According to a release by the Oregon Secretary of State, "On August 17, 2022, the Elections Division determined Initiative Petition 2024-004, proposed for the November 5, 2024 General Election, contained the required number of sponsorship signatures, and has requested the Attorney General draft a ballot title." The number of signatures required is 1,000, but the Secretary of State will accept up to 2,000 in case of failures.

The subject provided by Chief Petitioners for the proposed initiative is, "New tolls require regional voter approval" and the initiative requires three things before a toll can be imposed:

(A) A toll is proposed by a public body
(B) The toll proposed by the public body is referred for approval or rejection to the electors of each county in this state that has a county border within a 15-mile radius of any section of highway proposed to be tolled, and
(C) The toll proposed by the public body is approved by a majority of the total votes cast in the referral

The Chief Petitioners for the initiative are Dean Suhr of West Linn and Lorely Miller of Oregon City -- both residents of the southwest section of I-205, where tolling is scheduled to be implemented. According to the Oregon Department of Transportation, "With a toll, ODOT helps meet the goal of improved travel by managing traffic flow and helping to raise revenue for infrastructure improvements."

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The ODOT webpage says that the Keep Oregon Moving legislation HB 2017 from the 2017 Session established a Congestion Relief Fund, which would receive any net proceeds from tolls.

Next, the Oregon Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum will create a draft ballot title for the next phase of signature gathering. The draft ballot title is due from Attorney General on August 25. The petitioners now must gather a total of 149,360 signatures to place the initiative on the November 2024 ballot.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2022-08-18 12:36:55

Last Update: 2022-08-18 13:20:23