Gas Tax: House GOPer "definitely leaning" yes

State Rep. Cyrus Javadi (R-Tillamook) believes Oregonians can't wait to fix trust issues with their state government to spend more on highways and buses

State Representative Cyrus Javadi (R-Tillamook) on the House floor. (Photo from Rep. Javadi’s Facebook page).

In an interview about the legislature’s August 29 special session in which it will take up a $5.7 billion tax and fee increase package to increase funding for the Oregon Department of Transportation, State Rep. Cyrus Javadi (R-Tillamook) told me late afternoon on Friday he is “definitely leaning in support of the package as things are now, and assuming things don’t change one way or another.”

The tax package, backed by Governor Tina Kotek, Democratic legislative leadership and public employee unions would raise Oregon’s 40-cent per gallon state gas tax, the tenth highest gas tax in the U.S., by six cents, increase vehicle title and registration fees, double the state’s 0.1% payroll tax for transit and gives the governor the power to hire and fire the director of ODOT.

Kotek has said without the additional revenue, ODOT would lay off some 500 workers and scale back maintenance, snow plowing and other services. The governor promised similar, immediate, layoffs if the legislature failed to act at the end of its 2025 regular session, which concluded, dramatically, in June without passing a tax hike. She did not initiate layoffs then, but threatens that this time, she means it.

The fate of the rebooted tax hike bill likely hangs on the votes of a handful of centrist lawmakers of both parties, including Javadi. Democrats hold a supermajority in both houses of the legislature, theoretically allowing them to hike taxes without any Republican votes. However, “Multiple House Democrats in recent weeks have privately raised concerns about the updated proposal,” according to Carlos Fuentes in The Oregonian Wednesday, based on conversations with three (presumably Democratic) lawmakers.

Some number of reticent Democratic House members played a key role in scuttling the June tax package. None have been publicly identified or spoken on the record about their objections.

Kotek has worked to gain House Republican support for the package, either as a means of offsetting possible Democratic defections in the House, or to provide bipartisan cover for moderate Democrats to vote for the controversial bill the legislature takes up as Oregonians absorb increases in utility bills and prices for groceries and other staples.

Kotek’s list of House Republican targets includes Kevin Mannix (R-Salem), who cast the lone GOP committee vote in favor of the larger tax hike bill in June, and Javadi.

Javadi explained in a post on his Substack newsletter a week ago the six-cent gas tax increase would “help prevent layoffs. It will keep plows on the road. It will qualify us for [federa] matching funds. And it will buy us time. Time to deal with the structural problems we’ve ignored for too long.”

Yesterday, Javadi elaborated that he is leaning toward voting for the entire package, while emphasizing “the bill could change,” and he’s “keeping an open mind and listening to both sides.” Javadi believes the legislature shortchanged maintenance the last time it raised gas taxes, in 2017, and pushed most of that money into large construction projects, many of which are now behind schedule and well over budget. He also likes provisions of the bill that address complicated and unfair taxation of commercial truckers and taxing workers and employers more to “make sure employees show up for work” via transit.

Javadi said he trusts money raised from tax and fee hikes will be spent well. He told me he met with ODOT officials Thursday, who assured him, “If the tax passes it is going to be put in operations and maintenance.” He knows that most Oregonians don’t trust their state government to spend responsibly, “for good reason,” but does not believe it’s wise for legislators to “just let everything fall apart until we fix the trust issue.” Javadi believes, “The leaders of the state genuinely want to accomplish the mission and maintain the transportation network.”

Javadi, who is a dentist in Tillamook, represents House District 32, which includes Tillamook and Clatsop counties on the north Oregon coast, and a bit of Columbia County. Javadi first won the redrawn district in 2022, narrowly besting his Democratic opponent. He won re-election in 2024 with a larger, but still narrow, margin.

In a 2022 campaign video on his Facebook page, Javadi supported a platform to “Cut Taxes, Cut Fees, Cut Excessive Regulations.”

Democrats plan a hearing on the tax package Monday, August 25, the only hearing scheduled on the bill. The special session is slated to begin Friday.