7 ways Oregon taxpayers are winning the tax war

#1. Historic gas tax defeat.  First and foremost, Governor Kotek’s $4.3 billion gas tax went down to defeat by 83%.  As one of the Chief Petitioners (also Sen. Starr, Rep. Diehl), I saw from the inside that the 8-month process of collecting a quarter-million signatures and then campaigning at the ballot was a giant statewide teaching moment for voters on the corruption, greed, wastefulness, and over-taxation by politicians.  This is why the gas tax final election night result was much higher than the polling in October.

#2. Kotek’s finding $248 million after promising ODOT was broke was a second defeat.  Governor Kotek spent months scaring voters that their public safety was at risk if they did not approve her $4.3 billion gas tax.  Then, once the tax referendum qualified for the ballot, Kotek, within weeks, found $248 million in savings by closing vacant ODOT positions and canceling bids to build EV stations.   Voters called Kotek’s bluff, and she lost.  Also, Kotek opened the door for other agencies to find savings, because if ODOT had 100 vacant positions, how many in the rest?

#3. Kotek’s approval rating plummets to new lows.  In her base, the Portland Metro area, a survey shows that nearly 60% of voters have a negative rating of her performance.   The Taxpayers Association of Oregon has been doing its part with its highly popular Kotek cartoon series.

#4. Some local tax victories.  In Wilsonville, local, homegrown grassroots groups put a right-to-vote on the city’s urban renewal (tax slush fund) spending.  It was a David versus Goliath battle as big money interests dumped tens of thousands of dollars against it.  The measure passed.  The Taxpayers Association of Oregon was glad to be part of the effort.  Also in Canby, the school district saw declining enrollment and instead of cutting back decided to put up a whopping $1.60 per $1,000 ballot measure (3-636).   The tax supporters did a big campaign effort to pass it.  Yet, the tax measure failed.  The Taxpayers Association of Oregon was one of the only groups fighting this measure, showing that even a little push-back and public awareness can kill a measure.

#5. The media is reporting widespread tax fatigue.   Check out this Oregonian headline below:

#6. Many taxes were stopped in the 2026 Legislature.   It was only a matter of weeks ago that the politicians met for a month earlier this Spring.  Even though time was short and lawmakers were only allowed to submit two bills each, they banked a lot of capital trying to pass out several tax increases.  There were two different Kicker Theft bills (HB 4125, SJR 201) that both had hearings and died.  There was a bill to make the Oregon Death Tax even worse (SB 1511), and that bill also died.  There was the Google tax bill (SB 1580), which had the entire Oregon media industry behind it, and it too failed.   There was a sneaky plan to amend a bill to remove voter approval of local gas taxes.  That too failed.  A bill to remove the home mortgage interest deduction for a second home (HB 4136) failed.   Unfortunately, there was one big tax bill that did pass, which was the disconnecting of Oregon tax law from certain Trump 2025 tax cuts (Sb 1507).  The only way they could pass the bill was to give away the savings to lower-income taxpayers.  Is giving tax breaks away in favor of raising taxes a new form of taxation?  That is new.

#7. The Moda-center Blazer bailout backlash.  The public has turned against Kotek’s plan for a $500+ million tax funding package to renovate the Blazers arena.   Politicians are mildly threatening to lose the Blazers to another city if taxpayers don’t pay up.   The public is not buying it.  Things have changed.  Voters feel the pinch and are increasingly distrustful of their political leaders.  This will spell trouble for future taxes.

#8. The data center give-a-way blow back.  Data centers have moved into Oregon while enjoying $1 billion in tax credits.  The politicians tried to expand it further this year during the Legislative Session, and voters erupted in protest.  Kotek was rebuffed soundly. Hillsboro tried the same and saw a similar protest.  The Hillsboro council cannot even stop talking about new tax breaks for a single month despite the citizen backlash.  Some of the protest is coming from liberals who do not oppose corporate welfare (like the Taxpayers Association does), but they also oppose it for draining our electric grid and water use.

Notice one thing about these victories …

• Taxpayers Association was a leader in the historic Gas Tax Referendum.
• Taxpayers Association was involved in fighting all 7 of the tax bills in 2026 Legislature.
• Taxpayers Association was involved in the May Primary local measure victories.
• Taxpayers Association has been involved in the Blazer bailout scandal debate.
• Taxpayers Association has been involved in the data center hand-out debate (going back years)
• Taxpayers Association is participating in Kotek’s unpopularity with endless political cartoons and memes.

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