Peter Courtney
Senate President Peter Courtney, with Senate Majority Leader Diane Rosenbaum, speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Salem on Tuesday. He cast doubt, a week before the 78th legislative session starts, on being able to pass a transportation funding package.
(Michelle Brence/The Oregonian)
SALEM — Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney cast doubt Tuesday on lawmakers' ability to pass a package to fix the state's bridges, highways and other transportation infrastructure because of a partisan dispute over climate change legislation.
"I don't think we're going to have a transportation package," Courtney, a Salem Democrat, told journalists assembled at the Capitol for a preview of the 2015 session. "I'm pretty depressed, to be frank with you. I don't know where to go from here."
The package has been cast as one of Democrats' top priorities for the session, which convenes Monday.
Senate Republicans at the session said they're not willing to play ball on transportation funding if Democrats insist on bills to continue limiting vehicle carbon emissions. The low-carbon fuel standards are otherwise set to expire this year.
The back-and-forth carried signs of political posturing. While Courtney glumly announced that he was all but giving up hope for a package this session, House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, and Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber expressed optimism that leaders will strike a deal.
Still, Senate Minority Leader Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, said extending the limits on low-carbon fuels would increase fuel costs, essentially amounting to a gasoline tax that would hurt the economy.
"Oregonians are going to be asked to pay real money," he said. "We could do just as much with a strongly worded letter and not bother Oregonians with a new tax." He also questioned the need for what he sees as a symbolic gesture on climate change, saying that Oregon is among the bottom five states for carbon emissions.
At a separate session with House leaders, Kotek downplayed Courtney's pessimism, saying he's a "glass-half-empty" kind of guy.
"We need to take this issue very seriously this session and try and get the transportation funding package very soon," Kotek said. She also said transportation funding and low-carbon fuels are separate issues.
House Minority Leader Mike McLane, R-Powell Butte, said the issues are connected, but he stopped short of saying that he wouldn't support a transportation package if the low-carbon standards continue.
"They're linked in the eyes of voters and taxpayers," McLane said. "Ultimately the question is, to what end? What are we getting for increasing the per-gallon costs for taxpayers and citizens?"
Technically, Senate Democrats have a large enough majority to pass a gas tax hike — the likely cornerstone of a transportation funding package — without Republicans. But Courtney said the proposal would need bipartisan support to fend off a possible ballot measure on the issue, which he said voters would be sure to reject.
In the House, Democrats are one seat shy of the three-fifths majority needed to pass a new tax. The majority party could woo Republicans by agreeing to fund improvement projects in rural areas, where most red districts lie.
In the day's last session, Kitzhaber said both a transportation package and continuing low-carbon fuel standards are essential but unrelated.
"There's a political game going on here. This is the epitome of a false choice. One has nothing to do with the other," Kitzhaber said.
On a transportation package, which he called vital to the state's economy, he said: "At the end of the day I think people will step up and do the right thing."
-- Ian K. Kullgren
ikullgren@oregonian.com
503-432-4006; @IanKullgren