Oregon Journalism Project: Gas Tax Referral Campaign kicks off

One of three leaders of the effort, state Rep. Ed Diehl (R-Scio), says more than 400 people joined a conference call to plan strategy. 

The measure lawmakers passed, House Bill 3991, is currently sitting on Gov. Tina Kotek’s desk as the clock for referral ticks. The campaign has 90 days from when the Legislature adjourned Oct. 1 to gather the 78,115 valid signatures needed to qualify for the November 2026 ballot, but they can’t get started until Kotek signs the bill — and she has until Nov. 12, 30 weekdays from session end, to do that. 

Diehl and his co-leaders, Sen. Minority Leader Bruce Starr (R-Dundee) and Jason Williams, executive director of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon, know they will have little time and, potentially, little money since the final transportation bill mollified some critics, including the Oregon Trucking Associations and the Oregon Auto Dealers Association. 

Diehl is nonetheless optimistic, pointing to more than 2,100 volunteers who have signed up to organize signature gathering. 

“I’m an engineer who built big systems,” Diehl says. “And what I’ve learned is, every big project is a series of small projects — and we can handle that.” 

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This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project (oregonjournalismproject.org), a nonprofit investigative newsroom for the state of Oregon.