Kotek now wants to repeal her gas tax hike-there's a hitch

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The Referendum to let voters kill Governor Kotek's gas tax and motor fee hikes keeps the repeal of tolling (blanket tolling of Metro area I-5 and I-205) on the books.  But if the legislature does repeal all of Kotek's Gas tax and Motor fee hike bill (passed this last September), such repeal would bring back the potential for the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to impose road tolls.

The chief petitioners of the No-Gas-Tax Referendum and its army of volunteers do not want tolling to come back with Gov Kotek's proposed Repeal legislation.  State Senator Mark Meek (D, Gladstone) is the legislator who traded his vote, approving the Governor's gas tax hike, in exchange for the Governor agreeing to repeal the congestion tolling of I-5 and I-205.

So, there is at least one democrat state senator (Mark Meek) who will vote to not do the Governor's full repeal but want to keep the ban on tolling (I suspect this to be the case).

It seems obvious that Kotek is only about getting herself re-elected as Oregon Governor in this coming November's General Election.  She does not want to have the No Gas Tax Referendum on the same ballot that she is also seeking her re-election to the Governor's Office.  So, maybe she will end up agreeing to not fully repeal her gas tax hike bill, but repeal only the gas tax hike, the payroll tax hike (for bailing out the likes of TriMet), and the vehicle renewal tag fee hike.

Here's the link to Kotek dramatically changing her tune to now wanting to shift transportation monies to ODOT operations and maintenance and away from other ODOT programs and projects (like the Rose Quarter I-5 and Columbia River Interstate Bridge projects):

OR transportation: Gov. Kotek outlines transportation funding plan

Those who support the gas tax and vehicle renewal fee hike just got egg on their faces.  Turns out, Replacing the Columbia River Interstate Bridge will probably go belly up. ODOT staff that have had ODOT spend big on planning the replacement of the I-5 Columbia River interstate bridge now come clean and say that Replacing the I-5 interstate will likely over $13 billion - this estimate having doubled since its last cost estimate.  Staff for the Interstate Bridge Replacement have been hiding for several months now the dramatic cost increase - and only now because journalist Nigel Jacquiss of the Willamette Week newspaper dug deep and found the cost estimate that staff are hiding:  

 Interstate Bridge Staff Hid Information About Ballooning Cost of Giant Highway Project 

So those like state representative, Cyrus Javadi, who has been adamant that ODOT has no money it can shift to operations and maintenance now have major egg on their face.

(posted by Elvis Clark on January 8, 2026)

Chief petitioners, state representative Ed Diehl (photo to right of here); state senator Bruce Starr, and Jason Williams (Executive of the Oregon Taxpayer Association) did the impossible for an all-volunteer, conservative petition.  This grassroots, conservative referendum collected some 250,000 Oregon voter signatures in only 4 weeks' time.

The final number of verified signatures is still climbing because Diehl and company submitted another 50,000 signatures after the first batch, now verified by the Secretary of state, of nearly 200,000 submitted to the Oregon Secretary of State for verification.

Here's the KATU reporting on the check mate stopping Governor Kotek's gas tax and driver fee hikes from taking effect.  Voters now, with the Referendum having enough signatures, will have the final say on whether the hikes occur at all, with their vote in the November 2026 General Election (In the meantime, these hikes are put on hold):

Referendum overturning new Oregon transportation taxes qualifies for ballot

More than likely, Oregon state legislators will try piecing something together to replace the suspended hikes in the upcoming February 2026 legislative session.  Then too, there is always the shenanigans that the Oregon Supreme Court can play to deny the voters from having their genuine say.

Republicans want the legislature to shift Oregon Department of Transportation monies to road maintenance, repair and operations - away from never ending bloated projects, like the I-5 Rose Quarter project, which turns into an urban renewal project rather than a traffic congestion relief project, when former Governor Brown requires the project to build caps over I-5 in its Rose quarter segment ($500 million or more in cost addition).

Should be an interesting upcoming legislative session this February.

(posted by Elvis Clark on December 31, 2025)

Oregon state representative Diehl (R) makes a very strong case for the Referendum, blocking the pending gas tax and driver fee hikes from taking effect, in the second half of the following Facebook video link:  https://www.facebook.com/reel/1393440855639749

Diehl's presentation, a counter to SEIU's position (first half of the video), can also be found on his own personal Facebook page.

Diehl reminds me a little of former Oregon Governor Vic Atiyeh in that he is also a former business owner, turned politician.  Oregon has not had a businessperson as its Governor since Atiyeh who held office in the 1980s. 

The current governor (Tina Kotek) and her predecessor (Governor Brown) were more like activists with little recognition of the self-interest component of what drives much of human behavior - meaning they set goals but without recognition of how people will respond and steer their policies of "good intentions" towards failure in the real world.  For example, spending more taxpayer's money on homelessness, without requiring those receiving assistance to change behavior, only begats more homelessness.

(posted by Elvis Clark on December 18, 2025)

The Referendum to stop the Oregon Democrats' gas tax hike and driver fee hike needs only 79,000 Oregon verified voter signatures to qualify for delaying the hikes until November 2026 and then to let voters reject and overturn the tax and fee increases completely in the November 2026 election.  Oregon voters will decide the fate of the gas tax and fee hikes that had been planned for this coming January 2026, unless there is a compromise between Democrats and Republicans in the Oregon legislature.

Most likely with the Referendum qualifying, there being little doubt with this kind of margin for error (more than 80,000 signature verification buffer, or nearly 200% of required total signatures),  the Oregon legislature democrats and Governor Kotek will have to negotiate with Republicans in the upcoming short session to moderate the tax and fee increases in exchange for making road maintenance and operation the first priority of the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), rather than it playing second fiddle to ODOT's never-ending planning of big and costly road construction projects - which never seem to be actually built but forever planned.

Here's tonight's Oregon Catalyst reporting on this high achievement of those working to stop Oregon government's tax and fee hikes:

 Stop gas tax petition hits 150,000! | Oregon Catalyst 

(posted by Elvis Clark on Tuesday, November 25, 2025)

We are now gathering Referendum petition signatures - signatures of Oregon voters.  The signature gathering began this last Thursday, November 13, 2025.  Signature gatherers have about 30 to 40 days to gather 78,000 qualified Oregon voter signatures.  NO Tax Oregon organization, which is leading this effort, is targeting the gathering of 100,000 signatures, so as to have a cushion for those signatures which get tossed by the Oregon Secretary of State's office because they may fail verification.

There are said to be nearly 4,500 registered volunteer signature gatherers, statewide.  Assuming half are serious signature gatherers, say 2,000 out of the 4,500, then each signature gatherer would have to gather 50 signatures, on average, to meet the 100,000 total signature target.

I am one of these signature gatherers, and I am pushing to collect at least 50 signatures in the next 30 to 40 days.   I will get signature sheets on Saturday, November 14, 2025.

If you would like to sign the petition to get the proposed gas tax and driver renewal fee on the ballot, so that you can vote and defeat the state's proposed gas tax and vehicle renewal fee hikes, please contact me at EClarkMilwOr@yahoo.com and I will arrange to come by your place to get your petition signature.

Alternatively, the referendum petition can also be signed tomorrow (11/15/25) -it is said - at 17325 se Mcloughlin, suite #D, Clackamas County, Libert y Tire and Glass, 9 am to 5 pm.

The proposed gas tax and driver renewal fee hikes are said to be necessary in order to keep the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) afloat financially, so that it can fully maintain Oregon highways.

But as Representative Diehl and other Republican legislators believe, ODOT does not lack revenue but lacks efficiency and is not prioritizing maintenance and operations as its first and foremost priority. 

 Indeed, ODOT is forever planning major road construction projects that never seem to come to fruition, wasting hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars on planning ghost-like grandiose projects.  

Just as one example of how ODOT wastes money is the Rose Quarter (I-5) Project which started out some 8 years ago now as a simple project to add a couple of auxiliary Lanes for congestion relief.  But then Governor Brown threw a big, hugely expensive constraint on this project.  Governor Brown forced ODOT to add covers over this Rose Quarter project, so that buildings could be built over this North Portland section of I-5.  This added requirement is/was expected to cost over a half a billion dollars out of a total cost for the Rose Quarter project of $ 2 billion.

The federal highway administration ended up rejecting nearly half a billion dollars in funding for the Rose Quarter project because of the I-5 Covers included in the Rose Quarter project.

ODOT actually pointed out that if it were allowed to reassign its budget away from projects like the Rose Quarter, it could actually fully fund Oregon highway maintenance and operation- making the proposed hikes in the state gas tax and vehicle renewal fee unnecessary.

It seems that what should have been obvious - long before now - is finally dawning on ODOT management .... that the Rose Quarter project should be indefinitely deferred so as to fully maintain Oregon's existing highways.  Here's the latest revelation by ODOT:    

ODOT floats possibility of officially shelving the Rose Quarter project | kgw.com

The Referendum to let voters decide the fate of the legislation hiking the gas tax and vehicle renewal fee ... does leave in place the imposition of a new road use mileage fee on electric vehicles.  It is thought that drivers of electric vehicles should pay for the maintenance of roads.

(posted by Elvis Clark on November 14, 2025)

But on a hopeful note, there are said to be over 2,000 volunteers to collect the 100,000 voter signatures necessary to get the gas tax and driver fee increases on the November 2026 ballot - with 22,000 of these 100,000 signatures being thought necessary to overcome the inevitably that some signatures will be ruled invalid by the Oregon Secretary of State office.

I read somewhere that the number of volunteers is actually close to 5,000.  Just think 5,000 volunteers each securing 200 voter signatures, would get the Referendum to the necessary number of signatures to qualify and get it placed on the November 2026 ballot.  But also, there is no doubt these volunteers will also sign the referendum, such that the Referendum drive would start out with about 5% of the total number of Oregon voter signatures required.

I am targeting collecting 200 signatures myself.  The referendum is waiting for Oregon Governor Kotek to sign the legislative bill which hikes the state's gasoline tax, plus driver registration renewal fees and title registration fees.

Another hopeful sign is that the leaders of the Referendum campaign are two Oregon legislators, Oregon Representative Diehl (photo to the right of here) and State Senator Bruce Starr.  Referendums and Initiative petitions don't usually have such successful leaders as Diehl and Starr.

The Referendum would allow voters to stop and eliminate the gas tax hike, the driver renewal fee, title registration fee, and also a payroll tax hike designed to bail out TriMet for another year or so.

TriMet is threatening to radically cut its bus services if it isn't rescued by a tripling of the current transit payroll tax that every Oregon employee is forced to pay to fund transit agencies like TriMet.

There is no doubt that public transit is a necessary element in urban areas, but TriMet is such a bloated and inept transit agency.  A big makeover of TriMet is in order rather its continual bail out.

One of the big problems with TriMet is that it has long periods where it lets go of making its bus and light rail services safe for passengers.  TriMet's own safety survey of customers, recently, revealed TriMet riders do not feel very safe riding its light rail (Max) and even riding its buses.  Here's the summary of TriMet's safety survey: 

  "Only 42% of MAX riders who participated in TriMet’s Attitude & Awareness survey last year said they felt safe when on the train, down more than 30 percentage points from a decade earlier. The feelings of unease were almost as pronounced among bus riders, with 54% saying they felt safe on area buses." 

It looks like the Referendum will not allow voters to reject the new road use fee to be charged electric vehicles.  Organizers of the Referendum believe it is about time electric vehicles started paying for their share of the operation and Maintenace of Oregon Highways.

Here's a short piece by Willamette Week concerning the kickoff meeting for launching the Referendum petition - this meeting held this last week:

Gas Tax Referral Campaign Kicks Off

(posted by Elvis Clark on October 18, 2025)

Here's the website explaining why Republicans are launching a big effort to overturn the state gas tax hike and vehicle registration hike by getting it on the November 2026 General election ballot, giving the voters the chance to stop a tax and spend, out of control Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the state government of Oregon:

Home - No Tax Oregon

It sounds like the Republicans of Oregon have 60 days starting soon to collect 78,000 qualified signatures of Oregon voters to get the gas tax and driver fee hikes on the ballot.  This is no small task, as it looks like it depends a lot on volunteer signature gatherers rather than paid signature gatherers.

But I guess I will try to do my part by collecting 200 signatures myself.

ODOT is a mess.  They are grossly overspending, to the tune of billions of dollars, on Portland's Rose Quarter I-5 project which plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to put "caps" over the I-5 freeway in Portland's Albina neighborhood so that developers can try to build over the freeway - there will be very little reduction of traffic congestion from the Rose Quarter project.  Then too, ODOT is splitting the bill with Washington on rebuilding the I-5 Columbia River bridge with no lane expansions of the bridge, and it is directing a billion dollars or more to expanding the yellow line Max that meanders through north Portland to connect it to Vancouver, Washington using this rebuilt bridge.  This despite there already existing very efficient I-5 express bus service, already providing the same transit service that the proposed Max light rail extension would do.

So, what does ODOT do when it is short of money?  It does not cut back the Rose Quarter and I-5 bridge boondoggles but instead threatens Oregonians with not plowing the streets in an ice storm or maintaining state highways.  So the Referendum to overturn the gas tax and fee hike bailout of ODOT is totally justified.

(posted by Elvis Clark on October 11, 2025)