by Mia Maldonado, Oregon Capital Chronicle
February 23, 2026
After several delays and an encroaching Wednesday deadline, a proposal to reschedule the date of a gas tax referendum to May finally passed the Oregon Senate.
The Senate voted 17-13 mostly along party lines Monday to pass Senate Bill 1599, which would move the date that Oregon voters can approve or reject parts of a controversial 2025 transportation law from the November general election to the May 19 primary.
The bill’s Senate passage marks one of the largest hurdles Democrats faced this legislative session as Republicans vowed to do everything in their power to stop them from moving the date of the referendum. That included senators staging a walkout last week on the day the chamber was originally expected to take up the bill and attempts to delay it Monday by proposing motions to take up the bill at a later date or refer it back to the committee process.
Democrats spearheading the bill say moving the referendum to May would work in the interest of Oregonians who rely on safe transportation infrastructure as years of deferred maintenance and increasing construction costs have stunted the Oregon Department of Transportation’s ability to fix state roads.
“To put off one more day addressing that challenge is something I just can’t imagine why we would do that,” said Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland.
Without new revenue sources, Oregonians can expect more potholes, rutted roads, faded pavement markings and higher vehicle repair costs, agency leaders previously said.
“We’ve all seen the coastal highways wiped out from the storms this winter,” said Sen. Khanh Phạm, D-Portland. “The sooner that we in this governing body can get explicit direction from the public, the sooner that we in the Legislature can get to work on the difficult task of finding a long-term solution that protects and preserves our existing public infrastructure.”
‘We could have done it’: Republicans criticize lack of bipartisanship
Republicans repeatedly criticized efforts to move the referendum date, citing concerns over lower voter turnout in primaries and that moving the date to May ignores the 250,000 Oregonians who signed the Republican-led No Tax Oregon petition asking for a November vote.
“You are denying the voices of Oregonians because you can,” said Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, reprimanding her Democratic colleagues for failing to work across the aisle and urging them to vote with their conscience.
Drazan on her desk had 4,600 sheets of paper representing all the Oregonians who submitted testimony against the bill next to a stack of 66 papers representing testimony submitted in favor of it.
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Starr, a Dundee Republican and a leader behind the petition asking for a referendum, said the organization would pursue legal action if the bill is signed into law.
“The only prophylactic to a referendum is a bipartisan bill,” Starr said. “We could have done it. We could have done it in 2025 in one session. That was my hope. My hope coming back to this process was that we would work across the aisle and get a bill that we could all support, then we wouldn’t be in a situation that we’re in.”
One Democrat, Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, voted alongside Republicans against the bill. He didn’t debate the bill on the floor, but on social media he said he supports the public’s right to vote on it in November.
The bill heads to the House next. Lawmakers have until Wednesday to get the bill past both chambers and signed by Gov. Tina Kotek, according to the secretary of state’s office, to give time to print ballots for Oregonians living overseas and gather arguments for the state-issued voter’s pamphlet.
Recap of Oregon’s transportation crisis
Democrats in a fall special session secured enough votes to pass a bill that would raise $4.3 billion for ODOT over the next decade mostly through a 6-cent gas tax increase, doubling the payroll tax used to fund public transit and hikes in vehicle registration and title fees.
Layoffs or redirecting funding: Oregon lawmakers grapple with ODOT budget gap again
That new revenue would have raised $791 million for the agency’s 2025-27 budget, but the No Tax Oregon campaign received enough signatures to pause some of those new revenue streams from coming in until a referendum.
Now, the transportation agency faces a $242 million shortfall in its current budget, and lawmakers are weighing which transportation programs to take funding from and redirect toward operations and maintenance. Agency leaders could redirect funding set aside for bridge and seismic projects in the Portland area, public transit, and grant programs meant to improve road safety near schools and pedestrian paths.
Without redirecting or raising new revenue, the transportation agency would have to lay off nearly 500 workers, agency leaders previously said.
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Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Oregon Capital Chronicle maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Julia Shumway for questions: [email protected].