BREAKING: Dems plot end to voter input on local fuel tax hikes
The amendment, introduced this afternoon with committee vote scheduled for 8 a.m. Monday and no hearing, would eliminate Oregonians' right to vote on city and county fuel tax increases
State Rep. Paul Evans (D-Monmouth) this afternoon introduced an amendment that would strip Oregon voters of the right to vote on local government fuel tax increases even as Democrats work furiously to avoid voter wrath over a six-cent-per-gallon state fuel tax increase. Evans seeks to amend HB 4007, which in its unamended and relatively inoccuous form would require children under 16 to wear helmets when riding e-bikes and e-scooters, and create a pilot program allowing truckers to haul heavier loads of milk. Sources tell Oregon Roundup Evans’s amendment has the support of Democratic leadership.
The House Transportation Committee held a hearing on the unamended bill February 4. The bill, and Evans’s fuel tax amendment, are slated for a vote at 8 a.m. this coming Monday in the committee, some three and a half business hours after Evans’s amendment posted on the legislature’s website. No hearing is scheduled before committee members will be asked to vote on the amendment.
Oregon law currently requires a city or county to put a fuel tax increase to a vote of the people. That law was included as part of a six-cent-per-gallon fuel tax increase in 2009, to provide Oregonians assurance they would have input on local tax hikes as lawmakers asked for more state funds.
Evans’ amendment comes as legislative Democrats push a separate bill, SB 1599, through the legislature to move the date of a referendum vote to repeal their $4.3 billion tax hike, which includes a six-cent-per-gallon fuel tax bump. That vote is currently set for the November general election, a date that appeared on the petitions signed by some 250,000 Oregonians last year.
Senate President Rob Wagner (D) admitted Democrats did not want the vote on the highly unpopular tax hike to appear on the same November general election ballot as Gov. Tina Kotek and legislative Democrats seeking re-election. SB 1599 would change the date of the vote to the May primary election, while eliminating citizen input regarding information that will appear on the ballot with the referendum and reducing statutory timelines. The committee passed SB 1599 last night on a party-line vote; the bill is scheduled for a second reading on the Senate floor Monday, and final Senate vote Tuesday.
Last year, State Rep. Mark Gamba (D-Milwaukie) introduced a standalone bill to eliminate the requirement voters approve local fuel tax hikes, telling OPB tax-wary voters acted like “petulant children” when they voted down tax hikes, causing “cities and counties [to] get poorer and poorer as their infrastructure gets older and older.” Gamba’s 2025 bill did not get traction, but rumors have swirled Democratic leadership sees eliminating the vote requirement as a payoff to cities and counties who play a major role in behind-the-scenes transportation tax and funding negotiations.
In addition to the twin fuel tax maneuvers, Democrats, who hold supermajorities in both houses of the legislature, are pushing during the current one-month session to disconnect Oregon’s tax code from the federal code to prevent business investment and other write-offs as Oregon struggles with Great Recession-calibre layoffs and increasing voter concerns about affordability.
4007 may set a new record for proposed amendments. But this is the game a lot of Oregon voters are now aware of. Using Oregon's "gut and stuff" procedure a person could come and testify on a bill. Maybe they are for it. Maybe against. Either way they are on the record. Then the legislature closes public comment and strips every single word out of the bill and replaces it with language that bears no resemblance to the original bill. Now a bill you testified in favor of becomes something you hate. Guess what sucker? Too damn bad. You've got nothing to say about it. You are just a voter, and in Oregon voters are the property of the public employees' unions.
The issue in Portland is that we were told if we allowed a local gas tax it would go to fill pot holes. Instead it went to trophy projects, which causes the issue of basic street maintenance to get worse. Then we are told that the city needs more taxes to fill pot holes. No wonder they want to increase the gas tax without voter input.