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Margaret Doherty has served in the Oregon House of Representatives for District 35–which includes Tigard, Metzger, and part of Beaverton–since September 2009.  She visited with Tigard Rotary Club to review the 2019 Long Session of the House.  “We get stuff done,” Rep. Doherty said of the 779 Bills that passed in the recent session.  Although the Oregon House has a supermajority of Democrats, Rep. Doherty made it clear that “we get along in Oregon.”  She presented as evidence the fact that 92% of the successful Bills were bipartisan.  “We vet Bills well before taking them to the floor,” she affirmed.

“Once a teacher, always a teacher,” remarked Rep. Doherty.  This fact informs much of her interest and focus in the Oregon State House.  Among her proudest moments this year were unanimously passing HB2515 to provide free sanitary products for incarcerated women.  

House Bill 3427, a new tax on large Oregon businesses, is the Bill Rep. Doherty called “our biggest win,” and will provide stable funding for K-12 schools.  Previously, the State was responsible for 25% of school funding with the balance coming from a combination of sources including property taxes.  Such a system put less well-off localities—and the children who live there–at a disadvantage.  

The contentious HB2001 also passed, although Rep. Doherty voted against it. This Bill provides that Oregon cities with populations over 10,000 re-write their residential zoning laws to allow duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes in single family-zoned neighborhoods.  Such zoning is already part of the Tigard plan and is being instituted in many areas.  The Bill is intended to help mitigate the housing crunch caused by a large number of people moving into the Portland Metro area.  Rep. Doherty voted against the Bill because she is in favor of localities making decisions instead of the State mandating them.

Representative Margaret Doherty has a B.S. in speech communication and theater from PSU and a master’s degree from Lewis and Clark College.  She taught at Milwaukie High School for 10 years and served as a consultant to the Oregon Education Association for 22 years.  In addition to public service, she owns a home-based floral design business.