Oregon's governor, Tina Kotek, was in a spot a couple of months ago. She and her Democratic legislature had themselves a six-month-long battle to get a wish-list transportation funding bill passed that they, even after months of wrangling and browbeating, couldn't get past all the members of their own party, let alone united-in-opposition Republican legislative members.
Layoffs and cut-backs throughout state transportation departments ensued, and the governor finally had to resort to calling a special session this summer to get it done.
...The signing of House Bill 3991 caps off what became a nearly yearlong battle to get some sort of transportation funding passed, and the final product falls far short of what Kotek and leading Democratic lawmakers initially sought. ODOT and other transit agencies will still be left with structural financial problems, and TriMet is still moving forward with significant service cuts.
Democrats went into this year's legislative session in January aiming to pass a comprehensive package that would address ODOT's immediate budget gap and provide new funding for a host of priorities. The proposal faced of near-total Republican opposition, and Democrats ultimately failed to muster enough votes from their own caucus before the session ended in June.
ODOT announced major service and staff cuts after the package's failure, but Kotek delayed them and called a special session to pass a smaller stopgap bill. HB 3991 passed the House on Sept. 1 but then languished for nearly a month as Democrats waited for the return of one senator who was recovering from surgery and whose vote was needed to overcome Republican opposition.
The bill finally passed the Senate on Sept. 29, but has been waiting for the past six weeks for Kotek's signature, even as the governor directed ODOT to cancel the layoffs and the agency began sending out news releases notifying Oregonians about the pending implementation of some of the bill's provisions such as the gas tax hike.
A slimmed-down version finally passed in September and has been waiting on the governor's desk for her signature ever since.
That has not been because of anyone's ill-health or problems legislatively, but a strategic move on Kotek's part.
When those news releases mentioned above started going out to Oregon's residents about provisions within the bill on her desk, it turns out Oregonians were not pleased in the least by what the legislature and governor were fixin' to do to them.
Across the state, outraged citizens threatened to put provisions of the bill on the ballot the second they could start circulating petitions to do so.
When could they do so?
Once the bill was signed by the governor, who has thirty days to sign legislation from the day it's passed.
Oh.
Well. No worries. When did the petitions have to be submitted by?
30 December.
OH.
...That 90-day period starts as soon as the bill clears the legislature, but signature-gathering can't legally begin until the governor actually signs the bill, and Oregon law gives the governor up to 30 business days after the end of a session to take action on legislation, giving Kotek a deadline of Nov. 12.
"It's really not in her best interest to give her opponents any more time than absolutely necessary to try and overturn it," Metsger said.
Republicans certainly viewed the delay in those terms; Diehl called Kotek's delay "outrageous" in an interview with KGW in October, and confirmed that the "clock started ticking on Oct. 2" for Republicans to gather signatures.
"She can delay this all she wants; we're still going to gather the signatures," he said at the time. "We're still going to get this on the ballot, and Oregonians will remind Salem who really runs this state."
There's a lot built into that bill that's going to cost everyone money.
...The bill includes a 6-cent gas tax hike, plus various DMV fee hikes and a mandatory pay-per-mile program for electric and high-efficiency vehicles intended to offset lower gas tax payments, and a revised weight-mile tax system to address overpayments by truckers. The package will raise $4.3 billion in new funding over 10 years, mostly for road maintenance.
State Republican lawmakers have repeatedly vowed to refer the bill's tax and fee hikes to voters in 2026, and the Oregon Secretary of State's website shows that Senate Republican Leader Bruce Starr and Rep. Ed Diehl followed through in filing a referendum petition on Monday. The petition will need to collect 78,116 signatures by Dec. 30 to qualify for the ballot next year.
They need 78,000 legitimate names. Volunteers swung into action immediately in an attempt to put the legislated 6-cent gas tax hike on the ballot.
...Thousands of volunteers all over the state have mobilized to ensure the average Oregonian has a say in the massive, $4.3 billion tax scheme by sacrificing their time to gather the 78,000 signatures necessary to put it on the ballot.
Many concerned citizens are out there daily, in the rain and the cold doing exemplary work to prevent the pile on of economic destruction by someone who’s acting more like a queen than a democratically elected governor.
How so do you ask? For starters, Kotek delayed signing the transportation bill (that she called a special session to pass) by 30 days to ensure that less time was available to gather the requisite number of signatures. Now that she’s seeing just how effective the grassroots effort is to overturn the transportation tax she has now decided to implement an insurance policy.
Fourth highest gas prices in the country without this new tax.
Oregon already has the 4th-highest gas prices in the nation—and lawmakers just passed another tax. Families are struggling, and leaders refuse to cut waste or listen to the people footing the bill. pic.twitter.com/32Z1siofgV
— Oregon DOGE (@TheOregonDOGE) November 15, 2025
The fact that these petition signature-gatherers are rapidly making inroads towards the numbers they need has apparently spooked the governor.
Tens of thousands of Oregonians have signed petitions that could put a pause on the governor’s transportation bill tax increases until they can be voted on in the November midterms.
Volunteers are setting up tents across Oregon, gathering signatures from those opposed to the tax increases included in Governor Tina Kotek’s transportation bill. If they gather enough signatures, a referendum proposal could appear on next November’s ballot.
The No Tax Oregon movement needs 78,116 signatures to refer the referendum to the 2026 midterms, which would put Kotek’s transportation taxes to a vote. Thousands of volunteers have already gathered more than 45,000 signatures.
“We shouldn’t have to be here, but we are, and we’re willing to do that,” said Glenda Scherer, a No Tax Oregon volunteer in Gladstone.
The volunteers are well organised.
🚨🚨🚨All y'all in NE Oregon, here are locations to sign the NO TAX ON GAS referendum. You can also stop in Stanfield OR and sign. They have a table setup down by city hall. pic.twitter.com/9CBlvoApYI
— Chris (@Cready_Stomp23) November 21, 2025
Kotek should be worried.
So, what insurance policy is Kotek utilising that the writer referred to? An 'executive order' she signed on Wednesday, full of all the telltale climate catch-phrases.
Governor Tina Kotek signed an executive order on Wednesday to ramp up state efforts to reduce carbon pollution.
The order will also strengthen grid reliability and energy affordability, according to the governor.
During a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Kotek said the order will cut through the red tape that comes will many of these projects.
It will cut through the red tape that, say, stops a wind farm from being dropped in your backyard, as well as make sure these green-grifting projects get started in time to fleece the American taxpayer as the federal subsidies twilight.
Neat, huh?
Gov. Tina Kotek wants state agencies to move faster to address climate change, ensure more longterm renewable energy power that is cheap and reliable for Oregonians and fill in gaps from federal disinvestment from clean energy projects.
To do so, Kotek on Wednesday issued an executive order directing state agencies to speed up energy project permitting and processes to connect renewable energy to the state’s electric grid for the long haul.
She called on more than a dozen state land and natural resource agencies to collaborate on strategies by September 2026 that will lead to policy proposals for the Legislature to take up in 2027. They must advance the state’s target of reducing greenhouse gas pollution 50% by 2035 and 90% by 2050, as established in a 2021 executive order by former Gov. Kate Brown.
Agencies will provide quarterly progress updates, Kotek said.
In October, she ordered agencies to fast-track permitting and siting reviews and approvals before July 4, so projects eligible for the Inflation Reduction Act’s federal clean energy tax cuts can benefit before they expire. For wind and solar projects to receive up to a 50% credit, they must be finished by Dec. 31, 2027.
President Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are phasing out those tax credits via the tax and spending law they passed this summer.
None of that does a thing to advance grid reliability or enhance energy affordability.
If Oregon taxpayers can get this shut down, it would be a thing of beauty and a sign of rational thought processes triumphing in the Great Northwest.
Forty days to go. As mad as people look?
They might get twice as much as they need in half the time.
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