A bill to fund road maintenance and stave off hundreds of layoffs at the Oregon Department of Transportation narrowly cleared the Oregon House on Monday, more than two months after a prior attempt fizzled on the final night of the regular legislative session.
A 36-12 Labor Day vote on mostly party lines, reached after Democrats who control all branches of government agreed to make temporary a payroll tax increase to fund public transit, is the first major step to passing a 10-year, $4.3 billion package of tax and fee increases. The proposal still needs a vote from the Oregon Senate, anticipated on Wednesday.
It’s less than one-third the size of an ambitious earlier proposal, and even supporters characterized it as only a temporary fix meant to keep roads plowed, potholes filled and buses running.
“This bill keeps the lights on, but it doesn’t light the path forward,” said Rep. Mark Gamba, D-Milwaukie.
Rep. Susan McLain, D-Forest Grove, and the House’s main architect of the earlier failed transportation package, said the latest proposal is a “pragmatic budget” that will help preserve roads and bridges that every Oregonian needs.
“We have heard from city councils and county commissions from every corner of Oregon, urban and liberal, north and south, east and west, red and blue, that this additional funding is absolutely a lifeline for their communities and their citizens,” McLain said.
Any tax increases require 36 votes to pass in the House, and the vote went on mostly party lines. But Rep. Cyrus Javadi, R-Tillamook, joined Democrats voting for the measure, while Rep. Annessa Hartman, D-Gladstone, joined Republicans in opposing it.
Javadi said he understood why Oregonians — including some “energetic” social media commenters whose sentiments he couldn’t repeat without violating House decorum rules — don’t want to raise the gas tax, or any tax.
“I received a lot of phone calls, sometimes at 10 o’clock at night, from people I have never met in my life, asking me to vote ‘no’ and threatening me I will lose my job if I dare vote ‘yes,’” Javadi said. “And to them, I might say, I think my job is worth it if compared to the hundreds more it will save across the state.”
Javadi, who represents a coastal district where landslides too often close stretches of Highway 101, or drivers crash on narrow, curving roads, said Oregonians need safe, open roads. Without passing the bill, he said, his constituents could be stranded by highway closures or unplowed snow or lose their lives because of stalled response from emergency services.
“The cost of doing nothing is far greater than the cost of doing something,” Javadi said. “We can pay a little more now at the pump, or we can pay a lot later in lost wages and lost opportunities.”
Hartman, meanwhile, said she still clearly remembers the days when she would choose to risk not renewing her vehicle registration to have the money to pay for groceries, and many of the working families in her district face similar choices.
“Those families in my district deserve my voice in this moment,” Hartman said.
House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, sat behind two piles of paper. Republicans described one, nearly 2 feet tall, as consisting of printed copies of more than 4,300 pieces of written testimony from Oregonians who opposed the bill. The other, much shorter, pile had copies of written comments from supporters.
In all, 94% of commenters opposed the transportation proposal, Drazan said. She read several of the comments, saying voices of those Oregonians should be heard.
“I could go on and on and on with the voices of Oregonians who are asking for this body to hear them,” Drazan said.
Rep. E. Werner Reschke, R-Malin, said it wasn’t the right time to raise taxes, especially given a recent revenue forecast that shows the state’s surplus turning into a deficit.
“We’re going to attempt to solve one problem but then create one that is far, far worse.”
But Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, said there was no time to wait.
“Right now, ODOT has a sucking chest wound,” Evans said. “We can all sit around and watch the patient die; we can debate life choices and whether or not they should have done this or that. But the fact of the matter is, weather is coming, and our families and our cities and our state need folks out there.”
What fees and taxes would change under the proposed transportation package?
A gas tax increase from $0.40 to $0.46, effective Jan. 1, 2026, is expected to raise $90 million a year. The gas tax is split among the state and local governments, with half of the tax for the state, 30% for counties and 20% for cities.
An increase in annual registration fees from $43 to $85 for passenger vehicles; $63 to $105 for utility vehicles, light trailers, low-speed vehicles and medium-speed electric vehicles; and $44 to $86 for mopeds and motorcycles.
Increasing title fees for passenger vehicles from $77 to $216.
Temporarily doubling the payroll tax used to support public transit from 0.1% to 0.2% from Jan 1., 2026 to Jan. 1, 2028.
An increase to registration surcharges for electric and highly fuel-efficient vehicles, from $35 to $65 annually for cars with a 40+ miles-per-gallon rating, and from $115 to $145 annually for electric vehicles.
Phasing in a mandatory road usage charge program for electric vehicles by 2031. Electric vehicle drivers have been able to opt into the OReGO program and pay 2 cents per mile in exchange for lower registration fees, and the proposed change would mandate electric vehicle drivers participate in that program or pay a flat $340 annual fee.
By Julia Shumway of news partner Oregon Capital Chronicle
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