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The Oregon House of Representatives managed to squeak through the latest version of a long-awaited transportation funding package earlier this week. But nobody’s popping champagne yet—and they probably won’t be anytime soon.
That’s partially because momentum on the transportation bill, which Governor Tina Kotek and Democratic leaders introduced ahead of the special legislative session, is once again stalled. Democrats need every vote they can get for the controversial bill, so its passage in the Senate relies on the healthy return of Democratic Senator Chris Gorsek, who is dealing with health issues. Word from the Senate is that Gorsek will be available to vote on the bill on September 17, which is unfortunate for legislators who were hoping the late summer special session would end quickly.
But Gorsek’s absence isn’t the main problem contributing to the palatable malaise surrounding this bill. During Monday’s House vote, Republicans dripped with contempt, searing their Democratic colleagues for supposedly screwing over Oregon’s working people—and on Labor Day, no less. Republican lawmakers say the bill, which seeks to fund Oregon’s transportation system through a set of tax and fee increases, is the height of liberal excess and an example of Democrats’ unwillingness to compromise.
This criticism has seemed to resonate with many Oregonians, who have expressed their disdain for the tax increase in thousands of public comments. But it rings hollow when you take a look at what the bill actually includes, and how most Democrats are reacting to it.
The bill currently making its way through the legislature, House Bill 3991, is expected to raise around $4.5 billion over the next decade. But it’s a significantly watered down iteration of what Democrats proposed last spring with House Bill 2025, which was expected to bring in somewhere between $11 and $15 billion over the same time frame. In fact, the bill is less ambitious than it was last week, thanks to a last-minute amendment reducing the impact of a proposed transit payroll tax increase.
Democrats who voted for the bill repeatedly referred to it in less-than-ideal terms.
“Oregon deserves better than a Band-Aid. This bill keeps the lights on, but it doesn’t light the path forward,” Representative Mark Gamba said during the House vote on Monday. “It delays hard decisions, creates uncertainty, and leaves our most vulnerable communities to fend for themselves.”
But Gamba, along with others in the left-flank of the Democratic Party, still voted for the bill. Senator Khanh Pham supports it, despite her major reservations about the bill’s limited public transit and safety funding. But Rep. Cyrus Javati, who was the only Republican to vote in favor on the bill on Monday, felt forced to re-register as a Democrat, in part because of the disconnect between himself and his Republican colleagues about the transportation bill. Javati is already facing a recall campaign from far-right Republicans in his district (Oregon’s north coast) for voting against party orthodoxy in the past. Which party is incapable of compromise?
The most notable aspect of the Republican rhetoric about the transportation bill is their newfound focus on fiscal accountability at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). Many people involved in Oregon transportation reform work have long acknowledged ODOT’s accountability problems. As Joe Cortright, Oregon’s most well-known ODOT critic, said during an August 31 hearing for the bill, the department is “dangerously addicted to megaprojects and debt.”
ODOT repeatedly comes in over budget for freeway projects. The I-205 Abernethy Bridge project, for example, was initially expected to cost about $250 million. It now has an $815 million price tag. The agency is also moving forward with the I-5 Rose Quarter expansion project, which began as a $450 million plan and is now expected to cost $2.1 billion, despite major funding losses. The first phase of the plan, which only includes basic maintenance work on the freeway, is projected to cost $75 million, which is money that could be spent elsewhere. ODOT also takes out bonds to pay for these major projects, requiring the agency to spend a significant portion of its budget paying back debt. A full 10 percent of ODOT’s 2023-25 budget, or $615 million, was allocated to debt service.
Some Republicans have acknowledged the outsized impact of megaprojects and bonds on ODOT’s spending. But putting the blame on freeway expansions doesn’t really fit into the conservative dogma of the day. It’s more convenient to take the DOGE approach and blame ODOT’s overspending on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, “woke” public transit and climate programs, and, of course, bike lanes.
Most of these programs make up a very small portion of ODOT’s budget. They’re barely accounted for in HB 3991, which has no dedicated funding for safety projects or active transportation infrastructure, and is woefully inadequate when it comes to public transit. This is unfortunate, because contrary to the sentiments of many Republicans, people all over Oregon rely on public transit and bike lanes.
During the HB 3991 hearing on Sunday, legislators heard from public transportation supporters from urban and rural areas alike, asking them to support increasing the transit payroll tax so they could continue to access vital services. In response to the concerns they deemed legitimate, some Republicans said they acknowledged the value of public transit, but wanted to find a way to pay for it without a tax increase. How? Well, that part doesn’t matter as much. (They don’t have a real answer to that question.)
Democrats have a responsibility to counter their Republican colleagues’ hypocrisy and ridiculous claims. But they largely haven’t. As a result, misguided—or purposefully misleading—sentiments about transportation spending are being accepted as fact by many Oregonians. And they may not forgive the Democrats who vote in favor of this bill.
HB 3991 should pass. If it doesn’t, hundreds of jobs at ODOT will be lost and our state’s roads will continue to fall apart. But Democrats must not let this bill be seen as anything other than a drastic compromise, necessary to accommodate Oregon’s terrible quorum requirements in an age when Republican lawmakers won’t do their jobs. If they don’t change the narrative, every subsequent attempt at transportation funding will be more and more abysmal.
As Gamba said before he voted “aye” on the bill, the policy—and the conversation around it—sets a dangerous precedent. But there’s still time for Democrats to (ahem) take the driver’s seat.
“Some conversations around defunding safety and transit mirror the radical vision laid out in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025…Oregon should be rejecting that vision and bracing for it by shoring up our system, not by implementing it ourselves,” Gamba said. “We need our leaders, especially Democrats, to reject the vision of austerity and invest in a transportation future that works for all Oregonians.”
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Taylor Griggs
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