As a small clutch of Oregon lawmakers meet behind closed doors to negotiate a still-secret bill to fund road and bridge upkeep, some of those left on the outside aren’t pleased.
House Republicans have bristled in recent weeks after learning that two of their members went rogue. State Reps. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, and Jeff Helfrich, R-Hood River, quietly agreed to work with Democrats on a deal that could prove crucial to the chances of the transportation bill.
Under that arrangement, Mannix and Helfrich aren’t discussing any aspects of a possible deal with their party — and initially didn’t even acknowledge to colleagues the meetings were occurring.
The development is unusual in Salem, where party leaders typically have insight into sensitive negotiations their members are involved in. State Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, the go-to House Republican on transportation matters, isn’t included in the talks. House Minority Leader Christine Drazan, R-Canby, said she’s not in the loop.
That has created bruised feelings. According to three GOP sources, there was brief talk of excluding Helfrich and Mannix from party caucus meetings altogether. That ultimately went nowhere.
It also hasn’t helped party relations in the House, where Drazan is now accusing Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, of hypocrisy and desperation.
“What she has done is absolutely despicable and this is a betrayal of what she said were her own values,” Drazan told OPB Wednesday, arguing that the closed meetings go against Fahey’s pledge to craft the bill in public. “This is the kind of leadership that should be beneath every single speaker of the House for the State of Oregon.”
The drama underscores the stakes behind what could be a centerpiece of the 2025 session.
Democrats last month unveiled an ambitious proposal to raise roughly a dozen new and existing taxes and fees they said are necessary to give the state, cities and counties enough to complete basic road maintenance. At around $1 billion a year, that package would also fully fund two highway megaprojects that have seen costs soar.
But Republicans have pushed back, calling on Democrats to find opportunities for savings and fund the Oregon Department of Transportation from existing money, rather than levying a massive tax hike.
On April 30, House Republicans released a counterproposal they said would steer more than $700 million to road upkeep without raising a cent in new taxes. Much of the plan centered on yanking state funding from things like public transportation, biking and walking infrastructure and electric vehicle subsidies. (The Oregonian/OregonLive later reported that one aspect of the proposal was vastly overinflated.)
Mannix and Helfrich weren’t present at a press conference announcing the idea. Drazan now says they were picked off in secret by Fahey.
“She has handpicked, kind of separated out some folks from the caucus, and has dangled candy in front of them,” she said.
Mannix and Helfrich declined to comment earlier this week on what they were looking for from the negotiations.
Fahey didn’t grant an interview on the matter. Instead, the speaker’s office released a statement Thursday that suggested Democrats had tapped Helfrich and Mannix because they could keep an open mind.
“The Speaker’s approach has always been to welcome to the table any legislator, regardless of party, who is willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work,” Jill Bakken, a spokesperson for Fahey, wrote. “She’s grateful that there are many Republican legislators in Oregon who have been clear that they want to solve problems and be partners in governing this state, rather than just obstructing or proposing unrealistic cuts to critical programs.”
On the Senate side of the building, state Sen. Bruce Starr has been one of the lawmakers hashing out a bill. The Dundee Republican is a vice chair of the Joint Transportation Committee and his party’s leading voice on the issue in the Senate.
The political math behind a transportation package is an open question in Salem. Democrats technically have the three-fifths supermajorities in each chamber necessary to pass new taxes on their own, but there is no guarantee that the party will vote in lockstep on a bill that would hike costs for constituents.
Democrats may also need Republican votes in the House. State Rep. Hòa Nguyễn, D-Portland, has been absent this session as she undergoes treatment for cancer. A second Democratic seat is currently vacant after former Rep. Courtney Neron Misslin, D-Wilsonville, was appointed to the Senate.
Democrats will likely ensure the seat is filled before a House vote on the transportation bill. Even so, bringing at least two Republicans on board may be necessary.
Leading Democrats have said all along they would look for bipartisan support behind a bill they argue is crucial for the health of the state’s roads.
“Some Democrats are ready to vote right now and do a supermajority,” Sen. Chris Gorsek, a Gresham Democrat helping craft the bill, told OPB last month. “I would prefer it to be bipartisan. It’s hard to be in the minority party, and there’s some concern on that side that we haven’t listened to them.”
The path to a transportation bill began last year. It included public listening sessions in a dozen cities around the state and a series of informational hearings earlier this year.
But lawmakers have yet to hold a single hearing on a concrete proposal for generating the billions of dollars Democrats say they need. Drazan argued Wednesday that runs counter to pledges to build the proposal in the open.
“Now we’re at the 11th hour, in May, in the middle of the legislative session, and they’re so desperate they’re going to go into a dark room,” she said. “This is why people hate politics.”
The delayed emergence of a transportation bill is, in part, due to an unexpected hiccup. State economists recently discovered an error in a study that determined heavy trucks were paying more than their share in road costs compared to the gas tax paid by lighter vehicles. Since correcting that imbalance will be a piece of any package, lawmakers needed to wait for the study to be fixed.
But it’s clear the timeline is running longer than expected. The Joint Transportation Committee had run out of time to take up a proposal by the Legislature’s May 23 deadline.
So on Wednesday, Fahey and Senate President Rob Wagner created an entirely new committee to handle the transportation package, a development first reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The new body, the Joint Transportation Reinvestment Committee, contains the same members as the old committee — including Mannix and Helfrich — but doesn’t need to abide by legislative deadlines.
“Our plan is to do a transportation package this session,” Fahey told reporters Monday. “We are on track to do that.”
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
