As they debate whether to hurry up a vote on a gas tax and fee hikes, Oregon lawmakers are blowing past a loose deadline set by election officials. According to Secretary of State Tobias Read, that risks suppressing public debate.
Read sent legislative leaders a memo Wednesday morning on the topic of Senate Bill 1599. The bill — the biggest political lightning rod of this year’s session — would move a vote on new transportation taxes that is currently scheduled for November up to May.
But doing so less than three months before the May 19 primary comes with challenges. State law includes a long list of deadlines that are supposed to be met in order for measures to land on the ballot.
Read’s office issued a memo last month that gave lawmakers a rough target of Feb. 25. Having the bill passed by that date, it said, allowed enough time for members of the public to formulate statements in support or opposition to the tax increases for the state voters’ pamphlet.
But lawmakers will not meet the Feb. 25 date. While SB 1599 passed the Senate on Monday, it is still making its way through the House, which might not hold a vote until next week.
According to Read, that’s a problem.
“This is the deadline our team recommended to ensure that Oregonians have a fair and equal chance to participate in the voters’ pamphlet process related to this referendum, should it be on the ballot in May,” the secretary wrote to top Democrats and Republicans on Wednesday.
Under state law, members of the public can land a statement in the voters’ pamphlet either by paying $1,200 or collecting 500 signatures from registered voters, which takes time.
“Every day that passes makes it more challenging for my office to provide Oregonians with a free alternative to paying a $1,200 fee,” Read wrote. “This could impact Oregonians’ ability to make an informed decision about the referendum and for proponents or opponents to make their voices heard.”
Republicans lawmakers, who bitterly oppose changing the election date, immediately seized on Read’s warning on Wednesday.
“It’s clear that Senate Bill 1599 should be considered dead by every lawmaker in this building,” Senate Minority Leader Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, said in a statement. “If Supermajority Democrats continue to move it forward, it will prove that their loyalty is to politics above all, not the people of Oregon.”
There’s plenty of reason to believe Oregonians might want to sound off on the tax hikes up for consideration: a 6-cent increase to the gas tax, big increases to vehicle registration and titling fees, and a temporary doubling of a payroll tax that funds public transit. Opponents of those taxes succeeded in referring them to voters with stunning speed, collecting around 250,000 signatures in a matter of weeks.
Oregon lawmakers have heard the concerns Read is raising before. In a public hearing on SB 1599, one woman threatened to sue the Legislature for not offering enough time to collect signatures for a voters’ pamphlet statement.
“I did talk to a lawyer and he said that I would have a case and I would most likely get an injunction,” Catherine Caudle of Redmond said at the time.
Read says a shortened runway for signatures also creates headaches for his office.
“It will take a significant amount of staff time to verify these signatures before the March 12th deadline,” he wrote, noting the last day to submit documents for the voters’ pamphlet. “I strongly advise you to work with urgency to resolve this issue.”
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.