With less than six months until the start of Oregon’s 2027 legislative session, state leaders are hoping to leave the transportation funding failures of 2025 in the rearview mirror.

Seven lawmakers met with Gov. Tina Kotek’s Rebuilding Our Transportation Vision workgroup on Tuesday to discuss what they need to successfully pass a funding bill.

For one, legislators need to prioritize “getting the damn bill out much, much, much earlier,” so negotiations can begin, said Rep. Mark Gamba, D-Milwaukie.

The text of the main 2025 bill, which collapsed in the final days of the session, was released with less than a month of the six-month legislative session remaining. Democratic leaders announced a framework in April, despite hinting at the release of one as early as February.

Those ideas followed months of meetings with transportation stakeholders throughout the state. But the plan ultimately came too late, said Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis.

He expressed concern that the group’s timeline of holding a final meeting in November would lead to a repeat of 2025. Lawmakers don’t have time to wait “like excited children for Christmas” to hear their findings, he said.

“We’re going to be going into session mere weeks after that and we need the time to take your ideas and make sure that there is a consensus, a bipartisan consensus of support, to move this forward to some kind of success,” Gomberg said.

He asked the group, which contains no current lawmakers, to keep them updated.

The workgroup’s final report will be delivered to Kotek. The report is meant to “provide a framework of viable and sensitive solutions” the legislature can build on, Kotek’s transportation advisor, Kelly Brooks, said.

Whatever is proposed will have to be sensitive to voters’ distaste for new costs.

Lawmakers ultimately passed a pared-down funding bill in a 2025 special session along party lines. That stopped looming job cuts at the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The collection of signatures to refer to voters the plans that included a 6-cent-per-gallon increase to the gas tax began almost immediately.

Voters overwhelmingly opposed the new costs in May, but significant cuts and layoffs at the agency were mitigated by a revenue rebalance that lawmakers passed months earlier in anticipation of the defeat.

This time, legislators will be looking to fund ODOT with at least $200 million for the upcoming two-year budget cycle, which begins in July 2027. That money would maintain current service levels but result in a smaller agency than in years past.

Getting Oregonians to understand the funding needed to keep the state’s roads and bridges operating is “literally the most important thing,” Gamba said.

While the full proposal may be months away, Oregonians shouldn’t be surprised if it contains some sort of widespread charge tied to vehicle miles traveled or road usage.

Lawmakers of both parties support expanding such a program, said Rep. Susan McLain, D-Hillsboro.

Oregon has an existing opt-in program for electric and some fuel-efficient vehicles. Under the 2025 special session bill, the program was broadened and by the end of 2028 all drivers of electric or hybrid vehicles will be participants or pay an annual fee instead.

Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, the lone Republican legislator on the panel and one of the chief petitioners for the referendum effort, said he was encouraged by the other lawmakers’ comments and echoed the need for bipartisanship.

Gomberg and Starr both referenced a proposal from former Sen. Rick Metsger, D-Welches, to split the agency in two as a bigger potential change. One would focus on road maintenance and safety while the other would take on large projects.

To truly be successful, ODOT needs to focus on its core mission, and it needs a permanent director, Starr said.

“To think that we’re gonna have solved this problem without having a permanent director who will bring confidence, both in the public and in the legislature, is, I think, a fool’s errand,” he said.

The agency’s former director, Kris Strickler, left his post early this year. Kotek appointed Oregon Parks and Recreation Department Director Lisa Sumption to serve in the interim, then picked her chief of staff, Chris Warner, for the temporary role. Warner started July 1.

The transportation system is one of the most important things Oregonians own and that connects them with the state, said Sen. Anthony Broadman, D-Bend.

“You go about your daily life, you don’t confront or meet the state where they are unless you go to the DMV or you’re on a road,” Broadman said. “For us in the legislature, this is how we interface with the people who we work for.”

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Statesman Journal and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

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