A multibillion-dollar road funding package passed by lawmakers in September has finally been signed into law. Opponents will spend the next 50 days trying to make sure much of it never takes effect.
After more than a month of delay, Gov. Tina Kotek announced Monday that she’d signed House Bill 3991, the emergency transportation bill she put before lawmakers in a special session earlier this year.
She had until Wednesday to sign the bill, though it landed on her desk in early October. A letter accompanying Kotek’s announcement says she signed the bill on Friday, Nov. 7.
Kotek’s signature on this legislation has been closely watched. With the ink now dry, Republican opponents can start the process of referring new taxes in the bill to voters. To do so, they’ll need to collect roughly 78,000 signatures by Dec. 30.
“We’re ready,” state Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Scio, said Monday morning, adding that a petition would be filed immediately.
Working alongside Diehl as co-petitioners are Senate Minority Leader Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, and Jason Williams of the Taxpayers Association of Oregon. The group has built a volunteer base of more than 2,000 people since HB 3991 passed, according to Diehl, and will look to quickly collect at least 100,000 signatures to refer pieces of the bill to the November 2026 ballot.
In particular, the group plans to target a series of tax increases the law contains: a 6-cent increase to the state’s 40-cent-per-gallon gas tax, hikes to vehicle registration and titling fees, and a temporary doubling of a payroll tax that funds public transit.
“Oregonians will not be silenced, and their voices will not be ignored,” Starr said in a statement Monday. “They will have the opportunity to weigh in, hold their leaders accountable, and demand a transportation system that works for the people who pay for it.”
Collecting enough signatures in just 50 days is far from guaranteed. But if the campaign succeeds, it would create a new headache for Kotek and other top Oregon Democrats.
With a successful ballot referral, the new taxes opponents want to vanquish would be delayed until voters decide whether they should take effect. That would reignite concerns over a roughly $300 million budget hole at the Oregon Department of Transportation, and would likely lead to serious talks about steep layoffs.
Before lawmakers passed HB 3991 on Sept. 29, ODOT signaled it might lay off nearly 10% of its employees, and cut vital services like winter road plowing. Similarly, public transit agencies have warned of steep service reductions without more state funding.
Kotek has insisted for months Oregon must avoid both scenarios. The governor made little secret of the fact she was delaying signing HB 3991 in order to give opponents less time to refer it to voters.
“This bill helps us to keep highways and local roads safe and open to traffic while preserving transit service and halting the pending layoffs of essential transportation staff,” the governor said in her signing letter. “I am grateful to the legislature for stepping up to keep our state moving.”
In total, HB 3991 is expected to raise $4.3 billion for road upkeep and other transportation expenses in its first decade.
Not all of that money is on opponents’ hit list. A referral petition is not expected to go after a portion of the law that would require drivers of electric vehicles and hybrids to begin paying a fee for every mile they drive.
