NEWS UPDATE FROM STATE REPRESENTATIVE DAVID GOMBERG: More Than You Wanted to Know About Our Roads

Gas tax in Oregon is $0.38 per gallon. That’s not a percent but a flat rate. We pay the same tax whether gas is $3.50 or $4.50 a gallon. About 40% of the revenue goes to cities and counties and the rest is used for the ODOT budget. Washington charges almost $0.50 per gallon and in California, their gas tax is $0.77 per gallon.

In 2019, the Department received $625 million from the gas tax. It dipped in 2020, and was forecasted to decline in 2022, but has since recovered. Oregon’s fuel tax rate has been going up slightly every two years — they increased about 2 cents per gallon in January — but they are not indexed to inflation, which is a big part of the reason that ODOT is in trouble now.

In fiscal year 2023, those fuel tax revenues amounted to $669 million, which is about $17 million more than in 2022. So we’re seeing an increase, then, not a decrease.

So for the time being, our income is steady. But our costs have not been. Inflation and debt service are running well ahead of revenue.

Since 2019, steel prices have increased 75%, concrete 32% and asphalt 39%.

Around the year 2000, ODOT was largely debt-free. But in the years since, the agency has taken on a number of substantial projects that required bonding, causing the agency’s debt to balloon in the space of two decades. The agency is now sitting on $4 billion in loans.

ODOT is paying $553 million every two years on that debt, which means less money to spend on other priorities.

For the first time, this year, the legislature agreed to use income tax dollars for road costs. The agency had announced earlier it would reduce some winter road maintenance, such as plowing or deicing roads, in the face of massive budget deficits. But the new money means that won’t happen.

The looming problem is that our vehicles are becoming more fuel-efficient. The average passenger vehicle sold today uses 25% less fuel than 20 years ago.

More people are driving hybrids and electric vehicles every year, internal combustion engines have also been getting steadily more economical, and interestingly, ODOT’s economists report that fewer vehicles are owned in Oregon now than before the pandemic.

As more people go hybrid or electric, there’s a looming eventuality that gas tax revenue will fall off a cliff. In fact, it’s something that both Oregon and Washington have ostensibly embraced. Following California’s example, both states are set to ban the sale of new gas vehicles by 2035.

That funding crunch is a big part of the reason ODOT has spent the past six years forging ahead with plans to toll I-5 and I-205 in the Portland metro area. The idea was to supplement flagging fuel tax revenue and bankroll much-needed infrastructure projects.

But tolling, at least for the time being, effectively powered down when Governor Tina Kotek pulled the plug on March 12. She tasked the legislature with considering all possible options for transportation funding during next year’s long legislative session.

Tolls on the Columbia River bridges have been an entirely separate discussion from ODOT’s tolling plans for Portland-area freeways, so those plans have not been impacted by Kotek’s intervention. Backers of the new Interstate Bridge have been clear from nearly the get-go that tolling — on both the current bridge and the new one will be necessary to take on a substantial piece of the $6 billion or more price tag.

In a June 2023 presentation, the agency identified where it currently gets funding: fuel taxes, weight taxes on trucks, and DMV vehicle registration fees. At the time, they were planning to bolster those revenues in the future with both tolling and something called a “road user charge” or RUC — a tax for every mile that someone in Oregon drives.

About 700 people have signed up so far, either reporting their mileage to the state or by using GPS devices to track their travel. Currently, it’s just under 2 cents per mile. The people driving hybrids are still paying for gas at the pump, so each quarter their account is balanced to credit the mileage fee against the gas tax, ensuring that they don’t end up paying both.

Pay-by-mile proposals garner understandable push-back from people concerned about privacy. They don’t like the idea of telling the government where and when they drive. Of course, our cell phones and even our cars already collect that information. A pay-by-mile system is going to need to track some details to ensure we aren’t charging drivers for miles they drive outside of Oregon.

Rural drivers have unique concerns. Arguably we drive further for work, shopping, and school. There is, however, data to suggest urban drivers make more short trips and actually drive as much as we do. And since the current gas tax system applies the same regardless of where you live, if we drive more, we pay more.

According to ODOT’s own accounting, the average driver in rural Oregon pays $386 per year in state gas taxes. In Portland, the average driver pays $229. That means rural drivers do end up paying more on average. So there’s nothing about the new pay-per-mile plan that disproportionately punishes rural drivers in a way that the gas tax doesn’t already. Rural drivers already pay more gas taxes because they drive more. They would continue to pay more using pay-per-mile.

But if we are going to have this broad conversation in the 2025 session, there is an opportunity to address that inequity and charge rural drivers less per mile.

So – I’m pleased the Governor has pulled back on tolling plans so that they can be part of a larger transportation funding discussion next year. I don’t have a big problem with tolling highways in Portland to pay for improvements in Portland. But we should be making these decisions as part of the “big picture” rather than deciding the tolling question now and the other questions later. Election year politics factor into this as well with Portland area politicians being vocally opposed to local tolling plans.

Some argue that expanding our transportation infrastructure contributes to carbon emissions and harms the environment. City residents have options that we don’t – like public transportation. So I’ll continue to work to improve rural infrastructure.

A larger question for me is how we collect revenue for Oregon roads from people who don’t live in Oregon. Registration fees and pay-per-mile would only apply to Oregon residents. But we well know here at the Coast that on any summer weekend, most of our drivers are visitors with many from out-of-state. With 40% of gas taxes going to cities and counties, when gas taxes decline, we risk losing funds we need for city and county roads. That’s why I sometimes joke about local tolls that only apply to out-of-state vehicles.

Why is all of this important? What kind of maintenance and improvements are we talking about?

Our largest local road project was a new section of Highway 20 nearly ten years in the making. The $365 million project reduced travel time between the valley and the coast while making the trip safer and less costly for freight.

Two local multi-million-dollar bridge repair projects that began in the fall of 2018 in Lincoln City are complete. When the two projects began, ODOT estimated the costs for the D River Bridge to be $3,324,344, and work for the Schooner Creek Bridge was estimated to be $2,613,276.

As a temporary solution, ODOT applied gravel to the affected section of the road to make it more stable and then new asphalt.

According to ODOT’s website, there are 25 landslides or rockfall areas on Highway 101 between Lincoln City and Newport. There are four slides within a few miles of Beverly Beach State Park between mileposts 133 and 136.

The ground under Highway 101 around Beverly Beach State Park is particularly prone to movement, creating a high risk for land sliding and sea cliff collapse from coastal erosion. The area has ancient geologic faults, layers of weak marine sediment, high groundwater, and active ocean wave erosion, according to the ODOT website.

ODOT says there is no viable alternative route for Highway 101. An inland route requires a long diversion away from the coast, major new structures through the inland terrain, cutting deeply into forest areas protected from development, reducing access to the Beverly Beach area to residents and travelers, and requiring a major investment of limited transportation funds.

ODOT has examined several erosion control measures at this location and is trying to obtain funding for improvements along this stretch of the highway.

One response would be to reinforce the highway using what’s known as rip rap, or large rocks at the base of the road to break up wave energy and reduce erosion. The Beach Bill outlines an extensive permitting program for shoreline protection like rip rap that would encroach on a public beach. Permitted activities must be consistent with the Statewide Planning Goals, particularly Goal 18. That rule generally blocks the use of rip rap for any new development, unless there’s an exception, and that includes Highway 101. You can read more about this issue here.

In addition to these major repairs and renovations, we have the simple challenge of maintenance and safety. That includes snow removal, sanding, and striping. Without a funding increase, accident response is slower. And we risk the closure of local DMV offices that are further apart in rural communities.

You can learn more about the challengers to our transportation system in this five minute video.

With state and federal dollars, ODOT manages a $6.12 billion budget that funds programs related to Oregon’s system of highways, roads, and bridges; railways; public transportation services; transportation safety programs; driver and vehicle licensing; and motor carrier regulation. You can review that budget here.

The Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, also known as the STIP, is the Oregon Department of Transportation’s capital improvement plan for state and federally-funded projects. The Oregon Transportation Commission is beginning the process of building its 2027-2030 plan.

An online interactive map shows projects and their details throughout the state.

Every three years, the commission puts together the STIP, which lays out where we will invest federal and state money in the transportation system – everything from roads and bridges to public transportation to bike paths and sidewalks. They develop the STIP with a wide variety of participants, including cities, counties, many other partners, and the public.

The 2027-2030 STIP will invest more than $2.95 billion in total state and federal resources in preserving and improving Oregon’s transportation system. This is a 12 percent reduction from the last STIP.

Finally, despite all our challenges, Oregon is ranked among the Top 10 states with the best quality roads with 89% of our highways rated with an acceptable standard of quality. If that surprises you – as it did me, consider what roads must look like in New Jersey with a 50% rating…

And that, friends, is probably more than you wanted to know about our roads. Thanks for reading!