Despite transportation fiasco, Oregon’s bridge funding holds

THE GORGE — Although Oregon’s 2025 transportation funding legislation received a potential setback last month through a successful referendum campaign, the petition challenge — if sustained by voters next fall — wouldn’t jeopardize the state’s $125 million commitment to replace the Hood River-White Salmon Bridge.

Republican opponents of HB 3991, a $4.3 billion transportation package signed into law by Gov. Tina Kotek in mid-November, quickly collected enough signatures to challenge portions of the bill in the November 2026 general election, particularly the six-cent hike in Oregon’s gas tax.

In response, Gov. Kotek is asking lawmakers to repeal the bill outright (even including provisions not subject to the referendum), and revisit transportation funding in 2027. Most Democrats in Salem haven’t yet taken an official position, but the 2026 short session starts Feb. 2.

This past April, Washington’s Legislature approved the final share of its $125 million commitment to bridge replacement, as did Oregon a few months later, bringing the combined state contributions to $250 million.

Oregon’s funding comes from state lottery bonds, not HB 3991. Even if voters overturn the measure this fall, it won’t have a direct impact on bridge funding, according to information reviewed when the Hood River–White Salmon Bridge Authority met Jan. 12.

As it turns out, repeal of HB 3991 might not be possible anyway. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield recently learned of a 1935 ruling in a similar case, where former Attorney General I.H. Van Winkle cited case law in ruling against then-Gov. Charles Martin’s attempt to repeal a measure affecting state college funding.

As reported in last week’s edition of Willamette Week: “The right of the people to a referendum vote on a statute enacted by the Legislature can not be defeated by a subsequent repeal of the act referred,” Van Winkle wrote in 1935, quoting a Missouri case.

As of this past Friday, Rayfield hadn’t mad a determination on repeal viability.

Meanwhile, at the federal funding level, the bridge authority awaits a decision by the Federal Highway Administration (FHA) on the separation of two federal funding allocations, which had previously been combined into a single grant agreement. These are a $200 million infrastructure grant awarded in January 2024, and $8 million in Congressional-directed funding appropriated in the 2024 federal fiscal cycle. Since both grants were awarded at the same time, federal administrators decided to combine the two awards in a single grant agreement for the sake of simplicity.

The combined agreement is still pending. The bridge authority doesn’t need to access the $200 million immediately, given that this grant is dedicated to construction, and work this year will primarily focus on design. The $8 million Congressional appropriation, however, is more urgent. Following a long-awaited “record of decision” this past fall, effectively clearing the way for construction, the bridge authority needs money for initial steps like right-of-way acquisition.

Commissioners moved that process forward at their Jan. 12 meeting and aim to have all preliminary work completed once full funding is secured.

Federal funding includes not only the $200 million infrastructure grant awarded in January 2024, but also a pending $532 million request to the federal Bridge Investment Program, and a federal loan to be repaid by future bridge tolls. Total replacement cost is currently targeted at $1.12 billion, of which $563 million is secured as of 2025.

In other business, commissioners approved an intergovernmental agreement with the City of White Salmon to remove undergrowth from a city-owned parcel at the intersection of Dock Grade and Highway 14. A canopy of blackberries obscures a small creek, boulders and other terrain that needs to be surveyed for a new roundabout at the bridge’s northern terminus.

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