SALEM -- State lawmakers kept racing toward the end of the legislative session Thursday, passing agency budgets and a flurry of last-minute policy bills.
Both the House and Senate plan to meet Friday, and the Senate is scheduled to meet again Saturday and possibly Sunday. The House may adjourn Friday, a week ahead of the July 11 deadline.
On Thursday, the Senate narrowly passed a $3.5 billion budget to fund the Oregon Department of Transportation for the next two years, a week after Gov. Kate Brown and Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, abandoned a 10-year funding package to pay for additional road and bridge fixes.
Republicans tried to block the bill, saying it would underfund roads while paying for technology upgrades. It passed 19-10 with Sen. Jackie Winters, R-Salem, voting yes with Democrats, and heads to Brown for her signature.
Some of the technology upgrades included in the budget would allow drivers to use credit cards to pay for fees at Driver and Motor Vehicles Services.
ODOT estimates that it will collect more than $1 billion in gasoline taxes between now and 2017, but even some lawmakers who voted for the budget acknowledged that it's far from solving the state's long-term road-funding problem.
"We had all hoped for the passage of a transportation package," said Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose. "With the failure of the package, shortfalls will continue to grow."
The Senate also gave final approval to a $2.7 billion budget for the Department of Human Services, the largest share going to programs for people with disabilities and the elderly over the next two years. It also includes nearly $900 million to child-welfare and other programs.
Earlier in the day, the House pushed through a compromise deal on tens of millions of dollars in tax credits for working families, securing several Republican votes on an issue that had divided not only the two major parties but the Legislature's two chambers.
House Democrats sought to expand the state's earned income tax credit for families with children younger than 2 -- with new revenue coming from changes including higher taxes on cigars. Those measures were dropped, with Democratic leaders agreeing to pull $6 million from reserves and clarifying that corporations must pay a minimum tax.
Republicans had argued that stacking the bill with tax increases and tax credits to make it "revenue neutral" was designed as an end-run around rules requiring a three-fifths vote for tax increases. Democrats said similar bills have passed before. In the end, enough Republicans voted yes to hit the "supermajority" threshold, 45-13.
"The bill has modified to the point that voting against it is as challenging as voting for it," said Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario.
-- Ian K. Kullgren and Denis C. Theriault
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