Oregon bill to move gas tax referendum heads to governor’s desk

By: Mia Maldonado

The Oregon House of Representatives in a 31-20 vote Monday passed a bill that would move the date Oregonians can vote on a controversial 2025 transportation law from November to May. 

Democrats in the fall passed a law to raise $4.3 billion dollars for the Oregon Department of Transportation over the next decade mostly through a 6-cent gas tax increase, hikes to car registration and title fees and doubling the payroll taxes used for public transit. Those fee and tax hikes have since been paused because organizers of a Republican-led campaign, No Tax Oregon, gathered enough signatures to pause them until voters at the ballot can have the final say in the bill’s passage.

Oregon Democrats cannot repeal their unpopular transportation law because it has already been referred to the ballot, but they can move the referendum date from the general election to the May 19 primary — which is exactly what they plan to do through Senate Bill 1599. 

The bill’s passage in the Oregon House vote marks one of the largest trials for Oregon’s mostly Democratic legislature as they try to balance the Oregon Department of Transportation’s massive budget shortfall while contending with criticism from Oregonians urging them to prioritize affordability. 

ODOT faces a $242 million shortfall in its 2025-27 budget alone, and it needs an additional $46 million to support operations and maintenance at the start of 2027-29 budget cycle.

To cover those gaps, legislative budget writers on Sunday announced they would leave more than 130 ODOT jobs vacant, redirect funding for grant programs and take funding from infrastructure improvement projects that haven’t yet begun. 

Five Democrats, mostly moderates who represent swing districts, voted with Republicans:  Reps. Emerson Levy of Bend, Lesly Muñoz of Woodburn, Ricki Ruiz of Gresham, Sue Rieke Smith of King City and Lamar Wise of Portland. Rep. Annessa Hartman, a Gladstone Democrat who voted against the transportation package last fall and is undergoing cancer treatment, was excused, while eight Republicans were marked absent. Lawmakers with 10 or more unexcused absences are ineligible to run for reelection under a voter-approved constitutional amendment.

Are referendums the new Oregon way? Republicans think so. 

Several House Republicans said Democrats behind the bill are ignoring the 250,000 Oregonians who signed the No Tax Oregon petition, claiming they are intentionally pushing the referendum to the date of primary election when there’s historically lower voter turnout.

Rep. Ed Diehl, a Scio Republican and leader behind the referendum campaign, said the referendum campaign was successful because so many Oregonians believe the government is no longer working for them.

“This is about the men and women who stood in the cold and rain for days to gather signatures,” he said. “It’s about the retirees outside grocery stores, the small business owners who set up tables on Saturdays, the parents who brought clipboards to holiday events, the volunteers who spent long days and weekends manning sign-up locations in every county and most every town across Oregon.”

Rep. Anna Scharf, R-Amity, said Democratic lawmakers should expect another referendum effort the next time they pass a highly controversial law. 

“This is the Oregon politics game,” Scharf said. “It’s crooked and it’s being played by one team, and until there’s two teams on this playing field the game rules will never be fair. So let’s play ball.”

House Democrats pushed back against those claims, saying a May vote wouldn’t disenfranchise Oregonians, but rather the sooner the public votes then the sooner lawmakers can find a long-term funding solution for Oregon’s transportation infrastructure. 

“You know who else was out in the rain all night long?” said Rep. Cyrus Javadi, D-Tillamook, referring to transportation workers. “And by virtue of referring this to the ballot, by virtue of us saying that 6 cents per gallon is not worth it, we said to them you’re not worth it.” 

Javadi represents Oregon’s North Coast, which this winter endured rockslides that closed roads and disrupted commutes to work and school for several days.

“Let’s stop wasting more time on this issue than we already have,” Javadi said. “Let the people speak… Let’s let them vote and however those chips may land, let’s move on. I think the people deserve it. I think our emergency crews deserve it.”

Lawmakers already missed a Feb. 25 deadline to pass the bill and received a warning from the Oregon Secretary of State that further delay could limit voter input.  

Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, said he took the time to talk to people circulating the No Tax Oregon petition and understood that they wanted to stop a gas tax increase. No one said anything about November, he said.

“What I had to conclude is that most of these good people who signed the petitions didn’t want a gas tax,” Gomberg said. “They wanted to vote, and I think most of them didn’t care if the election was next November, next May or next Tuesday.”

The bill heads to Gov. Tina Kotek’s desk next where she is expected to sign it into law.