Latest news with #gasTax
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Oregon Legislature pivots to 3-cent gas tax increase instead of $11.7 billion transportation package
Oregon Department of Transportation workers fill a pothole on U.S. Highway 97 near Chemult in 2016 (Oregon Department of Transportation/Flickr) This is a developing story and will be updated Oregon Democrats appear to have pulled the plug on a transportation package more than a year in the making, unable to find the votes for a series of tax increases as the legislative session draws to an end. Instead, House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, is pushing a 3-cent increase to the state's 40-cent gas tax and increases to vehicle and title fees. An estimate for how much it would raise hasn't yet been released, but it's sure to be a far cry from the $11.7 billion lawmakers aimed to raise over 10 years in their earlier bill. Gov Tina Kotek plans to testify in favor of the new plan, her staff confirmed. It's a blow to a legislative effort months in the making. Lawmakers traveled the state last summer, seeking public input on plans to overhaul the state's transportation funding system. Fahey's 20-page amendment, attached to House Bill 3402, was scheduled for a hearing in the House Rules Committee at 3:45 p.m. and is expected to be sent to the Joint Transportation Reinvestment Committee from there. It would change a previously innocuous bill requiring the Department of Transportation to study speed bumps into a last-ditch attempt to raise some money for Oregon's crumbling roads and bridges The new bill includes accountability measures, such as requiring regular audits of the transportation department and shifting responsibility to hire and fire the department's director from the Oregon Transportation Commission to the governor. It would raise the gas tax from 40 cents to 43 cents, hike vehicle registration fees from $43 to $64 and increase vehicle title fees from $77 to $168. Gone are increases to the transit payroll tax, which would have gradually tripled from 0.1% to 0.3% under prior versions of the measure. A proposal to mandate electric vehicle users pay a per-mile fee also didn't make the final bill. Without the payroll tax increase, officials at Portland's public transit agency TriMet said they'd have to cut 27% of their bus service, eliminating 45 of 79 bus lines. The tax increase would have cost an Oregonian making the state's median annual income about $10 per month, according to TriMet's analysis. The measure aims to fill an immediate funding gap of $1 billion per year that the Oregon Department of Transportation faces. All tax increases in that bill are intended for the state transportation department, worrying cities and counties. In a statement Friday, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said the bill would put Portland's street system at risk. 'It jeopardizes dozens of essential city infrastructure jobs and our ability to perform basic safety functions like filling potholes and implementing traffic safety improvements,' Wilson said. 'We can't afford a patchwork solution. Legislators, please don't leave Salem without addressing crumbling city transportation systems.' The long-awaited transportation package faced headwinds in recent days, as Republicans and moderate Democrats lined up against it. Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, was the only Republican to publicly support the larger measure, saying it wasn't perfect but was better than nothing, while Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, doubled down on his objection to it. 'From the correspondence I've received from around the state of Oregon and my community both in letters, emails, phone calls, social media posts, I'm doing the right thing for Oregonians,' he said on the Senate floor Friday morning. Reporters Alex Baumhardt and Shaanth Nanguneri contributed to this article.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Election results: Voters in Hubbard rejecting proposed 3-cent gas tax
Hubbard residents were voting down a proposed tax on gas and diesel purchases at the two gas stations in town in the early results of the May 20 election by a significant margin. If voters in the city of 3,385 north of Woodburn do pass the tax, customers at the Shell and Chevron stations would pay an additional 3 cents per gallon. The tax would start on Sept. 1 and raise an estimated $132,814 per year and would be used for street improvements. State law requires money raised from gas taxes to be used for roads and transportation. Hubbard received about $250,000 last year in state gas tax revenue. Approximately 65% was used for road maintenance and the other 35% was used for road improvements. Cities near Hubbard, including Woodburn, Canby and Silverton, have gas taxes. Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@ This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Election results: Hubbard residents voting down gas tax
CTV News
15-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Bethlenfalvy expected to deliver Ontario budget focused on protecting economy from tariffs
Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy watches as Ontario Premier Doug Ford speaks to media at a press conference at the Cool Beer Brewing Company in Toronto, on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy is set to deliver the Ontario government's latest budget at Queen's Park Thursday, with a special emphasis on protecting Ontario's economy in the face of ongoing economic threats coming from the United States. When the government tabled its fall economic statement last year, it projected a relatively small deficit of $1.5 billion for 2025-26, and a small surplus of $900 million in 2026-27. But when Premier Doug Ford called an early election in February, he said that he needed to get a mandate from the people in case the government needed to spend billions of dollars in stimulus funding to protect the economy from U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats. Ford ran on the promise of 'Protecting Ontario' and won a third majority. Thursday's budget is expected to spell out exactly how much money the government will spend to protect the province's economy, and how. Ford already said in an announcement earlier this week that the budget will make good on an election promise to permanently lower the gas tax and to eliminate tolls on a provisionally owned portion of Hwy. 407 East, between Clarington and Pickering. Last week Bethlenfalvy announced an expansion of the Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit – a tax credit meant to bolster Ontario's manufacturing sector. CTV News also learned Wednesday that the budget will specify that bike lanes the province plans to rip up on University Avenue in Toronto will also be removed on the section of that road which extends up to Queen's Park Crescent and Avenue Road. Ford said Wednesday that tariffs have forced Ontario to look at things 'through a new lens' and that when it comes to the budget, the province can either spend to stimulate the economy as it did during the pandemic, or 'slash and burn' – a road he said he wouldn't go down. Bethlenfalvy is expected to rise in the legislature to deliver the budget around 4 p.m. You can watch full coverage of the Ontario budget on or the CP24 app.
CTV News
13-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
Doug Ford says some Hwy 407 tolls to be removed, gas tax cut made permanent
Premier Doug Ford rolled out some relief for Ontario drivers Tuesday, announcing the removal of tolls on a provincially-owned stretch of Highway 407 East from Pickering to Clarington, and making permanent a previous cut to the gas tax. 'Today, I'm announcing that as part of our upcoming budget, our government will be making our temporary cuts to gas and fuel tax permanent,' Ford said at a news conference in Pickering Tuesday. He said the government is also introducing legislation that would remove tolls from the provincially owned section of Highway 407, from Brock Road to Highway 35/115, effective June 1, 2025. The province said making the gas tax permanent will save households around $115 per year on average, while the removal of tolls from a portion of Highway 407 could save daily commuters as much as $7,200 annually. The Ford government temporarily cut the gas tax rate by 5.7 cents per litre and the fuel (diesel) tax rate by 5.3 cents per litre in July 2022. The government has since extended the cuts four times. In the provincial election campaign in February, Ford promised to make the cuts permanent. The removal of some Hwy. 407 tolls was also an election promise. The latest move would mean that there are no more tolls on any provincially-owned portions of the highway. Tolls would remain in effect on the section which is privately owned. The news comes as the government prepares to release its first budget since the election. Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy is set to deliver Ontario's latest budget at Queen's Park on Thursday, with the need to protect Ontario's economy from U.S. tariffs expected to be the dominant theme.
