By Cassie Wilson | 5-minute read
Sunday, August 31: There is an opportunity for the public to submit spoken and written testimony on HB 3991 today. While the Move Oregon Forward (MOF) coalition is neutral on this bill due to its limited scope (a majority of our priorities are missing, like accountability policies and funding for safety, electrification, and trails), we encourage you to make your voice heard so that we can at least secure transit funding and maintain our current transportation system.
Click to register to testify (in-person and virtual options).
Click to submit written comments.
Original Article, Published Friday, August 29:
The Oregon legislature typically passes a major transportation funding package every eight years. The last two passed in 2009 and 2017; the state prepared for years to do the same in 2025. Unfortunately, the legislature failed to pass this year’s transportation package during the regular session, putting the state in a more precarious financial position than ever.
An emergency session on transportation funding began Friday, August 29 and concluded without any legislation proposed or passed. In fact, the legislature did not have a quorum (the minimum amount of representatives necessary to conduct legislative processes).
This emergency session will continue on Monday, September 1 (Labor Day), and possibly extend into Wednesday, September 3. So, labor unions representing transportation workers across the state are kicking off their Labor Day weekend by rallying to keep their jobs as the legislature weighs whether to prevent worker layoffs.
We are continuing to advocate for a budget fix to support cities, counties, and transit agencies, in addition to ODOT workers. It’s a far cry from the comprehensive transportation package we all worked on this session, but an absolutely necessary fix for the workers and communities depending on an adequate bill being passed. We are keeping a close eye on this situation and will provide updates as they emerge.
In the meantime, here is a recap of how we got to this point:
Strong public engagement hits a wall due to legislative delays
In 2024, the Joint Committee on Transportation held a statewide listening tour and stakeholder workgroups to develop a plan for the transportation package this session. 1000 Friends of Oregon, along with partner organizations, formed the Move Oregon Forward coalition (MOF) to engage community members around the state in advocating for a transportation package that would meet the needs of the people and the planet.
The House Speaker and Senate President together hired a staff member to help manage the transportation package development process. Public engagement went really well—up until the session started.
Then, things went quiet from the legislature.
A common theme throughout the development of what would become House Bill 2025 was delay, delay, delay. First we were told to expect a framework of the transportation package in February and a bill draft in April.
It turned out that the basic framework wasn’t available until April, which was two months behind schedule and where the timeline remained for the rest of the session. They only introduced a full bill in June, two months behind schedule and just weeks before the session ended.
Bipartisan negotiations fall apart, leaving public input unanswered
The initial framework included most of our priorities in name but did not prioritize them in funding. They named safety programs like Safe Routes to School, Oregon Community Paths, and Great Streets. It included our values around public transportation—including increased service, free transit for youth, and better rural and paratransit. The framework did not include anything about electrification, and that topic stayed out of consideration by most leading legislators for the rest of session.
There were no numbers named in writing at the time for the safety programs, but for Safe Routes and Great Streets we heard rumors of somewhere in the range of $30 to $50 million per biennium (every two years). Despite all of the thoughtful goals listed for public transportation, the framework proposed only raising the transit tax to a total of 0.18%. At that rate, there would be transit service cuts across the state because revenue has not kept pace with inflated operating costs.
After the release of the framework, conversations were kept behind closed doors for another two months in an attempt at bipartisan negotiations. During that time, MOF continued to advocate for our priorities and what we needed to see in the eventual bill.
We were joined by over 100 Oregonians to meet with their legislators on our advocacy day. We helped community members submit letters to the editor across the state. We launched an action alert to put our priorities on the radar of every legislator. We partnered with transit, disability rights, and labor partners to grow our collective vision and narrative. We grew our relationships with legislative allies who uplifted our priorities to legislative leadership.
Six weeks later, those closed door negotiations fell apart. Right before this, the transportation committee co-chairs shared a memo updating state leaders. This update blindsided the public.
The new framework proposed implementing a cap and trade program to pay for MOF’s priorities, in addition to using it to pay for paving projects. The memo also included the proposal to shut down all DEQ emissions testing facilities. MOF loudly opposed these proposals, which you can read more about on the MOF website.
This was our first indication that negotiations had taken a sharp turn in the wrong direction.
An attempt to save public transportation briefly gains momentum
While backroom deals were failing, we were providing input to Representative Gamba and Senator Pham on their release of a more progressive framework. Our proposed framework would have largely encompassed what we wanted to see, though we did not wholesale endorse it. Their efforts in combination with community advocacy significantly moved the needle from the April framework to the HB 2025 introduction in June.
The first public version of HB 2025 included historic funding for safety programs and public transit, while also introducing more progressive transportation taxation mechanisms. We helped move the transit tax from the proposed 0.18% to 0.3% total, which would provide the additional revenue transit agencies needed to plan for a secure future.
We also helped move Safe Routes to School and Great Streets funding from $30 to $50 million per biennium to a combined $300 million per biennium. The introduced bill also included funding for passenger rail and wildlife crossings. These are and would have been extremely significant wins for Oregonians, but the bill left multiuse paths and electrification efforts with no new funding despite demonstrated need.
The bill was introduced on a Monday, with public hearings held the next three days. We successfully turned out hundreds of public comments. In that time, MOF developed a proposed amendment to fund trails and electrification.
It quickly gained support from legislators, but it fell apart just as quickly.
Transportation bill derailed entirely by end of session
In the final month of policy development, the package received credible, funded threats for referral to the ballot by auto dealers who opposed the increase in the vehicle dealer privilege tax and the introduction of what would’ve been essentially a car sales tax. MOF’s suggested funding mechanisms for trails and electrification was a luxury car sales tax. Our amendment didn’t end up being included, at least in part because of the ballot referral threat. In the end, legislators ended up amending the bill to have no new car sales taxes, aside from a moderate increase in the vehicle dealer privilege tax.
Amid the chaos of the last two weeks of session, the Senate President reshuffled the transportation committee makeup. Senator Wagner removed Senator Meek who refused to support the bill and appointed himself to the committee to vote for it. Later, Senator Gorsek resigned from the committee after a conflict with Vice Chair Boshart-Davis. Then, Senator Pham became Co-Chair, Senator Wagner stepped down, and Senator Frederick and Senator Manning filled Gorsek and Wagner’s seats to vote the final version of the transportation package out of committee.
Everything was still looking decent heading into the Friday that turned out to be the last day of session. We expected it to be heard first thing on the House floor.
Instead, we quickly heard news that it did not in fact have the votes it needed to pass both chambers.
The Governor and legislative leadership tried to push forward a last minute bill in the House Rules committee that would just prevent layoffs at ODOT via a three cent gas tax increase – HB 3402. They posted the amendment text that morning and held a public hearing that evening. It started extremely late, while legislators held lengthy caucus meetings, and then ran long as they heard almost exclusively oppositional testimony.
While the transportation bill did get voted out of committee, it did not have enough support to suspend rules and advance on the House floor, ultimately leaving the legislature to pass no transportation funding for the 2025 legislative session.
Next up: Emergency session over Labor Day weekend and continued advocacy into 2026 and beyond
1000 Friends, along with our coalition partners, will continue to advocate for a transportation system that prioritizes safety, climate, equitable funding, and state accountability during this emergency session and into the 2026 and 2027 legislative sessions.
Check back soon for more updates!