Testimony

Support investments in safe, clean, fair transportation for all Oregonians

By Rob Zako
June 10, 2025

This week, submit oral or written testimony to support the Transportation Reinvestment Package (TRIP), House Bill 2025—and call for improvements.

NOTE: This post will be updated as more information becomes available.

On Monday after over a year of work sessions and public hearings, state lawmakers finally introduced the Transportation Reinvestment Package (TRIP): House Bill 2025 (overview) (full text).

BEST supports the bill—and calls for improvements

Thanks to hard work by the Move Oregon Forward coalition that BEST co-founded, the Legislative Environmental Caucus that includes our own Rep. Lisa Fragala (D-Eugene), allied organized labor, transit agencies, and municipalities, the inadequate concept released in April has been strengthened to be a significantly better—if far from perfect—package to raise taxes to maintain roads and invest in safety, walking, biking, and public transportation.

Thanks to an amazing group of hardworking staff, Move Oregon Forward has already analyzed the bill and is offering initial high-level talking points:

Public Hearings

Now join BEST to testify for investments in safe, clean, fair transportation for all Oregonians during these public hearings:

  • Wednesday, June 11, 4 pm
    For the purpose of taking testimony on Transit, Active Transportation (Biking, Rolling, Walking), and Rail.

Testify Remotely or In Person In Salem

If you wish to testify, sign up early to ensure a spot to testify and plan to speak for no more than 2 minutes:

  1. Click on the link above for the public hearing.
  2. Scroll down to find the “Register to Testify” link in blue. See red circle in screenshot below:
  3. Enter your information and preferences for testifying.

Submit Written Testimony

If you wish to submit written testimony, it must be received within 48 hours (2 days) after the start time of the public hearing:

  1. Visit this link.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and find the “Choose a meeting date” dropdown box. Select the date for the public hearing most closely matching your comments, or just choose the Thursday date to have until Saturday, June 14, at 4 pm.
  3. After selecting the date, more options will appear. There is only one bill to testify on: HB 2025.
  4. Enter your information including Name, Email, City and Organization if applicable.
  5. Next to the final box, “Position on Measure,” select: Support.
  6. Scrolling down, you will see you can either directly enter the text of your testimony with the “Text Testimony” option or upload a PDF document if you select the “Upload a PDF” option.

Politics is the art of the possible

In Oregon, raising taxes requires a three-fifths supermajority of the Oregon House and of the Senate.

The Oregon Department of Transportation says they need an additional $1.8 billion (with a B!) per year to continue maintaining existing highways. But they have been criticized in a series of news stories for not managing the money they have very well.

Counties and cities say that they have not been getting enough funding from the state to maintain roads and streets, with some like Eugene and Springfield imposing local taxes to make up for the shortfall.

Transit agencies say their operating costs are rising and they will need to cut service if they don’t receive additional funding.

Freight truckers say they were promised wider highways in the Portland metropolitan area. In a bit of a case of wanting to have their cake and it it, too, they also say that a new study concludes that they are paying more than their fair share compared to car drivers, hence want their weight-mile taxes to be lowered.

The priorities of Oregonians across rural and urban parts of the state are relatively consistent: There is strong support for investing in public transportation, and also for safe ways to bike or walk. There is some support for maintaining existing roads—but also for ending the widening of highways. And there is less support for retrofitting bridges and other infrastructure to be seismically resilient.

With these competing priorities in mind, Democratic leaders proposed a suite of increased and new taxes, more heavily on car drivers than freight truckers, mainly to maintain state highways, county roads, and city streets, but also to make significant investments in completing highway widening projects the truckers want.

In response, Republican leaders proposed no new taxes, but only by reallocating existing funding from public transportation to maintaining roads. They are also pushing a new “cap and pave” proposal to use fees on cars contributing to climate change to support more driving.

Seeing negotiations heading the wrong way, the Legislative Environmental Caucus released their SMART Framework: Safe, Modern, Affordable, Reliable, Transportation for a Thriving Oregon.

Further reading

If you are interested in all the twists and turns, the following news and views chronicle the legislative session to date. Stories by or about Move Oregon Forward are in bold.

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