Transportation bill passes committee (again), now heads to floor vote – BikePortland

Home Invoice 2025 has handed out of committee for the ultimate time and can get a vote on the Home ground Friday. The $11.6 billion bundle of transportation funding underwent appreciable modifications because it handed out of the Joint Committee on Transportation Reinvestment final week. Authors of the invoice lowered the general income of the invoice by about $3 billion by lowering the gasoline tax provision and eliminating a brand new automobile “switch tax.”

These modifications helped persuade one Republican on the JCTR to vote in favor of the invoice. In remarks on the committee assembly this afternoon, Senator Kevin Mannix mentioned, “The place are we going to go if we don’t transfer ahead with this laws? The straightforward factor is to say, ‘Properly, we’ll simply sit again. I imply, I’m a Republican, I’ll simply let the Democrats carry the water.’ However wait a minute, I’ve had a chance to take part on this course of… and I do know it could be simple sufficient to take a seat right here and say no, however I’ve determined that I have to say sure in order that we will transfer ahead.”

The invoice was voted out of committee 8-4, with “no” votes coming from Senators Bruce Starr and Suzanne Weber, in addition to Home Representatives Jeff Helfrich and Shelly Boshart Davis.

Starr and Davis had been essentially the most vocal opposition and framed their issues primarily across the tax will increase within the invoice and what they felt was a scarcity of bipartisanship all through the negotiations.

Whereas Starr and Davis mentioned Oregonians couldn’t afford to pay for secure routes and dependable transit, JCTR Co-Chair Senator Khanh Pham mentioned she helps the invoice as a result of a dysfunctional and disinvested transportation is unaffordable. “One in three, or one in 4 Oregonians can’t afford a automobile, or possibly their family is dependent upon one automobile and may’t afford a second automobile,” Pham mentioned in her closing remarks. “They rely upon dependable bus service and so they can’t afford to be late. That’s costlier. That’s pricey if you’re late for work and also you lose your job. These, these are the the bills that I fear about in the case of impacts on Oregon households.”

Simply hours earlier than the assembly, Senator Mark Meek, a former member of the JCTR and Democrat who opposes the invoice, posted an replace on his Instagram web page saying HB 2025 would impose a brand new tolling program on I-205. Meek’s assertion is totally false and it led to committee co-chairs and Governor Tina Kotek having to make remarks to debunk the rumor on the outset of the assembly.

From right here, the invoice, recognized formally as HB 2025-A28, will transfer to the Home Ground for a vote on Friday. Given the latest modifications to the invoice and the comparatively calm feedback from lawmakers in committee right this moment, I’ve a robust hunch the invoice may have the votes it must move.