Measure to Increase Oregon Gas Tax Appears Headed for Resounding Defeat

A measure that would increase the gas tax and other fees to boost funding for Oregon transportation was on track for a crushing defeat in early voting returns Tuesday evening.

In early statewide results, Measure 120 was down, 83.10% to 16.90%.

As of around 9 pm, the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office said it had tallied 735,388 votes thus far—25% of registered voters. Voter turnout is unlikely to exceed 35% statewide.

The measure’s defeat would mark the death knell of a funding effort that has troubled Oregon Democrats for more than a year as they sought to bail out the Oregon Department of Transportation from its professed budget woes, only to see their efforts referred to the ballot in a populist revolt.

Measure 120’s defeat would be no surprise. Public sector unions backed the measure, but Oregon Democratic leaders, the presumptive supporters of the package, never organized a proper campaign to defend it.

Nick Stark, the chief executive officer of the Oregon Freedom Coalition, celebrated the early returns Tuesday evening. His group worked to refer the measure to the ballot, and while he said he expected it would be soundly defeated as he hoped, the scale of the rejection surprised even him. The saga of the measure, he tells WW by phone, shows what can happen when people don’t feel like they have to accept every single proposal out of Salem.

“The biggest thing that we’re hearing is, ‘Oh my gosh, we finally have a voice,’” he says. “‘We finally have people who want to hold our government accountable.’ Whether they’re Republican or Democrat, that is the sentiment that we are seeing across the board.”

Oregon Historical Society Levy On Track For Renewal

Also in early returns, Multnomah County voters were on track to grant the Oregon Historical Society its wish for another five years of funding through a small property levy.

The initial vote tally for Measure 26-261 was 59.06% in favor to 40.94% opposed.

The nonprofit historical society operates a history museum on the South Park Blocks— free to county residents. It also maintains a mighty archival collection, and partners with four other historical societies in east county.

Measure 26-261 would renew the five-year property tax levy that has been in place since 2011. Once billed as a one-time fix to budget woes, it has become a cornerstone of the OHS budget.

Effectively, the question before voters was whether they wanted to fund the nonprofit by keeping up the small annual levy of 5 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value—$12.50 a year for a $250,000 property. As a practical matter, the other option was that OHS start charging admission fees.

In an economically challenging time, “we knew it was a more difficult ask,” Oregon Historical Society executive director Kerry Tymchuk said in an interview with WW after the first batch of results came in. But he said the early tally was a sign that Multnomah County voters approved of the organization’s work.

“This,” he said, “ensures five more years of free admission to a world-class museum and research library to all Multnomah County residents.”

The levy had caught the attention, and ire, of the Libertarian Party of Oregon because of the way it has stuck around after first being pitched around 2010 as a stopgap measure amid a funding crisis.

Taxes tend to be persistent in this way, Multnomah County Libertarian Party acting chair Annie Kallen said by phone late Tuesday. Still, she was proud of the small all-volunteer political group’s contribution to discourse around the levy, which is likely, of course, to return again in five year’s time.

“We’ll just keep trying to share our views,” she said.