A group led by Oregon Republicans wants to claw back new revenue for transportation recently passed by the legislature. Operating under the banner of No Tax Oregon, volunteers have already collected over half the 75,000 or so signatures they need to put key elements of House Bill 3991 on the ballot. The pitch is easy: Sign here if you don’t want to pay more taxes.
While signing is easy, operating the Oregon Department of Transportation without the additional $430 million the bill is expected to raise each year, might not be. ODOT says the $4.3 billion the bill raises over 10 years is everything and nothing. It’s everything they have to keep the agency afloat, but it’s nothing more than a stop-gap measure to stave off massive layoffs and do the minimum amount of road maintenance necessary to keep roads clear and people alive.
Republicans don’t believe that. They think ODOT can manage its 8,000 miles of roads and 3,000 bridges with existing revenues if the agency cuts everything that’s not a “core function.” The problem is, reasonable people disagree what a “core function” is. For example, Democrats believe transit and safe routes to school are a core function of ODOT. Republicans do not.
During this past session, Republicans put forward a bill that would have made radical shifts in state transportation policy. The Republican’s proposal would have required ODOT to completely ignore transportation’s impact on greenhouse gas emissions (despite transportation being the top contributor to them) and its impacts on Oregonians who’ve been historically left out of transportation conversations and harmed the most by the product of them. Their bill would have zeroed-out state funding for bicycle infrastructure, rail maintenance and construction, the Safe Routes to School program, transit service and expansion, and more. The bill even went so far as to repeal Oregon’s vaunted “Bicycle Bill” that was signed in 1971 and is known as the country’s first-ever complete streets law because of how it mandates a minimum investment in bicycling and walking facilities.
The radical Republican proposal would have rolled back the clock at ODOT to the 1960s and turned it into an even more outdated, freeway-first agency. It’s almost impossible to work across the aisle on such a politically toxic and tone deaf proposal — one that ultimately failed to make it out of committee because it was considered a non-starter by Democrats and everyone else who lives in the real world and understands transportation policy.
Even if you agree ODOT should focus solely on maintenance of existing roads and projects that benefit only car drivers, it’s unthinkable that revenue would stay frozen while inflation and project costs have risen dramatically since 2017, which was the last time Oregon updated its transportation law. Many of the Republicans leading the anti-ODOT, anti-tax crusade live and work in agriculture-based districts, where costs of basics like labor, fertilizer and land have risen about 40% since 2017. Do they really think transportation costs are magically immune to similar increases?
Based on Republicans’ actions during the session and their push to repeal HB 3991, it’s clear their stance on transportation policy isn’t about policy at all. It’s about politics and power. Democrats have it, Republicans want it.
Republican Senator Bruce Starr and House Representative Ed Diehl are spearheading the effort to repeal the funding elements of HB 3991. They claim Democrats “rammed through” the transportation bill without working across the aisle and they believe Oregonians should not have to pay for transportation services. Starr, Diehl, and other leading Republicans see the transportation legislation — and the process it took to pass it — as an illustration of everything that’s wrong with how Democrats govern; but it also says a lot about them.
Beyond not wanting to pay their fair share to use roads and bridges, a central allegation of “No Tax” petition backers is that Democrats didn’t collaborate with Republicans during the session. But similar to their policy and funding proposals, the claim doesn’t hold up. Democrats likely spent too much time currying favor with Republicans. Public hearings and legislative committee debates didn’t even begin until five weeks left in the session.
Why the hold up? Because Democrat party leaders were in (not so) secret meetings with Republicans trying to hash out a bipartisan package. And Sen. Starr, who now shamelessly laments the lack of bipartisanship on social media and media interviews, was one of the people in the room. Not only was Starr involved in early policy negotiations, but he was named by Democratic party leaders as point person on an important ODOT accountability initiative.
Republicans want Oregonians to believe that Governor Kotek and the Democrats are acting like dictators. They’ve even adopted a “No Queens” battle cry. But beyond the aforementioned facts about how Republicans were intimately involved in early negotiations, the clearest example of Republican party influence is HB 3991 itself. Far from the behemoth it’s being made out to be, the bill is an anemic, heavily-compromised, bare-bones package of tax and fee increases that will cost the average Oregonian about $144 more per year than they pay today. HB 3991 also raises just 35% of the revenue Democrats initially sought.
The bill is so small in fact, that Democrats lost significant support from the large coalition of progressive transportation advocacy groups they typically count on. In the end, because Democratic party leaders mistakenly assumed Republicans would negotiate in good faith, the only Oregonians who love the transportation bill are the ones whose jobs it saved. On the flip side, Republicans have launched a massive, misleading PR campaign to excite their base in advance of next year’s general election — a campaign that blames complicated problems on a progressive government bogeyman they would rather destroy than debate.
If early returns are any indication, No Tax Oregon will likely succeed in their signature-gathering effort and ODOT’s future will be on the ballot next November. If we don’t see more Democrats and other progressive leaders stand up, shape the narrative in their favor, and expose bad-faith Republicans, Oregon’s transportation future will be a dead end.
Thanks for reading.
BikePortland has served this community with independent community journalism since 2005. We rely on subscriptions from readers like you to survive. Your financial support is vital in keeping this valuable resource alive and well.
Please subscribe today to strengthen and expand our work.
100% agree. Democratic leadership needs to wake up here. Spending all your time trying to form consensus with an opposition that is clearly going to hang you out to dry is a complete waste of time. Focus instead on delivering results for the people who voted for you.
“Focus instead on delivering results for the people who voted for you.”
What if the results you think your constituents want include wider urban highways?
Or perhaps we shouldn’t be building wider urban freeways than are surrounded by freeway segments with exposed rebar in the road…
I strongly oppose highway expansion. I also strongly oppose pushing an overly partisan message when the problem is that both the Democrats and the Republicans are the problem.
The call is coming from inside the house!
Well, they’ve not been great at delivering wider urban highways. Kind of a silver lining to their rank incompetence. (JK — there are so many super important things that the state government needs to get its act together to do that the complete inability to do anything is not a laughing matter.)
The constituents the Dems are listening to are the Freight Lobby and the Unions who do want to build giant highways. How do we get Democrats to care about livability, climate change, air and water pollution, etc?
Folks need to be careful. Not all Dems think alike. Republicans are pretty much all in lockstep – but there is very wide variety of transportation policy ideas and actions from the Dems! Not all of them are highway project lovers and it’s not fair or accurate to lump them all together.
And the same thing goes for Republicans…we don’t all think alike so how is it any different, fair or accurate of you to then lump us all together by saying all of them are pretty much “in lockstep”? And just to clarify…Oregonians already feel that kotek is acting like a dictator due to her constantly touting for & saying it’s all about democracy but yet at the same time saing President Trump is a threat to that very thing… makes her actions even more hypocritical to blatantly deny Oregonians the right to voice their opinions on these provisions + amendments to Oregon Laws by way of putting it on a ballot & thus denying the very threads of democracy!
I agree with Salina here. There are multiple Republican lawmakers in far flung parts of the state that do not agree with investing many billions in Metro Portland freeway widening projects. It’s certainly not the same reasons I oppose them (air quality, climate, noise, safety, land use, etc). Instead its things like: wanting the money in their district, not wanting to “give” money to unions, not caring about Portland Metro transportation, etc.
That said, Jonathan is right that most Republicans are generally in line with AAA, the freight lobby, and business lobby that want bigger, wider freeways.
Wrong, Democrats have it, voters want it. Why are the Democrats not interested in a little democracy next year?
I am sorry, is this an emergency or not? Why wait 30 days to sign the bill after passage if this is a dire emergency where the future of ODOT hangs in the balance? If the only side working in good faith is the Democrats, why not sign the bill and get to work solving this emergency? Jokers. If your governor is so popular, if the bill is so popular, if the track record of on time and on budget projects and clean audits is so comforting, if the passes aren’t going to be plowed and everyone is going to be dying is such a good faith argument, what is the worry about this going to referendum?
because she wanted to make it as hard as possible for Republicans to gather the signatures. And I don’t blame her given that Rs have done everything they could to play hardball with Dems. Sucks we are in this place, but that’s where we are.
Also, I’m not going to defend Kotek or the Dem leadership or ODOT. Their actions on them and I don’t agree with many of them! I am focusing my critique on the Republicans because I feel what they are doing and have done are necessary to call out and lend some attention to.
My message to Tina “No Kings” Kotek is to let the people speak. If your bill is good for the majority of Oregonians they will vote for it. If not, it will go down in smoke.
This is such a disingenuous understand of what No Kings is about. The gas tax bill was passed by 54 elected representatives – supermajorities (60%) in both the house and senate – and signed by the elected Governor. The people spoke and elected these people.
The No Kings protests are about the unconstitutional usurpation of various powers of Congress (and in some ways the Courts) and checks and balances.
Certainly part of Oregon’s democratic process is the referendum power in our Constitution, and Gov. Kotek has done nothing to preempt that. Under the Oregon Constitution, Article V, Section 15b, she had 30 days to sign the bill.
Jared, I get your point about the constitutional mechanics — yes, the legislature passed the bill, and yes, the Governor acted within the 30-day window allowed under Article V, Section 15b. No one’s disputing the legality of that.
But the No Kings frustration isn’t just about the text of the Constitution; it’s about how power is being used in practice. When a Governor waits until the very end of the signing window, in a way that predictably makes signature-gathering harder— it may be technically permissible, but it understandably feels like an attempt to blunt a referendum effort. And to many people, that does come across as a bit “king-like,” or at least out of step with the spirit of Oregon’s direct democracy traditions.
That’s the disconnect Marcus is getting at: big, impactful tax legislation passed in Salem, followed by procedural maneuvers that appear to make public input more difficult. Even if it’s within the rules, it reinforces the feeling that major decisions are being made top-down, and that voters are expected to accept them rather than actively shape them.
Ultimately, the referendum process exists for exactly this reason — so Oregonians can weigh in when they feel their elected leaders have overreached. If enough people share that concern, the voters will decide.
Measure 113 made it such that Republican’s have nothing to lose. They can’t walk out, so they might as well refer this stuff to voters. To have the party that can’t quit talking about “threats to democracy” mad that this could go to voters is such a laughably bad look it isn’t funny. Regardless, from the cheap seats this is fun to watch play out and if we all have to endure some austerity as a result, its probably for the best, since PERS is going to push that on us at one point or another.
113 is an example of real political hardball that many people accuse the Repubs of doing, but that the Dems actually have done. Heck, the Texas Dems flee the state periodically and the Texas Repubs haven’t tried to emulate the Oregon Dems ruthlessness.
It was needed because of the outsized counter-majoritarian effect the Republicans have had. I don’t remember what the last straw was, but it was some egregious bullshit the Republicans were doing, blocking anything from getting done in a state that very clearly does not support their politics.
It’s a welcome change from the usual Democrat style of being Charlie Brown with Lucy, watering down what we want for the sake of Republicans who won’t work in good faith anyway.
I expect the Republicans will do the same in Texas if the Democrats are ever similarly effective at stopping any Republican legislation.
There is no need to refer this stuff to voters. You could say the exact same tripe about any and all legislation: “refer it to the voters.”
But we don’t do that and we shouldn’t do that. We don’t do direct democracy, voting on every single detail. Legislators are elected to do legislation.
If voters hate it so much they can try repealing it later, or voting out the people who did the thing they don’t like.
But to pretend it makes sense to “bring this to the voters” is just bad faith nonsense.
There absolutely is. When one party is stripped of all power, they’re going to keep looking for ways to exercize some measure of control.
Don’t want junk like this to end up on the ballot? Give people enough of a voice so that they don’t feel like this is their only resort.
I know, I know… both sides strawman Maga or whatever.
How much voice do they need? How much do they deserve? The solid majorities that elected democrats to the senate, house, and governorship also have political interests that deserve representation. They (Rs and ‘centrist’ Ds) already basically gutted the transpo package. If that is not ‘enough of a voice’, there is no path forward.
What’s a big problem, as Jonathan has pointed out, is that not only are the dems incapable of wielding the power we gave them to enact policy, they are also losing the propaganda war. Not sure what to do about the state of affairs, but in no way is backing down a good move.
I’m not talking about “deserve”, I’m talking about the practical effect of removing other means Republicans could use to express their opinion.
Mine isn’t a moral statement, but a practical one. Take away one tool, and people will find another. Sometimes what they find maybe worse than what you took away. You can see this dynamic play out in many different ways all over the world.
We’re not talking about means of expression of republican opinion, which have in no way been removed or infringed in the slightest, we’re talking about the political power of republicans to control state policy despite losing every statewide election in recent memory. The correct response to such unreasonable behavior is not give in to it. If the republicans want to have a grown up conversation in which they concede that there may be need to compromise, there can be an actual negotiation to settle political questions. That’s not the mode of the American right in the current moment. We may lose this referendum. Do you think the situation would be better if Kotek had signed the bill right away? If the bill had been made even more toothless? If measure 113 had not been adopted? You know none of these would have assuaged the insatiable tide of regression. The republicans would just thwart any progress at whatever line of preemptive surrender the dems chose to give up at. The further the dems push, the more I respect them.
“The correct response to such unreasonable behavior is not give in to it.”
Maybe Oregonians will vote no. I don’t have an opinion of when Kotek should have signed the bill, so long as she was acting legally.
I think excessive partisanship is extremely corrosive. I also know that many Democrats are pushing for more. I understand that viscerally, but I think it’s bad for our country.
“I think excessive partisanship is extremely corrosive.”
So do I, but I find it frustrating that after the ridiculous republican obstruction over the last half decade, in which reactionary legislators abused procedural minutia to an extraordinary degree, that Kotek waiting to sign the bill is what’s being held up as ‘excessive partisanship’. Does it count as partisanship if republicans do it?
exactly. People either have short memories or Dems are held to a different standard. (I think both are true!)
The idea that the same party in Salem is complaining about Kotek and Dem leadership about procedure is absolutely laughable to me and should not be taken seriously by anyone with a brain given the way worse shit Republicans have pulled in very recent memory.
You mean like when Nearman let violent citizens in the back door to disrupt the legislative session? Republicans are just so charming.
To me it does. I’m pretty unhappy with both major parties at this point. I pay a lot in taxes, but I do not feel my interests — or Oregon’s interests — are being served.
Me too! But my reaction is that I just have to organize better, persuade more people to my beliefs, and try harder to bend the system to my favor.
See? That’s the difference between Dems and Rs broadly right now. Dems will work in the system to bend it toward their goals, and Rs will just try to break the system, say it’s failing, and convince a loud, angry mob to not trust the system.
And when Trump did that on the national scale he took over the system and used it to make him and his cronies rich.
So yeah, I’m disgusted that people feel like just because things get hard and they don’t like how things are going in Portland or Oregon, they just take their ball and run home instead of working with other players on the court to make the game better.
“Rs will just try to break the system, say it’s failing”
By most objective measures, the system is failing. I don’t know how to turn the education system around, or how to fix our pathetic system of addressing addiction and homelessness, I but I do know that what we’re doing is not it.
I don’t know if a different governor (D or R or independent) could turn things around, but I am fairly certain that Kotek can’t, and it seems very likely that our democratic machine will renominate her despite her failings.
It’s very frustrating. I can see why people who have the means to go are being drawn to greener pastures.
The center cannot hold.
You’ve had four decades of uni-party control, to blame the Republicans at this juncture for a lack of progress is hilarious. How many more decades and hundreds of billions of dollars will it take to have actual progress? What is there to show for it over the last 40 years? Is education better, is the economy better, is it easy to start a business, are people starting families, are our corporations succeeding? Is the version of progress you’re proposing something different than needing capitalism to fund socialist side quests?
You’re right about regression though, that sinking feeling about losing this likely referendum is regression to the mean. The pendulum is undefeated. In hindsight, I am glad the brain trust in Salem decided to advise Kotek to wait until the last second to sign this bill. The groundswell in response might have real staying power and going into a gubernatorial election year with one of the least popular governors in the country, could be really exciting.
I don’t remember proposing a vision of progress. I just want a government that isn’t rendered dysfunctional by an entitled and aggrieved minority.
The republicans controlled the Oregon Legislature from 1995 to 2006. That was within 40 years.
Here’s a measure of success. The per capita state GDP is up 50% since democrats too control. Was it anything they did? Not sure. But if you’re going to blame them (wrongly) for everything gone wrong for 4 decades, they should get credit for all the good.
As for the governor’s popularity? The democratic party polls as pretty unpopular but keeps sweeping elections and are polling very strongly against the republicans nationally for 2026.
If having OPB run your propaganda isnt enough, the policies might just be unpopular.
I think OPB goes out of their way to give more than a fair shake to conservative views. I don’t know of a conservative-leaning media presence that would extend even the slightest hint of consideration to progressive or liberal views. That you describe OPB as propaganda shows how differently we appraise the American media landscape.
I keep hearing folks talk like this and I think it’s a complete misrepresentation of the situation. Republicans have not been “stripped of power.” They don’t have power because 1) they could not win enough votes in a free and fair election to control the government and 2) what seats they do control they have failed to leverage because of their failure to work productively with the majority party.
If 4% of the voters in the last gubernatorial election decide that an issue is important enough, they could do the exact same thing about any and all legislation.
The genesis of this being an amendment to the constitution was during the Progressive Era over 120 years ago, when the perception by the electorate was that the legislature was full of corrupt special interests.
Then it was corporate interests (railroads and land developers), now it is public and private unions (SEIU) with some non-profit activists sprinkled in, but to argue that the legislature is not corrupt is an exercise in futility. It is, and the fact that regardless of what you, or any blog, or any social media post says, I can go to and sign a form, and if 77,999 other people do the same, we get to have a say on something, is all that matters.
Do keep on with the idea that direct democracy is “bad faith nonsense” though, I think that position is going to have some real dividends.
Have y’all ever thought that maybe it has nothing to do with either party? That maybe it’s whoever is in government wants to look good and be re-elected, versus the bureaucracy who want to be paid and perform well, versus external contractors for services who have an incentive to adjust the state (and local) budgets, versus Oregon voters who always want something for nothing?
Let’s face it, every jurisdiction wants everything but doesn’t want to pay for it, and everyone wants to get their sticky fingers in every pie, and everyone is quite happy to blame everyone else, and the press as usual is a sucker for all of this.
A great test of this would be to allow for school districts to fund teachers and aids via bond issues. Predictably, you’d see the derided places of wealth fund their schools at their own expense, while the places that get things for free, never vote to contribute a dime of their own money.
Oregon faces dead end if Republicans lead transportation conversation
Unfortunately, we also face a dead end if Democrats lead the conversation. Governor Kotek unilaterally eliminated tolling that had been carefully fought for and negotiated and was in the process of being implemented. She had no replacement plan for that money or concept for dealing with the congestion that tolling could have helped mitigate. Democrats have consistently fought FOR extremely wasteful and harmful highway megaprojects. Democratic support for alternative transportation, cycling and environmental stewardship is mostly greenwashing and bikewashing- hyping up tiny ancillary benefits of massive, harmful projects to garner support from groups that would otherwise hold them accountable. The Republican anti-tax craziness in Oregon are a real problem, but this opinion piece does a disservice by making this a partisan issue where the Democrats are good and Republicans are bad. The Democrats are corrupt and disingenuous, and we need some real reform and real change. Providing media cover for all of the missteps and terrible decisions from Kotek and state Dems does not feel like the typical high quality of journalism I usually find here.
depends on which Democrats. I agree that Kotek has not done well. Her abandonment of tolling was a terrible move and historically Dems have been happy to line up behind the megaproject trough. What I want are new Dems and new people to run for office that will take things in a different direction than the status quo.
Getting new Dems in that will change the status quo seems far more likely given voter demographics than expecting rural voters to elect human scale transportation supporting republicans. Since this is a one party state, having new Dems that actually support human/public transportation as a means to itself and not just talking points would instantly equal positive change.
So why focus on the political party that doesn’t really matter? The corporate Dems need to be called out and their pro-auto actions explained so they can be replaced.
That is a worthy and attainable goal.
Part of why I wanted to say these things is because Oregon Dems are getting absolutely destroyed online. There is a very strong and influential Republican-supportive online media ecosystem that has no counterpart on the left. One of my goals here is to get Dems and others to realize this fact and maybe start to stand up and speak out a bit more. Also, sometimes I just want to say things that aren’t being clearly stated so that they are at least on the record. I’m tired of how Starr and Diehl and Boshart Davis and others are lying to people and crafting false narratives and while I don’t expect their fans to read BikePortland, I can sleep better at night knowing that at least I called it out and tried to clean up the record.
“…and others are lying to people and crafting false narratives…”
One of the things I despise as well so I completely understand the desire and need to clear reality up for people. I’m not online much socially so I didn’t know it was as bad as you’re saying. Yuck! Good luck! Sane transportation needs your voice on what can be accomplished with the right people in office.
Jonathan, when you say Dems are getting destroyed online, where do you mean? This is a serious question, I really don’t know! Are we talking Reddit? Twitter? WW comments sections? Other places that I don’t even know exist?
Oregon Democrats and Republicans just aren’t that different. With a few exceptions they drive cars to work, have middle class life styles and university educations. Their constituents pretty much all drive cars as well, whether rural or urban.
Republicans map pretty well onto rural districts so they hold the line on highway funding a little more than Democrats. In horse race politics the Democrats could point out the number of people who are served by rural transit and the degree to which they are dependent on it. We’re all distracted by the issue of how to make urban car driving easy and fast, versus the real costs of putting more pavement in cities.
“Oregon faces dead end if Republicans lead transportation conversation
Unfortunately, we also face a dead end if Democrats lead the conversation.”
I’m afraid you are right. And one reason is that the issues which matter most (climate change, future of humanity, to name just two of the biggest ones) are so-called wicked problems that have no easy solution, no solution our (generally uninspiring) politicians and the (dreadful) parties they belong to are capable of meaningfully tackling, much less solving. The time scales and interconnectedness make them impervious to the political flailings we (& our representatives) engage in.
Are these republicans governing only by feels now? Do they really think we can fund our maintenance and infrastructure project for drivers by removing all other non car projects from the budget? I mean I look at the budgets pretty often and the math doesn’t math out. Never mind the fact that a lot of that money can’t be moved over to other driver projects because they’re only available for specific projects. Removing ODOTs ability to work on non-driver projects means the money just goes away it doesn’t suddenly become available to pave a road or widen a freeway.
Unfortunately most of the “non-car project money” is really just spent to get people out of the way of cars rather than getting people to where they need to go. Somehow the cost of giving cars five lanes on every street always has to be paid before anything can be done for the bike network.
The Democrats haven’t been doing such a hot job either.
The problem isn’t that Democrats have been insufficiently partisan, it’s that our machine politics gives us lousy candidates with priorities such as widening highways through urban areas.
true! But y’all really need to stop bothsidesing this thing. It can be a fact that Dems have not been as awesome as some of us might hope, but what Rs are doing is way way worse by comparison. Come on. Focus.
This isn’t the federal level. There is no trumpesque demagoguery exhibited by anyone in Oregon. The dem machine has demonstrated that it is in the way of getting quality candidates. The machine is more a threat to human/public infrastructure than trump is at the local level.
Both sides ing it is very appropriate since neither side is helping human/public transportation.
Look at what the politicians actually do instead of listening to what they say they want to do.
We disagree here. The leading voices of the Republican party in Oregon – and their leading voice on transportation specifically – is a co-host of a podcast called Oregon DOGE. And former Senator Bonham was one of the leading critics of the transportation bill before he took a job in the Trump Administration. Blaming government for everything and opposing taxes like this, while caring more about social media clout than fixing problems, are extremely Trumpesque!
And there are absolutely some Dems – and Dems w power and influence like Sen. Pham and Rep. Gamba – who are helping transportation. They tried to push vastly different proposals than Dem party leadership and they are much more progressive than Kotek. It’s a failure of Dem and Gov. leadership to not embrace Pham and her ilk.
It sounds like you agree with me that this is a Democratic party problem, when voices like Pham and Gamba can’t be heard about the din of the machine.
I don’t know a lot about the state Dem party problem, but yes I think we agree that they are not doing a great job. I was very disappointed with how the transportation bill was handled and I think they are similar to the national Dems who’ve seen their support crater as many folks crave a stronger type of leadership — like the type many are finding in the DSA-backed candidates.
Here’s a prediction you can take to the bank: The DSA isn’t going to sweep American politics, even if it manages to win in a few places that are not representative of America as a whole (as it always has).
Says the guy who really hopes that’s true.
Excuse me if I don’t believe the predictions of ideologically motivated reasoning.
At some point you have to accept that they do, actually, represent America. New York, cities in general, are America. If they’re gaining ground in these places, that says something more than your wishful thinking.
When a DSA candidate sweeps the heartland, please come back and remind me you told me so.
As one who lives in the heartland, when dark money and think tanks stop dominating my state politics in support of the GOP (not that I expect that to ever happen), please recognize DSA and left candidates not winning here has little to do with which candidates most accurately represent America.
Are you saying the DSA would be winning elections where you are if the system wasn’t rigged against them?
No, the DSA presence in my state is extremely small. I was implying that nobody outside the GOP has much of any chance of getting elected to any state position, no matter how much their positions might align with the public.
Gerrymandering is just one factor, so I don’t consider the elections rigged. I just recognize that a vast majority of the money in campaigns and advertisements comes from GOP supporting PACs, and that right leaning, nationwide think tanks directly influence legislation, sometimes straight up writing the bills legislators propose.
It sounds like you’re saying that the DSA candidates won’t win where you are because they don’t have much public support and a very small presence.
Which is, coincidentally, exactly why I feel so confident making predictions like “the DSA won’t be sweeping the heartland anytime soon.”
Do you actually disagree with me?
I already replied, then exited the page, so consider this an edit to my previous reply: the main point I was making is that there may be way more liberals and lefties in the heartland than you think. That they’re not getting elected does not mean that people like Mamdani don’t well represent America.
The nice thing about Mamdani winning is that the DSA and the rest of us will actually be able to see the results of their desires. For too long they have been able to loudly agitate without needing to actually build anything. I am glad that an avowed DSA member is going to be in charge of a major city so we can finally see how the DSA platform actually performs in the real world and not just in discussions at a beer hall or cafe.
Don’t worry, if Mamdani fails to enact his agenda, or it doesn’t have the desired impact, it will be somebody else’s fault.
Preemptively excusing potential bad faith opposition that derails what the people want doesn’t make you look as against both parties as you suggest in other comments.
“Preemptively excusing potential bad faith opposition”
That’s exactly what I’m talking about. The preemptive dismissal of any good faith disagreement is exactly the sort of excuse making I anticipate.
And even to the extent that opposition is “bad faith”, it is still opposition that needs to be overcome.
Mamdani will be judged on his accomplishments, not his excuses.
They’re already lining up Hochul to be the reason free public transit isn’t going to happen. Now we have the next all purpose excuse which is “bad faith opposition “ which I don’t even know what that actually means.
Is it lack of slavish adulation? Who knows, it sounds menacing and definitely not Mamdani’s fault.
I saw Mamdani got along great with trump which was surprising. I didn’t think he’d sup with tyrants. I kept expecting him to “punch a nasty in the face”, at least metaphorically and he didn’t.
So now the Marxist takeover of NY is looking like it’s over already, maybe it will just be a pleasant administration trying to do the best it can for its citizens.
The preceding message brought to you by the Republican National committee……
For a person who keeps claiming he isn’t MAGA, you sure have all the talking points.
There you go again…
No. There you go again with MAGA talking points on basically every post.
“Am not! Are too!”
You make me feel like I’m back in the 3rd grade.
The veneer of human civilization is as I suspect you know exceedingly thin. We can’t even hold ourselves to mature standards in communication now as adults with all the pleasures and comforts of western plenty. It will not take long once the pangs of hunger or discomfort nibbles at us for the illusion of civilization to be utterly stripped away.
But let’s keep polluting our world with more mega road projects, bigger SUVs, hungrier and more invasive electronics, AI heat sinks and outsource our food because everything is just fine.
Well Mamdani just had Trump licking his shoes so your take is already looking pretty bad.
I can tell you know a lot about New York politics from the way you realize that Donald Trump is the main obstacle to Mamdani’s agenda.
The DSA isn’t going to sweep American politics
They might. No one would have predicted the influence of MAGA when the Tea Party crap began.
And even if DSA doesn’t come to dominate American politics (which is unlikely not as much because of its relative popularity but because Rs and Ds will try to prevent it lest it takes anything from their stranglehold on a 2 party system that benefits both of them), their beliefs and approach to politics could have vast influence on existing Ds and Rs.
“They might.”
They might as in it’s mathematically possible, or they might as in there are indications that it’s actually a plausible outcome?
To declare it a plausible outcome, you really need to explain why, ideally with some evidence that is generally accepted that it could happen.
Mostly, I read your statement as wishful thinking.
I know the dream is that Mamdani uses his momentum in New York City to build a national platform that catapults him and other DSA candidates to higher office. He might, as in it’s mathematically possible, but that’s just not generally how things work out for NYC mayors.
I think Mamdani is going to hit the same fundamental reality faced by mayors everywhere: big promises, not enough money.
” Blaming government for everything and opposing taxes like this, while caring more about social media clout than fixing problems, are extremely Trumpesque!”
True, I hadn’t really thought of it like that, but you’re right.
” It’s a failure of Dem and Gov. leadership to not embrace Pham and her ilk.”
Totally agree with this and its why I am against the dem machine politics and how we need to get new, positive, sane transportation people elected rather than the next dem on the rung.
“Bothsidesing”? Hell no. We need a different way.
Revolting
Empty
Patriarchal
Ugly
Bitter
Lamentable
Impudent
Creepy
Absurd
Nefarious
Resrouceful
Energetic
Principlaed
Unflappable
Bold
Logical
Independent
Committed
Active
Neighbroly.
See?
With the right adjectives you can make any party sound heroic. Your hyper partisan insults really do nothing to help us come together to solve some big problems that Oregon has. Think about it.
The difference is that surly ogre used apt adjectives. I’ll give your “resourceful”, but “principled”? Really?
I think it was meant to be “Principlaid”, based on the acronym TACO, as in Trump Always Chickens Out on tariffs and much else, a popular phrase way back in the mid-2025s. You stick to your principles until you don’t, just like most politicians.
It must be nice to be so confident that there is a right side and a wrong side, and who each side is, and that you are on the right side.
My life has shown me that this world is full of ambiguous, hypocritical people who let you down, competing narratives and a natural oscillation in politics.
I also remember how many times I’ve been proven wrong myself.
Knowing the way that Oregonians typically vote, particularly among non-partisan voters, it will probably pass. And if someone had a referendum to dissolve the state, that would probably pass as well.
According to the Oregon 2025-2027 Budget Highlights,
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/lfo/Documents/2025-27%20Budget%20Highlights.pdf
the Oregon DOT gets four percent of the budget. That’s $6.1 Billion. One comparison: fourteen percent, $19.0 Billion, goes to Administration. I haven’t looked at what falls under that subhead but it should be interesting.
I was surprised that the ODOT share was that small, considering the importance of transportation to the economy and the impact of our Twentieth Century transportation infrastructure on our environment. If we are strangling ODOT and alternative transportation gets only the crumbs from freeway widening we are screwed. (Everybody knows that after one collapse we’ll find some money for bridges so until then we just abide.)
ODOT can go back to being the highway department as far as I’m concerned because institutionally they think about motor vehicles first and last. The greatest resource of our transportation infrastructure is not the built things, it’s the ground under the pavement or the tracks. We need to allocate that space to the most efficient uses and single occupant motor vehicles are not that.
Administration includes PERS, the pension fund. What’s fun about reading these documents is trying to find out how much debt the state is paying, and see how thoroughly it gets buried in the document.
One tidbit, on pages 61-62, apparently funded:
Who needs the legislature when you can always issue bonds and take on debt that the state must pay back?
“Administration”
The first order of business is to feather your own nest. Recall that one of the first actions of our new DSA city council was to give themselves more money for their offices.
If you don’t feather the nest of your administration, how will you hatch the policy ideas and support the fledgling programs?
JM, on your photo above is a prime example of a “complete street” with sidewalks on both sides, painted bike lanes on both sides, 2 lanes of car traffic in each direction, medians/turn lanes, and onstreet parking (plus lots of land use noise, air pollution, and traffic congestion), which I’m guessing is SW Barber. You are saying that Republican support this type of design on your caption and I’d say most democrats do too. I personally find such stroadway designs nauseating and prefer road diets and barrier-protected bike lanes, but both parties very publicly support highways and stroads, plus visual clutter and sprawling land uses.
ok david i changed the lead image so as not to distract from the piece and so folks don’t misunderstand my views based on an image and caption.
Indeed, much better, let’s talk about political parties that want to expand freeways in the Rose Quarter and across the Columbia River!
Yet another reason why Oregon sits in neutral. Tina played the delay game which seems to only inspire the right. Also, ODOT feels like a bloated organization with little consequence for their actions.
Yes it’s so frustrating. I wish we actually had a Republican party that offered good critiques of the Dems and forced healthy compromises and checks and balances and accountability. But we don’t have that and both parties — and our state! — are worse because of it.
The seemingly only critique they offer is a good one. Is it wise to continually raise taxes in a cost of living crisis?
It’s not that simple. Why is cost of living going up? And if cost of living is going up that means a lot of people are being left behind. And if a lot of people are being left behind, who will help them remain a part of society if not government? And if gov’t is to help them, how is gov’t supposed to function w/o adequate revenue?
You think a majority of Oregon Ds wanted to raise taxes? No. Of course not. They would prefer other ways to make stuff work. But what are those ways? We need to quit with the immature, magical thinking about transportation.
The one great policy that these Dems supported but that was taken away by a bad decision from Kotek was tolling. Tolling is a more fair “user pays” system that would have allowed us to move forward in transportation without these more broad-base taxes, but Kotek failed to push it through (no thanks to many Rs who vehemently oppose it).
I totally agree that gov’t under Dems has become bloated, but that’s more a function of gov’t and bureaucracy culture than political culture. Rs love their gov’t spending just as much as Ds do!
But we can wish and dream that gov’t changes overnight and somehow exists without revenue, or we can figure out how to get out of this mess we are in. Rs want to just walk away and quit because they can’t figure out how to win by playing fair and winning elections and working in gov’t to get what they want. So they walk out, tell everyone gov’t is a failure, and then what? Newsflash: Just like at the national level, Oregon Rs have no good plan to actually fix the problems! We saw them try in the transportation debate and almost their entire proposal was a non-starter.
The Dems are messaging about the urgent and dire need to fund ODOT, but they have not said a peep about looking at ODOT and their goals and how they are run. Their is no accountability for ODOT or Dems, only some hyperbolic and manipulative messaging. It is the same with the recent vote for more funding for PP&R- manipulative scare tactic and hyperbolic messaging. Their is a legitimate point (building parks without a mechanism to fund the expanded system) and I held my nose when i voted for it, but the lack of accountability is breathtaking! Lets take good look at PP&R: do they really need a full metal and wood shop to repair benches or could that be contracted out much more efficiently? Is it cost effective to have City-salaried people running a half-assed nursery/greenhouse when Portland is surrounded by the most efficient nurseries in the country? Does every park employee need their own full-size truck to carry around a leaf blower? Does PP&R make enough money commercializing our waterfront all summer long to justify the massive amount of Park resources it takes to repair and maintain it and the fact most of the City ifs excluded from this resource for months at time?
Let’s looks at ODOT. too: Is the leadership too top-heavy? At they fully corrupt and serving the freight and construction lobby groups while ignoring environmental concerns and financial concerns? Their maintenance division continues to act like a rogue agency without oversight (there was a quiet corruption scandal a few years ago) who resist ecological improvement and fight to maintain a mowing-only regimes), etc
With Parks and ODOT, both a re worthy of funding, but instead of making a case for their value AND acknowledging that reform and accountability is needed, the powers that be (state and local Dems) paint a doomsday picture and demand more money without any mention of accountability. THAT destroys confidence and reveals their corruption.
Not true! Sen. Pham and Rep Gamba literally created an oversight committee that met for the first time this week, precisely to hold ODOT feet to the fire for project cost overruns. And Pham has been very vocal about project costs for a long time. I think she’s erred by not making even more noise about it and by letting the Rs own the fiscal responsibility narrative, but to say they haven’t made a peep is inaccurate.
Could not agree more! I didn’t want to support that latest Parks tax, but ended up doing so reluctantly.
One reason I’m mad at Rs is because I think Oregon would be better if we actually had better ones. I would love a serious Republican party to hold a check and balance on Dems — but the current Rs are not doing that. They are doing political theater and are not willing to operate in reality so there’s no productive collaboration.
I’m excited right now (and have reported as such) that we’re finally seeing at least one OTC commish vote “no” against ODOT staff and I think there’s a possible new era coming on the OTC where we finally get ODOT to cut some of the admin fat they have. I think Rs have some good points to make about how there is administrative bloat at that agency — but given the way they conduct themselves, no Ds want to work with them on it. Again, that’s why conduct matters IMO and it’s why I believe Rs don’t really care about making these changes, all they care about is clicks and power.
So yes, we desperately need someone on the left to stand up and acknowledge where the Dems have failed and to have the communication skills to be able to do that while still not just giving into the Rs, and while exciting voters with a new and better way forward (like Mamdandi did!!). I don’t see anyone in Oregon right now with the political talent to do that.
“I would love a serious Republican party to hold a check and balance on Dems — but the current Rs are not doing that. “
“ I think Rs have some good points to make about how there is administrative bloat at that agency — but given the way they conduct themselves, no Ds want to work with them on it.”
“So yes, we desperately need someone on the left to stand up and acknowledge where the Dems have failed and to have the communication skills to be able to do that while still not just giving into the Rs,…”
Thank you for responding to all of us and fleshing out your ideas more. FWIW this has really helped me understand your position more on accountability and I see where you’re coming from. I pretty much agree with you and it really is a frustrating time.
I appreciate your support of Pham and Gamba. Thanks for correcting me about the ODOT oversight committee- I will keep my fingers crossed. I am grateful for your optimism and your reporting- thank you!
Jonathan, I get that you’re worried about Republicans steering the transportation conversation, but you’re skimming over the part where tens of thousands of Oregonians have already signed petitions saying, “Hang on mate… maybe ask us before taking another bite out of our wallet.”
When a grassroots signature drive racks up 45,000 names in no time, with volunteers in tents across the state, small-business owners, commuters, and retirees all lining up, that is not a fringe uprising. That is people who are already paying the fourth highest gas prices in the country, staring down higher registration fees, title fees, payroll taxes, and thinking, “Righto, when does it end?”
You say Republicans are playing politics. Sure. But pretending that ODOT has not mismanaged money or that voters should just cheerfully fork over more cash feels a bit insulting. People are not signing because they want a 1960s highway system. They are signing because they do not trust the current system to use the money responsibly.
And the governor’s line, “Don’t sign or we can’t keep the roads operating,” does not exactly inspire confidence. It sounds less like leadership and more like emotional blackmail from an agency that has had years to get its books in order.
Meanwhile, Democrats negotiated so hard behind closed doors they watered the bill down until their own advocacy groups walked away. Then they were surprised that voters were not thrilled about footing the tab anyway.
So you can blame Republicans if you like. But you are missing the bigger picture. Oregonians of all stripes are fed up. They feel overtaxed, underserved, and talked down to. At some point, you cannot dismiss that as mere politics. It is lived experience.
If lawmakers want public support, maybe the first step is not another tax increase. Maybe it is proving the last few were not flushed away like loose change at a pokies machine.
no i’m not. I mention that several times in the piece.
never said it was.
that’s a very fair question, and one we need to ask in Oregon. Unfortunately, because in part due to reasons I explain in this piece, Republican leaders are not doing a good job of making that point in a way that doesn’t make them politically toxic to work with.
I never said anything like this. I agree ODOT has mismanaged money and have covered that mismanagement many times over the years. And again, I never said folks should just hand over their cash.
Government services cost money. I agree gov’t trust is in the toilet – and one major reason why is Republicans blame it as the bogeyman at every opportunity. It’s the right wing playbook old as time: Destroy gov’t and then take power and enrich yourself and the private sector. That shit don’t work. Dems don’t always help by failing to talk more about accountability and cutting bureaucracy where needed, but this is not “Both sides are bad” conversation in my opinion.
Another, and I would argue far more important reason than “Republicans!” is that even with all the power concentrated in a single party, objectively, Oregon has very poor measurable outcomes despite spending boatloads of money. One example that I think is far more important than transportation: we’re 15th in education spending, and DFL in reading scores, with some of the shortest school years in America (if not the rich world).
You can’t blame that on Republicans, or on “both sides”. Democrats own that, and it’s disgusting.
I’m a teacher and I think we should have year-round school. It’s crazy how much kids lose over the summer.
All those 3 and 4 day school weeks can’t help either.
Is there any Oregon government service that is winning? I mean, even the morally depraved state gambling is starting to fail, ODOT is lost, PSU is failing, etc. Education overall is cratering.
As 2Wheels points out, all that government spending is not giving results. If there was a history of tax money being spent well, I don’t think there would be so much resistance.
I think when people get frustrated with government it is unfair to diminish them by calling them republicans or maga or assume they don’t care about Oregon. I don’t think the repub party can be fixed in the near term, but the dem party can.
It means using the unfortunate truths about how the state has been run (nearly into the ground) by the corporate Dems to vote them out and replace them with Dems who care more about the people and human/public transportation more than climbing the dem political rungs of power and feeding the re-election money machine.
Prisons, government debt, and the pension fund (PERS) have all increased.
Yes these are tough times for government-funded services. Let’s figure it out! These times demand a functioning and productive political system — not one where one side refuses to act in good faith and wants to burn the system down.
Oh come on. Taxing is always a perilous thing and the idea that folks will love gov’t so much they’ll be happily taxed is just not based in reality. Again, I don’t like paying more for things, but I’m just looking to take the less bad option. To me, the option of trusting Rs or getting involved in their toxic politics is a terrible option and I am choosing to remain in the fight and reluctantly support Ds and try to influence the conversation by organizing and fighting to have my beliefs represented more.
That’s not what I did in this piece. When I use “Republicans” in this story, it refers to literal Republican party members who are in gov’t. So yes, they are all “Republicans”! You should know me that I do not like to make broad brush assumptions or use general labels to define people. I’m very sensitive to that as a “cyclist” who has a diverse set of opinions and can’t just be pigeon-hold by American cultural stereotype of “cyclist”.
And when I say MAGA, I mean folks who are MAGA. If folks are not MAGA, I’m not talking about them.
I hope this is clear, because this is a common misunderstanding of who I am and it’s a common one because so many people come to my work with a bias about what they think I believe that it prevents them from really understand what I actually believe.
I am no fan of “corporate Dems.” I really don’t like them. But I don’t agree ith your paragraph above. This state is hurting not because one faction of the Dem party is to blame. Our state gov’t has been dysfunctional for a long time and it’s really hard to win successes and make major progress when one party simply refuses to operate within the system and refuses to have a modicum of respect for the other side. Sorry but the partisanship is not on both sides. The Oregon Rs have taken it to a whole other level and they’ve been seduced into the craven and toxic style of national Rs.
We need all parties in gov’t working in good faith in order to have a good government.
I’m focused on the failures of the dem’s because I believe they can be fixed. That it really is a few bad apples and a machine that tends to reward loyalty over service. The bad apples can be replaced by young Dems with fresh ideas and the machine can be dismantled.
The R’s on the other hand can’t be fixed in the foreseeable future. Criticize them all you want, but they won’t be part of a solution so I don’t think they are worthy of spending much brain power on.
We are not in as much disagreement as your above post implies. Dems can do better and I want them too. R’s can’t so they are not my focus.
FWIW, it’s great to see you share your ideas with us more fleshed out and I’m really enjoying how spicy you can put your ideas across!
Ok thanks. I like that explanation of why you focus on Dems because you believe they can change and be fixed.
And yes, I really enjoy politics and debating beliefs, it’s just that running a bike and transportation blog hasn’t given me as much opportunity to do that as I would like… especially these days when I’m getting more into politics and trying to understand it better.
The responses to this post (here and on other platforms) reminds me that I should share more about politics, in part because I feel like I am misunderstood by a lot of folks who can only see me as a “far left cyclist.”
For decades the legislative approach has been super fixated on increasing taxes and fees to increase the state budget. Pretty much no legislation is even considered if there isn’t a corresponding increase in taxes and/or fees. Or, utilizing the most successful way of increasing taxes/fees; fear mongering caused by bad leadership or intentional leadership to carve out a situation that voters have to agree to or suffer the consequences.
The Oregon annual GDP is ~184% of what it was in 2001 ($144B to $265B)
The Oregon Biennial Budget is now ~408% of what it was in 2001 ($34B to $139B)
In short, taxes/fees on Oregonians and businesses is growing at more than twice our GDP. Completely unsustainable.
The referendum is really a variation of the George Bush phrase coming from Oregonians – “no new taxes”
The message Salem should be hearing from the referendum is that the legislature needs to move their focus to 1) spending the money already in the budget more wisely and 2) and increases to the state budget need to come via growing our state GDP (not new taxes/fees)
COTW
I have never voted for a single Republican in my 5+ decades of life. I am signing this petition and voting in support of it if it makes it onto the ballot next year. Oregonians and Portlanders pay more than enough in taxes and fees already. It is time to get government in our state and in Portland back to the basics. It’s time to cut a lot of stuff that isn’t vital to everyone. Inflation rate from 2019 to 2025 was 27%. My pay increases amounted to half that rate in that time period, so I’m effectively making less money now than six years ago, and most of my friends and family are in the exact same situation. And now the state wants to charge us even more in taxes and fees? Nope! No more! Time to cut a lot of state, city and county costs that are not vital to life.
I hear you on this. But the same rising costs you experience are impacting ODOT, so you should be able to understand that they have to react to those rising costs. I agree with you that the response should not just be raising more taxes, but there is a political reality that is happening where Republicans cannot or will not act in a way that allows for productive conversations about how to get out of this quagmire. What do I mean by productive conversations? How about a debate among respectful adults that talks about what is a “vital” service for ODOT to perform and what is not? When it comes to that question, I trust Democrats more than Republicans in this moment. Leading Dems in this conversation like Gamba and Pham want to cut fat from freeway expansion megaprojects and focus spending on safety and basic services for all users (not just drivers!), while Republicans want to wage culture wars, defund transit and bicycling, and basically give up on anyone who doesn’t drive.
It’s very easy and it feels good to many of us to just give up and want to burn everything down and rally against “failed government” and say “no more taxes!!”
But it’s hard to actually try and solve the problem, even when it requires doing things that aren’t fun or popular (like raising taxes).
Republicans prefer the former because they aren’t popular enough in Oregon to have governing power. Dems prefer the latter because they operate in reality and are committed to trying to make that reality better for everyone.
” How about a debate among respectful adults that talks about what is a “vital” service for ODOT to perform and what is not?”
This here is the most frustrating part. Dems hold a supermajority and don’t need to wait for the recalcitrant R’s to join a discussion. I would love to see the D’s have a discussion and lay out what they believe transportation should look like and what they can do to get us there. And then actually start following their plan. So far all we have is seeing their actions which so far are focused on megaprojects that tie up so much money and time they are detrimental to human/public transportation.
I know that some and probably quite a few rural folks would get behind a well planned out D message that would increase public transportation and end the isolation older and disabled rural people face as well as being told how many tourist dollars those spandex clad city folk can and will bring to their towns if only they could safely get there. The D’s could help rural people have hope and increased mobility, increase cycle/public rideshare in urban areas and increase their power base.
It is maddening that they are not doing any of these things!! It is also tiring having people defend the Oregon Democrat machine simply because they are not Republicans. Do better D’s and the state will do better with you!
I think the distinction that comments like yours always miss is the distinction between “defend the Oregon Democrat machine” and promoting the Republicans.
The point is that Republicans want to tear it all down. They are not acting in good faith. Their way leads to bad things for certain. The way I read articles like this one on BP is that the Republican way is dangerous (if you look carefully, it’s in bold text in the title of this article). Not that the Democrats get everything right. I don’t think a lot of people are fully satisfied with the Democrats. And that’s perfectly fine to say.
What’s annoying is then we get comments saying any criticism pointing out the obviously bad ideas of Republicans implies the corollary “defending the Democratic machine”. And it just doesn’t.
You can rightly criticize R’s all you want and I’ll nod along in agreement.
Criticizing R’s is not “defending the D machine”.
Allowing DINO’s and Corporate D’s to spend far too much tax money on megaproject boondoggles, let our schools, foster system and medical system collapse and ignore crucial human and public infrastructure throughout the state without saying anything because it might be used in a political ad by the Rs is defending the D machine.
Not running progressive Dems against them because they are Dems and “infighting only helps Rs in the general election” is defending the D machine.
Maybe I don’t understand your post fully or see the distinction the way you are seeing it, but I want the D’s to put into action the good and humane values I know they have. It is frustrating in the extreme when they do not.
Those are all true and I don’t think literally anyone here was ever in disagreement, which is why I replied to your post where you said “It is also tiring having people defend the Oregon Democrat machine”.
Now I realize you may not have meant anyone here doing that. So maybe it wasn’t you I should reply to.
What I see a lot of in the comments here is people conflating “Republicans would be a disaster” with “Democrats can do no wrong”. You can think the former without subscribing to the latter.
COTW
Judging from their past actions and where they spend the most money, it’s freeways, more freeways, and bigger Columbia bridges, paid for with partisan Congressional federal funding during Democrat presidential terms. Unfortunately this isn’t very sustainable, particularly as Oregon isn’t one of those dozen “swing” states that can still get hefty funding when the other party takes power.
That’s just it, is it the Dems as a whole or just the out of touch leadership with the power that are for the mega concrete projects? That’s why I think a developed platform would help get their message out by saying what the party as a whole is for rather than just a few power brokers in the party.
Wow, that’s a powerful comment. COTW!
Seen on FB.
lol.
Oregon, and the nation as a whole, desperately needs a functioning, rational Conservative Party. The GOP has a glorious history (Lincoln! Eisenhower!), but it must be repudiated and replaced.
Preferably a Canadian-style Progressive Conservative party, which ironically was founded by refugee American united empire loyalists (Tories) from the Revolution.
Seen on IG. Jonathan you should reach out and interview Cindy from Oregon Citizen. Like you she overall seems like a good egg. Maybe you can find some common ground…..
https://www.oregoncitizen.com/about-oregon-citizen
oh what fun. That explains the emails I’m getting from people saying how terrible I am.
So you gonna interview her?…would be educational…
I’ll consider anything but I doubt I would engage much with her. Just so you know, I’m very familiar with that account as I have followed it and the others in that same ecosystem for many years.
Gavin Newsom is reaching out to those with differing opinions. You should try it!
Gavin Newsom is welcoming prominent conservatives on his new podcast, but critics say it’s risky to align himself ‘in a slightly unpredictable middle’ | Fortune
I reach out to a lot of people with different opinions! Also, Newsom is a politician. I’m a community journalist. So we have different goals and priorities.
A silver lining, I suppose, is that you might get a bit of engagement across the aisle: https://x.com/jeff_eager/status/1991692100266828152?s=61&t=-gwVFxmsUtkkEQL8ja6XLA
You should definitely consider an interview with Jeff Eager…he’s way to your right but isn’t a rabid Trumper. You both could learn from it I think (and your readers too).
https://oregonroundup.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips
I’ve been reading Eager’s stuff. Why do you think I should interview him? (I’m asking your opinion, not asking because I can’t personally find a reason to interview him.)
Jonathan, I think you would get a lot of mileage out of interviewing Eager. Whether people love him or roll their eyes at his math, he’s clearly tapped into a sentiment that’s resonating across Oregon — and not just in the usual corners. He’s asking questions about costs, transparency, and regulatory impact that many Oregonians are quietly wondering about but don’t have the language or data or time to articulate.
Bringing him onto BikePortland wouldn’t just give readers a clearer look at how these arguments are built — it would show that you’re willing to engage seriously with someone who’s become a surprisingly effective communicator on transportation and other state government policies and actions.
And honestly, he’s sharp, he’s prepared, and he’s not shy about taking a punch or returning one. That usually makes for a pretty good interview.
Cheers,
Angus
Current Public Policy/ Urban Planning student at PSU.
If any form of a freeze on non-car spending passes, I am going to leave after I am done.
Why stay when Seattle and New York at least give me hope.
Virginia is pretty progressive as well on non-car spending, as is Minnesota, Alaska, and the NE states (if you can stand the cold.)
Let’s have austerity for cars. The tax drivers pay for gas and registration doesn’t cover the highly redundant system and service they’re given, shut it down. Why fight to get them to pay for it? Why exactly do we want to “keep the lights on” at ODOT? This would be a hot topic in the dem gubernatorial primary if they weren’t sticking to the traditional coronation approach.
Random thoughts.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe most of the opposition is coming from Eastern and Southern Oregon, “the red places.” At the same time, the bulk of the gas tax and DMV fees are paid by the 5 big counties of the Willamette Valley. From that standpoint, rural Oregon is getting a real deal, road maintenance in those huge, sparsely populated counties and snow removal in Eastern Oregon while not paying proportionally to support ODOT.
I also read that 39 states are struggling with funding their transportation agencies. Wyoming is facing a $600 million WTDOT shortfall.
Finally, US News and World Report rates ODOT the 5th best transportation agency in the country. I’m not sure what the criteria are. What I see happening is the Oregon Republican Party succeeding with their sabotage of ODOT and when the agency fails, blaming democrats with the “but you controlled the state government!” cry.
The red places also include many residents in Washington, Marion and Clackamas counties which have a lot of people, and to a lesser extent in Gresham and East Portland. It should be noted that Mr. T got over 40% of the state vote for those who did vote, and that another 30-40% of the state’s adult population chose to not vote at all. Oregon Democrats got a majority of cast votes, but not a majority of all eligible votes – on the other hand, no party ever does.
Many states are struggling to finance their public retirement systems, which in many cases cuts into ongoing programs for transportation. It would be useful for Oregonians to study the 11 states that aren’t worried to see if they have any useful lessons that could be learned.
When I talk with state DOT officials here in NC about Oregon and other states, the NCDOT staff here have an open contempt for Oregon DOT as a left-wing incompetent organization. They regard ColoradoDOT, Va-DOT, MinnDOT, and WaDOT is ultra-liberal as well, but competent, that they seem to know what they are doing. They have a contempt for CaliforniaDOT too but they aren’t regarded as liberal. (I have to avoid using the term ODOT since most people here think I’m talking about Ohio or maybe Oklahoma.)
The problem with the Transportation Funding Bill is that it is out of sync with its priorities of what is needed in the State of Oregon. It was written in the backrooms of the legislature and influenced by Special Interests, who buy the allegiance legislator’s with their donations and group voting. The “Amalgamated Transit Union” has given millions to swing elections, to people who will advance what they want. The doubling of the “Transit Payroll Tax” is a perfect example that has little to NO Justification. TriMet is handling less than 1% of the incidents of Travel/Trips generated in its service area. Not enough people are willing to use MAX Light Rail, WES Commuter Rail, and TriMet bus ridership is down to where operating costs create huge losses. TriMet gets more money to invest than what is made available for roads, highways, bridges, and tunnels in greater Portland. The question is “WHY”, and it is this poorly written legislation was made possible and pushed by special interests, with money funneled into campaigns. We have needs to fund maintenance and preservation of our State Network of roads, highways, bridges, and tunnels, and they chose to virtually not fund those needs. What they did fund was totally inadequate and even threaten with the help of the governor to make it worse, if her agenda was not approved, in the Special Session. ODOT is a mess with poor leadership, top-heavy in administration, and just wasting public funds/public money
PS: Bike commuting and transit commuting need to be compared in a Benefit Analysis and Return on Investment. Even percentage of commuters by these two alternative modes, needs to be compared. Fares Paid, to ride on services provided by TriMet now represents only 7% recovery on total costs to provide TriMet Transit services.
I’m a non-affiliated voter. For me this has nothing to do with the left or the right, Democrats or Republicans. I just feel like at every turn I’m being asked to pay more and more in taxes and fees (and higher prices on everything including utilities), and whether those taxes and fees are for good reasons or not, it’s outpacing the rate that my income increases.
Couldn’t we collect more money for the transportation budget if we required vehicles to have current tags? In my neck of inner SE Portland, there’s probably 25-30% of vehicles with expired tags. If I do the right things, like keeping my vehicle properly DEQ’d and registered and paying fees for those, why shouldn’t all road users who are required to keep their registrations current pay THEIR fair share?
I feel like those of those who do the right things and pay what we’re supposed to are getting bled out.
Speaking as someone in a more “rural” area (at least compared to Salem/Portland), the talking points on “No More Taxes” unfortunately appear to be resonating. I try to talk to friends and colleagues about the reality of transportation costs and funding, but it’s like talking to a brick wall. Most folks don’t think far beyond their personal pocketbook, and don’t seem to realize ODOT is one of the few state highway agencies that *almost* funds itself enough to maintain what they have – people also don’t seem to realize how good we have it here as a result (less expensive triage sucking up road funding). If ODOT lost funding and rolled back to 2017 budgets it would be resigning our roads and transportation system to something akin to Michigan’s. We’d be full of potholes and have loads of unsafe roads after not that many years, and wouldn’t even be saving any money!