Gov. Tina Kotek wants to take the loss early and move on. Read says it will require quick work by the Legislature
By Nigel Jaquiss, Oregon Journalism Project
Secretary of State Tobias Read released a memo today outlining what Democrats must do to place a controversial gas tax repeal on the May 19 ballot.
All the necessary elements of the measure, Read’s staff found, “must be received by the Elections Division no later than March 12, 2026.”
The memo from Read’s deputy, Michael Kaplan, comes after a flurry of activity around House Bill 3991, a transportation funding package Democratic lawmakers passed in a September special session after failing to pass a funding bill during the regular session. Soon after Gov. Tina Kotek signed the bill, critics, led by state Sen. Bruce Starr (R-Dundee), Rep. Ed Diehl (R-Scio), and Jason Williams of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon, stunned Salem by gathering about a quarter-million signatures to refer the revenue-raising elements of HB 3991 to the November ballot.
But on Jan. 7, Kotek said she’d rather not have the vote in November. Instead, she said she’d prefer lawmakers just repeal HB 3991 in the special session that starts in February.
That plan hit a roadblock on Jan. 15, however, when the Oregon Journalism Project reported that an existing attorney general’s opinion from 1931 found that a bill subject to a citizen referral, such as HB 3991, could not be repealed (as Kotek had hoped) before the referral was submitted to voters.
So Democrats pivoted, saying they would speed the referral to the May primary ballot, rather than the general election in November, which Republicans preferred. The political rationale: The referral could be unpleasant for Gov. Kotek and swing-district Democrats seeking reelection, so resolving the question sooner would be better than later.
On Jan. 21, Republicans contacted the Elections Division with a series of questions about timing: Could Democrats get the bill to the secretary of state in time to comply with state and federal election laws? (Oregon’s vote-by-mail system requires long lead times for ballots that must be sent to overseas and military voters far in advance of ballots sent to Oregonians living within the state.)
Today, Read, as the state’s top elections official, laid out a timeline of what lawmakers and Kotek must accomplish in the legislative session that begins Feb. 2 to place the measure on the May ballot. In short, Democratic leaders must quickly pass a referral through both chambers, get it signed by the governor “not later than February 25, 2026,” and then submit related information, such as a financial estimate, an explanatory statement, and arguments for and against the measure, to Read’s Elections Division by 5 p.m. March 12.
In addition to a large sheaf of policy bills, lawmakers will tackle at least two other major issues in the upcoming session: the question of whether to disconnect Oregon from the impacts of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which could save the state as much as $900 million but also faces opposition, and dealing with massive federal funding cuts to the Oregon Health Plan and nutrition programs.
Both tasks — whether to disconnect from the Trump bill and how to tackle program cuts — could prove contentious and complicated and overshadow work on the referral to repeal the gas tax. Republican opposition could also present a challenge to the timeline Read laid out.
Starr, the Senate minority leader, told OJP after reading Read’s memo that he and his caucus will try to preserve their original goal of being on the November ballot.
“We will use whatever tools we can to slow the process down,” Starr said.
Ashland.news is a partner publication with the Oregon Journalism Project, a new, nonprofit investigative journalism newsroom for the state of Oregon. Email Nigel Jaquiss at [email protected].
