Oregon is poised to impose mandatory fees on electric vehicles and raise its gasoline tax after lawmakers on Monday approved a transportation funding package unpopular with members of both parties.
H.B. 3991 and H.B. 3992 await the signature of Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek, who called lawmakers into a special session to address a roughly $350 million deficit for the Oregon Department of Transportation that threatened hundreds of layoffs and cuts to basic services such as snow plowing.
The bills’ passage follows months of acrimonious debate — with one top Democrat yanked from a committee after he shouted down a colleague — that had left lawmakers unable to agree on a more ambitious package during the regular legislative session.
Democrats ultimately dropped their plans to boost funding for transit, passenger rail and other climate-related programs. The package that lawmakers passed Monday aims to raise $4.3 billion over a decade, compared to $14.5 billion under Democrats’ original plan. It also requires new audits of ODOT’s spending.
