After months of heated political debate, Oregonians next month will vote on whether to raise taxes to help the state and local governments fix roads and upgrade transportation infrastructure.
Yet none of the politicians or groups who forcefully argued that the tax hikes were necessary in the first place – including unions that represent transportation service workers, top Democratic lawmakers or Gov. Tina Kotek – have mounted any organized campaign to persuade voters to uphold them.
With six weeks left before the May election, no political action committee has been created to support the measure, and no money has been raised to advocate for its passage.
The lack of campaigning comes after Kotek and top Democrats spent much of the last year advocating for new funding streams for the state transportation department, ultimately pushing through the tax hikes as a temporary solution during a special session last fall after a comprehensive funding plan collapsed during the 2025 session.
But now that the tax hikes are before voters, some Democratic leaders say they are looking past the election and are more focused on next year’s session, when lawmakers are expected to again try to broker a long-term transportation funding deal.
“I’m voting yes, but it’s one of those situations where we’re looking forward,” said Rep. Susan McLain, a Democrat from Forest Grove who leads multiple transportation committees. “What we’re concentrating on is going forward in a bipartisan way to make sure that we can all agree on what those funding mechanisms are.”
Republicans say the reason Democrats are staying quiet about the measure is more obvious.
“I think the Democrats and the Republicans believe that it will fail by a wide margin,” said Bryan Iverson, a Republican legislative aide and political consultant. “If they felt that they had any chance of winning, they would throw some money behind it.”
The campaign for Kotek, who is running for reelection, declined to comment.
If approved, Measure 120 would temporarily double the state’s 0.1% payroll tax that funds public transit until January 2028. It would also increase Oregon’s 40 cents per gallon gas tax by 6 cents and significantly raise car registration and title fees, with that new revenue going toward road preservation and upgrades.
About half of the new road maintenance funding would go to the Oregon Department of Transportation, whose largest revenue streams have not kept pace with inflation or have stagnated as more drivers switch to more fuel efficient or electric vehicles. The remainder would go to cities and counties for local transportation services.
“Passing Measure 120 would give our cities, counties, and the state the resources we need to keep our roads and bridges safe and would help move our transportation system into the 21st century,” House Speaker Julie Fahey, a Eugene Democrat, said in a statement.
The tax hikes were first proposed last fall by Kotek, who pitched them as necessary to keep the state transportation agency solvent without deep service cuts. Kotek and top Democrats have said the new revenue would address the agency’s short-term budget woes but not fix its long-term needs.
The Oregon Department of Transportation has repeatedly warned it doesn’t have enough money to maintain all of its services long term. Just last month, lawmakers slashed funding for various programs at the agency and decided to leave more than 100 vacancies unfilled to close the agency’s $291 million budget deficit.
Opponents of the tax increases have criticized Democrats for approving them while many Oregonians are struggling with affordability. Although the higher tax rates were set to go into effect in January, a campaign led by Republican lawmakers quickly gathered enough signatures to put the taxes on hold and allow voters to weigh in. Only four other campaigns in the past two decades have successfully referred laws passed by legislators to voters.
“The Oregon people feel taxed enough already, they’re paying plenty in taxes,” said Rep. Ed Diehl, a Republican from Scio who helped lead the referendum campaign and is running for governor. “Our governor and the Legislature are not responding to that.”
Several of the state’s largest unions, particularly those that represent employees at the Oregon Department of Transportation or in local governments, have submitted statements in favor of the tax hikes for the state’s Voters’ Pamphlet.
They have been joined by environmental organizations that are supportive of public transit and other climate-friendly transportation services. But none of the groups are currently raising money to support the measure.
“I’m shocked that they’re not all over this because so many jobs depend on that money,” said Mary Botkin, a retired lobbyist who worked on Oregon AFSCME’s government relations team for nearly three decades, regarding the lack of financial backing from the state’s largest unions. “I don’t know why they’re sitting it out. That makes no sense to me.”
A spokesperson for Oregon’s largest chapter of SEIU, which represents many workers at the Oregon Department of Transportation, said the union has not yet finalized its funding priorities for the primary election, although ballots will be mailed out by the end of the month.
The union recently contributed $2,500, however, to a campaign supporting a bond measure in Tigard that would pay for a new public works and police facility.
Similarly, no groups have raised large sums to defeat the state transportation measure, arguing they don’t need to because the plan is doomed. The campaign that pushed to land the tax hikes on the ballot has raised about $94,000, but much of that was spent on legal fees in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Democratic lawmakers from rescheduling the tax vote from November to May. The campaign has about $18,000 cash on hand, state campaign finance records show.
“We are very confident it’s going to be defeated, because the Oregon people are against it and they were pretty outraged by the governor’s behavior around it,” Diehl said, citing the overwhelming amount of written testimony submitted to lawmakers opposing the tax hikes and the success of the referendum campaign.
Much of this year’s legislative session was consumed by Democrats’ attempt to reschedule the tax vote, which sparked fierce pushback and boycotts from the minority party. Democrats mostly defended the move, saying they wanted clarity on the state’s transportation funding picture as soon as possible.
Republicans slammed the move as political, saying Democrats wanted to keep the controversial measure off the same ballot that will include Kotek and other members of their party.
Some voters who are critical of the tax and fee hikes say they would prefer if state leaders narrowed the state transportation agency’s focus and tightened its budget instead of opting for higher taxes.
Multiple state and external reviews of the agency in recent years have found inefficiencies and rigid processes that have hampered its work. The agency has also received criticism for ballooning costs on high-profile megaprojects.
“Just from the things I’ve been reading, I don’t trust them,” said Jolene Lindsey, a Salem resident who signed the referendum initiative to put the taxes in front of voters. “I would like to see what they’ve done with the money that they do have, because I don’t think they were using it appropriately.”
Other voters acknowledge that the tax hikes come at an inopportune time, with national gas prices on the rise since the start of the Iran war and amid low levels of trust in government and elected officials. Still, some say they are willing to pay slightly more money if it would help Oregon upgrade its transportation infrastructure and make it easier to get to work.
“I’m OK, as long as it gets to the place that it needs to get, and that we use it for our highways and what not,” said Mary Jo Smith, a West Linn resident who drives into Portland daily for her job. “ODOT, I have a love and hate relationship with. I see some things they do really well.”
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