Republican party leaders in the Oregon Legislature have released a transportation bill that would severely limit and/or eliminate spending on rail, transit, and bicycling infrastructure and direct more revenue to the State Highway Fund. In some cases, their bill, filed as LC 4934 and expected to get its first reading on Monday, would take revenue sources currently dedicated to rail, transit, bicycle and walking-specific projects and redirect them to the State Highway Fund.
The bill would also repeal ORS 366.514, also known as the Oregon Bicycle Bill, a landmark piece of legislation passed by a Republican in 1971 that requires the transportation department to dedicate at least 1% of major road project budgets to bicycling and walking infrastructure.
The legislation is championed by House Republican Leader Christine Drazan, Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham and Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment Vice-Chair Shelly Boshart Davis. The 83-page bill is the formal follow-up to a framework released last month and it comes just days before the official, bipartisan transportation bill is expected to be released.
Saying their effort will “rebuild trust in ODOT” and “cut non-essential programs,” these Republicans want their bill to draw a stark contrast to the bevy of new fees and taxes that will be in the main bill that will seek to raise well over $2 billion in new revenue for a projects and programs.
Drazan, Bonham, and Davis took a fine-toothed comb through existing transportation funding policy and sought to redirect every funding source they could find to the State Highway Fund. Monies that currently flow to transit service, bike paths and rail projects, would be instead go toward highways. Oregon’s custom license plates (ike the ‘Share the Road’ plate) currently share a portion of proceeds with the nonprofits Cycle Oregon and The Street Trust. Republicans would take that away and give it to the State Highway Fund.
Their bill also seeks to raid the bike path funding created by revenue from the $15 bicycle excise tax and give that to the highway fund as well. Nothing is safe from their attempt to encourage more of the most expensive, least efficient form of transportation under the guise of fiscal responsibility.
In a statement released Thursday, Republicans boast that their bill would redirect $134 million from “non-essential functions” that include: climate mitigation efforts, off-street biking and walking paths, ODOT’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Program, passenger rail service investments, EV subsidies, and more.
Their proposal would also eliminate ODOT’s Emerging Small Business Program, that, “serves to help Oregon’s small business community overcome barriers to participation in the state’s multi-billion dollar public contracting process,” and redirect its funding to — yes, you guessed it — the state highway fund!
Once they’ve added all this funding to the State Highway Fund, the Republican plan is to create a new Office of Major Projects to oversee any highway project with a budget over $99 million. This office would be overseen by an advisory committee made up of lawmakers and nine other people appointed by the governor from the typical players that make up the existing highway industrial complex. The advisory committee would exclude people who represent bicycling, walking, transit, or rail interests.
It’s very unlikely that any of these provisions will make it into the final transportation bill, but at least these Republicans have put their cards on the table and it’s clear to all Oregonians where they stand.
A work session on the main transportation bill will take place at the Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment on Monday morning at 10:00 am.
