Dems lack Senate tax votes, extend special session
A Democratic Senator's serious medical condition, first publicly disclosed yesterday, leaves legislators and Oregonians twisting in the wind for another two weeks, at least
Yesterday, Democrats were again forced to delay passing their $4.3 billion* transportation tax and fee hike bill, this time occasioned by their admission Senator Chris Gorsek (D-Gresham) “is recovering from complications that arose during a planned medical procedure in August,” the Senate Majority Office said in a statement. Democrats now say the Senate vote will be held September 17. The vote had been scheduled for today, and the online legislative calendar continues to indicate the votes will occur as of publication of this article.
Until Gorsek returns, and absent an unlikely Republican defection, Democrats lack the 18 votes necessary to pass the tax hike. Hence the postponement.
The House passed the tax hike bill, which would increase the state gas tax by 15%, hike vehicle registration and title fees, and double the tax on every Oregonian’s paycheck dedicated to spending on buses and light rail, Monday.
At the same time, it passed an accompanying budget bill that would immediately create 22 administrative positions, 20 in the Oregon Department of Transportation and two in the Secretary of State’s office, to implement the bill.
Republican Cyrus Javadi, who represents the north coast, cast the deciding vote in favor of the bill in the House. Javadi published a truly fascinating Substack post Monday night, after casting the deciding vote, in which he apparently sought to explain his vote by lauding the “art of the possible,” as personified by 19th Century German authoritarian Otto von Bismarck (known back then as “His Serene Highness”) and lamenting the “theater of power” personified by 20th Century German authoritarian Adolf Hitler.
In the post, the second-term Representative explained his reason for running for office in Oregon:
I ran to find truth. To solve problems. To get government out of the way of my neighbor who shows up every day and works hard. To make sure those who stumble have a chance to get back up. And to stop government from steamrolling ordinary people in the interests of the powerful and well-connected.
The chief champion of the tax hike and administrative jobs bills is state worker union SEIU 503, which represents many current and potential ODOT workers and is commonly understood to be the most powerful and well-connected special interest in Oregon. The overwhelming majority of Oregonians who testified about the bills were opposed.
What did Democrats know about Gorsek and when did they know it?
A source close to the legislature told me last Friday the source had heard a rumor circulating in the Capitol that Gorsek was suffering from a serious medical condition that could affect the Senate vote on tax hikes and administrative hires. I didn’t write about it at the time because it was conveyed to me as a rumor, and I thought it very unlikely Democrats would confirm to me its truth, if it were true. Over the weekend, I assumed it was not true, as the Democrats pounded the bills through the House, celebrated their passage there, and scheduled votes in the Senate for Tuesday and today.
The Senate held its second reading of the bills yesterday, and despite the postponement announcement, their website continues to show third readings, and vote for final passage today.
In a statement, Senate Democrats were vague about when Gorsek suffered his “complications,” saying only that they “arose during a planned medical procedure in August.” I heard the rumor the afternoon of Friday, August 29. Surely Kotek and Democratic legislative leadership knew about Gorsek’s condition by then, likely well before then.
The House had been scheduled to vote on the bills Friday, but there was a long, officially unexplained delay. After a weekend of uncertainty, the House finally voted Monday, and as it appeared Democrats had the votes, some began an early victory lap.
By Monday, Democrats had to know the special session would not conclude this week, due to Gorsek’s absence. I don’t know this, but I suspect their strategy was to secure passage in the House, which was always considered a heavier lift for them, before letting everyone in on the secret about Gorsek’s condition and how it would affect the Senate vote.
Now, the legislature is in a kind of two-week limbo, in session (with, for now, an inaccurate public website) but with no stated plans of votes until at least September 17. We all, and I personally, wish Senator Gorsek a speedy recovery, but I would not write that September 17 date in stone. After all, Kotek extended the ODOT layoff deadline until almost a month later, leaving the phantom Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of legislators and members of the public and the entirety of the legacy media who still, despite all evidence, believe her.
Kotek delays “ODOT layoffs” once again
Speaking of the phantom Sword of Damocles, one problem for Democrats as they extend what was to have been a Labor Day Weekend special session through at least September 17 is Governor Tina Kotek’s most recent deadline to raise taxes and avoid what she has repeatedly promised would be 500-600 layoffs of ODOT maintenance workers and closures of regional ODOT offices and failure to plow highways in the snowy, and mostly Republican, parts of the state was September 15.
No problem! Kotek simply did what she’s done repeatedly for months: somehow kept the ODOT workers employed longer than she swore she could. By her mere utterance, funds materialized to keep ODOT workers working for another month, to October 15, without any additional tax revenue. The extension lent additional support to the theory that Kotek has no intention of laying off ODOT workers with or without the tax hike, and is creating uncertainty about their employment future to create a sense of urgency to pass the tax hike by some date certain, which date moves, as if by magic, when more time is needed to pass the hike.
I wrote about Kotek’s ODOT layoff bluff on July 23, the day after Kotek called the special session and issued the then-extended and now-somehow-irrelevant September 15 deadline.
Two more weeks, twisting in the wind
Kotek presumed by scheduling the special session for Labor Day Weekend she could ram the bills through while Oregonians were focused on other things, reducing at least incrementally the onslaught of public approbation heaped on Democrats, a bit of which we saw during the hearings on the bills. Well, that’s out the window, and now House members who voted for the package surely hoping to get the job done quickly and cleanly are waiting.
Democratic Senators, in particular Senator Mark Meek (D-Gladston), who opposed the bigger version of the tax bill earlier this year, but has indicated he will support this version, must take arrows for deeply unpopular bills for another two weeks.
The legislature, when convened in special session, can do anything it could do in a normal session. It is not restricted to the stated purposes of increasing taxes and hiring more administrative employees. It could, in theory, do anything supermajority Democrats choose to do, so long as it does not require Gorsek’s presence in the Senate. It could vote to adjourn itself.
The truly pressing deadline is the rapidly approaching 2026 election, wherein all House seats and half of Senate seats, including Meek’s, will be on the ballot. The longer the tortured path of the tax hike extends, the more the issue will imprint itself on the minds of Oregonians, and remain fresh as they begin voting about 13 months from September 17.
Democratic Senators in marginal districts, especially Meek, may choose to continue to take body blows for the mistakes and, frankly, dishonesty of their leaders.
Or, maybe they won’t.
*The previous tax hike Oregon Roundup and others have used, $5.8 billion, was superseded by the current $4.3 billion estimate based on altered bill language.
Javadi sounds like a loose cannon, a real loser. Hope Tillamook County wakes up to who they elected.
It looks like we have until September 17 to flood the Oregon Senate offices with emails and phone calls opposing the bill. Let them know that we will do whatever we can to hold the proponents accountable come election time.