Coverage Includes Tire Tax, Light Rail Funding and Tariff-Induced Shipping Declines
Transportation issues made headlines this week. A proposed Oregon tire tax hit a road bump. Columbia River Bar pilots reported a slowdown in shipping due to tariffs. Southwest Washington communities debated paying for light rail on the new I-5 Columbia River Bridge.
Oregon Tire Tax
House Bill 3362 would impose a 4 percent tax on new tire sales in Oregon to pay for stormwater improvements to prevent stream pollution, build wildlife overpasses and bolster the state’s rail system. Oregonians routinely replace 4 million tires annually and the tire tax is expected to generate $20 million per year.
Senator Chris Gorsek, D-Troutdale, and Rep. Ken Helm, D-Beaverton, the bill’s sponsors, say half of the tire tax revenue will bolster rail projects. The other half would pay for stormwater projects that prevent a toxic tire additive from seeping into streams and harming fish and for more highway overpasses for wildlife to prevent roadway accidents.
The proposed tax generated an outpouring of opposition at a hearing this week. OPB reported more than 1,600 letters in opposition compared to 240 in support. Darrell Fuller, who lobbies for car and RV dealers, opposed using tire tax revenue to support rail projects, “Feels a little bit like a beef tax to encourage people to buy more chicken and that just doesn’t seem fair.”
The tire tax may be the first of several proposals to shore up the Oregon Department of Transportation’s budget hole. “The tire tax is one of the potential funding mechanisms on the table that has been discussed by the work groups,” said House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene. “What revenue from a tire tax is spent on is a separate conversation.”
Legislative Republicans have signaled opposition to any transportation tax increases this session while criticizing ODOT accountability and accounting. “As a legislature, we need to stop using Oregonians as an ATM machine each time we have a new idea,” Rep. E. Werner Reschke, R-Malin, testified. “Instead, we should do what Oregonians do when they have limited funds and have a new need. They reprioritize from most important to least.”
Columbia River Shipping Slowdown
The threat of new tariffs slowed down commercial river traffic, according to Dan Jordan, administrator of the Columbia River Bar Pilots. Bar Pilots navigate large ships through the treacherous entry to the Columbia River on their way to and from upriver ports.
Imposition of new tariffs on imports from China, Canada and Mexico has slowed down river traffic more dramatically, Jordan said. Anticipated retaliatory tariffs could make the situation worse for a net exporter state like Oregon. Much of Oregon’s international trade is by ship.
According to 2024 federal data, Mexico is Oregon’s largest export market at $6.3 billion, China is second at $5.9 billion and Canada is fourth at $3.3 billion. Oregon imported $3.8 billion in goods from Canada, $2.7 billion from China and $840 million from Mexico. Japan and Taiwan are the two largest importers to Oregon.
Oregon largest exports are computer and electronic products, transportation equipment, machinery, chemicals and agricultural products.
Jordan flagged a related issue – job cuts at the National Weather Service, which could remove as much 30 to 40 percent of its already undersized staff. “Monday night, we had a record-breaking wave height of 63 feet that is too dangerous for a ship to cross in those conditions,” Jordan said. “When the weather’s coming, the Weather Service keeps us informed well in advance.”
“We want to get commerce going, but we don’t want to do it in a dangerous way. So we’re on the telephone with them frequently, with the forecaster in the office – when ships should sail and when they shouldn’t,” Jordan explained. “If we don’t get accurate forecasts, then we’re going to have to make much more conservative decisions for safety, so there will be longer delays, larger financial impacts upriver.”
I-5 Columbia River Replacement Complications
In the face of concern expressed by several small Southwest Washington cities, members of the Clark County transit agency, C-TRAN, are expected to vote next week on whether to change their conditions on a key replacement bridge document originally okayed in 2022.
The 10-member C-TRAN board is made up of representatives from the Southwest Washington cities, including Washougal, La Center and Camas that have expressed opposition to paying for a light rail extension as part of the overall bridge replacement plan. The board’s amended document may make payments by some cities discretionary as opposed to mandatory.
“Light rail, the feds could stop it, a funding mechanism could stop it, there’s a lot of things could stop it. But the question is: Do you want that language to stop it?” Mayor Troy McCoy asked his Battle Ground councilors. “Is this where you want the fight?”
The final environmental impact statement for the massive bridge replacement project was unveiled last fall. Oregon and Washington have each made $1 billion commitments to fund the replacement bridge with light rail lines included. Much of the existing federal funding is based on an intermodal bridge design.
Despite broad support, backers of the project worry that any sign of opposition or reluctance could erode federal support for the $7 billion bridge. Opposition to light rail in Southwest Washington played a role in scuttling an earlier attempt to replace the aging I-5 bridge.
One local transit agency changing its priorities on the bridge would not be significant enough to disrupt the overall project, Rep. Susan McLain, D-Forest Grove, who serves as co-chair of the legislature’s I-5 Interstate Bridge Committee, told OPB.
“Some conditions changing in one aspect of one portion of a leadership or community is not going to waylay a project that has been committed to by two states, the federal government and has two legislatures working on it as hard as they can,” McLain said.
C-TRAN is funded by a sales tax in the cities it serves. The light rail extension into Clark County would have two stops in Vancouver, which would connect to C-TRAN’s existing and expanded bus service.
