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My testimony regarding the ODOT special session. Gas is already expensive, groceries are through the roof, and paychecks don’t stretch like they used to. So what’s Salem’s brilliant idea? Hit you with a $5 billion tax hike. Because nothing says “we care about working families” like draining your wallet even more. Here’s what’s in this little “gift” to Oregonians: A 6-cent gas tax increase — because apparently $4 a gallon wasn’t painful enough. A $42 jump in registration fees and a $139 hike in title fees — so you get to pay more just to keep driving the car you already own. And my personal favorite — they want to double the payroll tax. Because clearly, the best way to keep Oregon affordable is to take more out of your paycheck before you even see it. Now, if all this money was going to fill potholes and make our roads safer, maybe we’d have a conversation. But it’s not. This bill just props up ODOT — the same ODOT that “miscalculated” its budget by $1.1 billion, and the same ODOT whose projects explode in cost like clockwork. Remember the I-5 Rose Quarter project? It was supposed to be under $500 million. Now it’s pushing $1.9 billion. The I-205 Abernethy Bridge? Costs more than doubled. If this were a private business, they’d be bankrupt — not asking us for a raise. And yes, the bill throws in some audits, but let’s be real: audits don’t fix bad priorities. ODOT doesn’t need another consultant report. It needs accountability, discipline, and maybe a calculator that works. So here’s the bottom line: until ODOT can balance its checkbook and fix the basics, working Oregonians shouldn’t be punished for their failures. This $5 billion tax grab doesn’t deserve our money — it deserves the biggest NO in Oregon history. #orp #orpol