Ahead of special session, citizens testify on proposed tax, fee hikes

Julie Murray is one of nearly 500 people who work for the Oregon Department of Transportation who will be laid off if the state Legislature does not provide funding to fill the agency’s $350 million budget gap.

The drone pilot and video producer has filmed wildfires, landslides and construction projects to keep Oregonians informed during emergencies, and about major highway and transportation infrastructure work. The department trusts her to be in the most extreme conditions while filming, and it’s invested in dozens of drone, artificial intelligence and safety trainings for her, she told lawmakers Monday, Aug. 25, at the Capitol in Salem. 

“The agency developed me, molded me into a perfect fit, and the layoff will throw all that away,” she said. “My co-workers on the layoff list are also all trained up. ODOT is set to lose them to the private sector and will spend years retraining and rebuilding. We are investments worth keeping.”

Murray — along with more than 60 other speakers — shared testimony with the Joint Interim Committee on Transportation Funding during a three-hour public hearing on Gov. Tina Kotek’s transportation funding proposal. The governor’s plan is meant to prevent ODOT layoffs, preserve how the state splits its highway funds with counties and cities, and modernize transportation funding. 

Lawmakers will meet on Friday in Salem to discuss and take a vote on the proposal. Most special sessions last one day, but some have gone on for several weeks.

The governor’s package would increase vehicle registration fees as well as gas and payroll taxes to raise nearly $800 million in the 2025-27 budget cycle. It’s significantly less money than lawmakers originally proposed for a transportation bill in June during the regular 2025 legislative session.

Democratic lawmakers initially floated a funding package that would have raised $14.6 billion over the next 10 years (an average of $2.9 billion per biennium). After a backlash from Republicans and some Democrats, too, they scaled back the proposal to a version that would have raised $11.7 billion (about $2.3 billion per biennium). That version failed to pass by the time the session ended.  

The proposal lawmakers are now considering ahead of a special session would raise $5.8 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Legislative Revenue Office. Most of the revenue would flow to the State Highway Fund, and from there, 50% would go to the state transportation department, 30% would go to counties and 20% to cities. The millions raised from the increase in the payroll tax would go toward local public transit districts.

Mixed testimony

The transportation committee on Monday spent the first 45 minutes listening to legislative staff present the proposal.

“Without additional resources at current funding levels, drivers and transit providers will experience impacts of fewer snow plows, more potholes, more snow and ice on major roads, longer traffic closures because maintenance teams need to travel farther away, more trash and graffiti, slower responses to crashes and other incidents, closed rest areas and reductions in transit service,” Kotek’s transportation and infrastructure adviser, Kelly Brooks, told the committee.

Transportation employees, city and county officials and union leaders urged lawmakers to support the legislation. They included officials from Umatilla, Wallowa, Hood River and Columbia counties and from Beaverton, Tigard, Albany and Portland.

Jana Jarvis, president of the trade group Oregon Trucking Association, also spoke in favor of the bill for its provision simplifying Oregon’s complex diesel tax rates, which would reduce the weight-mile tax rates heavy trucks pay from 85 different rates to just 10 rates. 

A handful of others criticized lawmakers and the transportation department for money mismanagement and raising taxes. Jake Seavert, a Union County Commissioner, said the county he represents largely opposes tax and fee increases.

“The additional fee increases with vehicle registration further exacerbates the financial stress to every household, especially those households with more than two vehicles, to every business, small and large that utilizes vehicles for transportation of goods and services and employees,” he said. 

Some expressed discomfort with raising transportation costs but still supported the proposal.

“I’m not looking forward to paying higher taxes any more than anyone else, but to me, the greater danger right now is the safety of people on our highways — especially highways going through the Cascades,” Detroit mayor Jim Trett, who spoke in favor of the bill, told the committee.