lasting K–5 studio instruction. Sticks and Stones Studio identifies earlier grants, community fundraising and donations as support for Nature Art Explorations. The Arts Commission’s September award should not be treated as funding for that earlier program. The school already includes art among the activities available to students, and volunteers help support its art curriculum. The grant announcement describes a plan to bring K–5 programming into a more durable classroom setting. It does not establish that Ruch students currently receive no art instruction. Sticks and Stones Studio says its work responds to the difficulty rural families can face in reaching arts programs and paying for them. Through its school partnership, the nonprofit has provided free opportunities during and after the school day. A studio housed

on campus would put materials and space where children already attend classes, while giving teachers a setting they can continue to use. The Ruch award also reflects the Arts Commission’s priorities for the statewide grant program. Arts Learning grants are intended to give K–12 students opportunities to learn through the arts, connect artists with educators and strengthen students’ skills and engagement. The commission gives funding priority to projects serving Title I schools and schools in rural or economically distressed parts of Oregon. Funding for this round comes from Oregon’s general fund and a federal grant to the Arts Commission from the National Endowment for the Arts. Other recipients will use their awards for projects including visual art, dance, photography, music and design instruction in schools and youth programs around the state. For Ruch families, several practical details have yet to be made public. The state announcement does not specify when the classroom conversion will begin, when students will first use the completed studio, which materials will be purchased or how many children will participate during its first year. It also does not describe how the school and nonprofit will divide responsibility for the studio once the grant-funded work is finished. What the award does establish is a funded plan to give elementary students a dedicated place to make art at Ruch. The school and its Jacksonville partner now have $10,000 to turn a classroom into a studio intended to serve students beyond the initial grant year.

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THURSDAY

Mostly sunny 87/52

FRIDAY Partly cloudy 87/52

SATURDAY Mostly sunny 92/54

SUNDAY Mostly sunny 92/55

GRANTS PASS TRIBUNE

Wednesday, September 30, 2026

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NEWS DESK

Oregon Schools Record 2,655 More Regular Attenders as Chronic Absenteeism Remains Elevated By Ellen Ward Oregon public schools recorded 2,655 more regular attenders during the 2025–26 academic year, marking a third consecutive year of statewide attendance gains while chronic absenteeism remains well above levels recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic. Early statewide figures released Sept. 28 continue an upward attendance trend that included 3,111 additional regular attenders during 2024–25. The number of Oregon students meeting the state’s regular-attendance standard has increased 4.6 percent since Gov. Tina Kotek took office. Oregon classifies students as regular attenders when they are present for more than 90 percent of the school days in which they are enrolled. Students included in the Oregon Department of Education’s annual Regular Attenders calculation generally must have been enrolled for at least 75 total days within the schools included in the agency’s May reporting snapshot. The latest count is preliminary statewide data. Final 2025–26 district and school figures have not yet been posted in the Oregon Department of Education’s public Regular Attenders database, which currently extends through the 2024–25 academic year. The statewide increase comes as Oregon continues working through chronic absenteeism that accelerated during and after the pandemic. During 2024–25, 33.5 percent of Oregon students were chronically absent, compared with 20.4 percent during the 2018–19 school year. Chronic absenteeism is measured when a student misses at least 10 percent of enrolled school days. The calculation includes excused and unexcused absences rather than limiting the measurement to truancy. The numbers leave Oregon with continued attendance gains alongside a chronic-absence rate that remains substantially above its pre-pandemic level. Attendance problems have also developed unevenly across Oregon’s school systems. Districts serve communities with sharply different transportation networks, housing conditions, health-care access, enrollment patterns and geographic boundaries. Rural districts can cover hundreds of square miles, while larger metropolitan systems may serve thousands of students within comparatively concentrated areas. Transportation, housing instability, illness and access to health care are among the barriers identified by state education officials in connection with repeated student absences.

Southern Oregon districts have been among those using regional attendance programs to address the problem. Seven districts participating in a Southern Oregon Education Service District attendance initiative collectively increased regular attendance by 3 percent, according to regional education officials. Each participating district posted an increase, with individual gains ranging from 1 percent to 9.5 percent. The regional program established attendance teams within participating districts and expanded the use of student attendance data to identify developing patterns. District efforts have included family outreach, home visits, individual attendance plans, staff training, interviews and listening sessions with students and families. The Southern Oregon Education Service District also developed a Chronic Absenteeism Prediction Tool for participating schools. The system uses attendance information to identify students approaching chronic-absence levels before their missed instructional days accumulate across an entire school year. The regional figures do not provide final 2025–26 results for every district in Southern Oregon. Grants Pass School District 7, Three Rivers School District and individual Jackson County districts are not yet represented by finalized 2025–26 figures in the state’s publicly posted Regular Attenders dataset. Their final numbers will become part of the district-level accounting of Oregon’s latest statewide increase once the Oregon Department of Education completes publication of the annual data. Attendance remains closely connected to

the amount of classroom instruction students receive during the year. A student can reach Oregon’s chronic-absence threshold without experiencing a prolonged absence from school. Missing approximately two days each month over a typical academic year can approach or exceed 10 percent of instructional days. Those absences accumulate across the school calendar regardless of whether they occur consecutively. Illnesses, medical appointments, transportation interruptions and family circumstances can combine over several months to push a student across the chronic-absence threshold. The effect becomes measurable in instructional time. Students missing 10 percent of a 180-day school year would be absent approximately 18 days, the equivalent of more than three full weeks of classroom instruction. Oregon education officials track attendance alongside academic measures beginning in the elementary grades. Regular attendance during the early school years coincides with the period when students are developing foundational reading and mathematics skills. By middle and high school, attendance becomes one of the indicators monitored as students progress toward earning credits and completing graduation requirements. The state will begin measuring and publishing those patterns more frequently during the current school year. House Bill 4154, enacted during the 2026 legislative session as Chapter 69 of Oregon Laws 2026, requires the Oregon Department of Education to compile regular-attendance and chronic-absence information quarterly begin-

ning with the 2026–27 academic year. Oregon school districts already submit cumulative membership information to the state at several points during the year. The new reporting requirements will use those collections to produce attendance measurements throughout the academic calendar. The first quarterly figures will establish an attendance baseline earlier in the school year, followed by additional reporting periods as absences accumulate. Districts experiencing rising chronic absenteeism will appear in state data before the academic year concludes rather than first appearing in a completed annual report. The reporting change follows several years in which Oregon schools have attempted to recover attendance lost during the pandemic. The statewide chronic absenteeism rate of 20.4 percent recorded in 2018–19 increased substantially during the following years as school closures, remote instruction and pandemic disruptions altered student attendance. Although regular attendance has now improved for three consecutive years, the 33.5 percent chronic-absence rate recorded in 2024–25 remained 13.1 percentage points above the 2018–19 level. The 2025–26 preliminary figures add another 2,655 students to the regular-attender count, following the 3,111-student increase recorded one year earlier. Final district figures will determine where those additional regular attenders were concentrated across Oregon and whether gains extended broadly across urban, suburban and rural school systems. Southern Oregon has already recorded improvement among the seven districts participating in the regional Education Service District initiative, but complete 2025–26 figures for Josephine and Jackson county school systems remain pending in the state’s public dataset. Oregon’s attendance reporting now moves into a different schedule as the 2026–27 academic year proceeds. Instead of waiting for a completed school year to produce the primary statewide attendance measurement, quarterly reports will begin documenting changes while classes remain in session. The first of those reports will provide an early indication of whether Oregon’s three-year increase in regular attendance is continuing into a fourth year, while subsequent reports will show where chronic absenteeism is rising, declining or holding steady across the state’s public schools.

Hemp Rules Put Oregon Product Lines and Harvests in Question From page 1 rent season and still face a smaller pool of buyers if processors lose a market for products made from that crop. A processor with inventory intended for national distribution faces a different calculation: whether its existing formulas and packaging will qualify after Nov. 12. Retailers in Grants Pass, Medford and surrounding communities may have to replace affected products as suppliers make those decisions. The scale of that exposure has not been established. Oregon publishes lists of licensed hemp growers, grow sites, handlers and vendors, but those records do not show how much revenue each op-

eration earns from products above the coming federal limit. There is no verified dollar figure for losses in Jackson County, Josephine County or Southern Oregon as a whole. Nor does the federal change establish that every local hemp farm will close or every CBD product will disappear. Oregon consumers already encounter hemp products under state rules that differ from those governing marijuana dispensaries. Most cannabinoid hemp products sold to consumers in the state must be registered with the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission and carry labels that meet its requirements. The registry includes products sold

online as well as in stores, covering items such as gummies, beverages, tinctures, capsules and smokable flower. Oregon began enforcing those registry requirements in June. Hemp grain and fiber products without cannabinoids, along with topical-only items, are outside that particular registration requirement. Those state controls do not resolve what happens when the narrower federal definition takes effect. Oregon agriculture officials have raised the possibility that some products could move into the state’s regulated adult-use cannabis system, but that outcome has not been established for individu-

al products. Federal guidance and any subsequent state rule changes will determine much of the path ahead. For Southern Oregon, the economic effect will become clearer at the point where the new threshold meets actual business records: the products companies make, the contracts growers hold and the stock retailers carry. Until those figures are available, the confirmed development is a major change in federal eligibility arriving Nov. 12, with Oregon’s hemp supply chain preparing for rules that may leave many of its current products outside the federal hemp market.

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NEWS DESK Savings Incentives Could Double as 2027 Program Nears Launch From page 1 the full 50 percent match with qualifying income of up to $20,500. The match gradually declines between $20,501 and $35,499 and disappears at $35,500. For heads of household, the full-match threshold is $30,750, with a declining match through $53,249 and no match beginning at $53,250. Married couples filing jointly can receive the full match with qualifying income of up to $41,000, followed by a phaseout through $70,999. Eligibility ends at $71,000. The new legislation would substantially increase those income ranges while doubling the maximum matching rate. Under the proposal, the phaseout range for a single taxpayer would run from $42,500 to $57,500. For heads of household, it would extend from $63,750 to $86,250. Married couples filing jointly would have a proposed phaseout range extending from $85,000 to $115,000. The change would bring workers with considerably higher household incomes into the federal matching program than the structure currently scheduled for 2027. For qualifying workers at the full proposed matching rate, the calculation would be direct. A $500 retirement contribution could generate a $500 federal contribution. Saving $1,000 could generate another $1,000. A worker contributing $2,000 could receive the maximum $2,000 federal contribution, effectively placing $4,000 into retirement savings from $2,000 of the worker's own money. For married couples, eligibility is determined under the applicable joint-income rules, but the Saver's Match applies separately to each qualifying spouse. A couple in which both spouses qualify for the full proposed match and each contributes $2,000 could potentially receive $4,000 in combined federal contributions.

The legislation would make another change with consequences extending beyond the initial deposit. The existing Saver's Match generally places the government contribution into retirement savings on a pre-tax basis. The proposal would convert the federal match to an after-tax Roth contribution. Under the proposal's structure, the federal contribution would not be included in the participant's taxable income when deposited, while qualifying Roth distributions would receive the tax treatment applicable to Roth retirement savings. The bill also would index the $2,000 matching ceiling to inflation. Current law provides inflation adjustments to income thresholds after 2027 but does not index the $2,000 contribution ceiling used to calculate the maximum match. Indexing that amount would allow the federal savings incentive to increase over time rather than remaining fixed at its initial dollar level. For Southern Oregon, the mechanics of the program could reach beyond households already participating in large employer-sponsored retirement systems. The region includes small businesses, self-employed workers, independent contractors, service-sector employees and workers whose employers may offer retirement plans without matching contributions. Because qualifying IRA contributions can participate in the Saver's Match, access is not confined to employees working for companies with traditional corporate retirement packages. That structure also places the program within the broader financial landscape of Grants Pass and Josephine County, where retirement planning and fixed retirement income carry substantial economic importance. Workers in their later earning years may have fewer decades available for invest-

ment growth than younger participants, making the size and timing of annual retirement contributions particularly relevant as they approach retirement. The federal program, however, is aimed at people who are still making qualifying retirement contributions rather than providing an additional payment simply because someone is already retired. A Grants Pass resident receiving Social Security or drawing from an existing retirement account would not automatically receive a Saver's Match. Eligibility requires a qualifying contribution and compliance with the federal income and other eligibility requirements. Participants generally must be at least 18 by the end of the tax year, cannot qualify as students under the applicable federal definition, cannot be claimed as another taxpayer's dependent and must meet federal residency requirements. The IRS says taxpayers may qualify even when they owe little or no federal income tax. The Saver's Match will replace the existing Saver's Credit for qualifying retirement-plan and IRA contributions beginning with the 2027 tax year. That change shifts the federal incentive from a tax credit that can reduce a taxpayer's federal tax liability toward a system capable of placing federal money directly into retirement savings. Treasury and the IRS are now developing the administrative framework necessary to operate that system. Federal guidance issued this year addresses eligibility, qualifying contributions, income calculations, account destinations and procedures for directing Treasury payments into retirement plans and IRAs. There are practical limitations. Retirement plans and IRA providers are not universally required to accept Saver's Match payments directly from Treasury, although federal officials are encouraging financial institutions and plan administrators to participate. Treasury and the

IRS are developing procedures intended to accommodate circumstances in which a participant's preferred retirement account does not directly accept the payment. The timing also separates what Oregon residents can count on under existing law from what remains before Congress. The Saver's Match itself is already scheduled to begin with qualifying retirement contributions made in 2027. Under present law, the maximum federal contribution remains $1,000 per eligible individual, based on a maximum 50 percent match of the first $2,000 contributed. The September 28 legislation would replace that 50 percent maximum with a dollar-for-dollar match, raise the maximum federal contribution to $2,000, expand the income ranges, index the matching ceiling for inflation and establish Roth treatment for the government's contribution. Those provisions would take effect beginning in 2027 if the legislation becomes law. Until then, Oregon workers planning their 2027 retirement contributions face two separate federal realities: a Saver's Match program that is already approaching implementation and a congressional proposal that could substantially enlarge it before the first matching payments are distributed. For Southern Oregon households preparing for retirement, that difference could ultimately represent thousands of additional dollars directed into long-term savings. Whether the larger match becomes part of the program will depend on the legislation's progress through Congress and enactment into federal law. The underlying Saver's Match, however, is already on the calendar, placing 2027 at the center of a significant change in how the federal government encourages Americans to save for retirement.

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